ThinkNoLimit Marketing Coaching

I'm confused when I see this new TVC of Park'n Shop. I just find it hard to appreciate the thinking behind it. Wellcome and Park'n Shop have been competing on the low price image for so many years. Now Park'n Shop has seemed to give up on that. From 日日慳 to 日日賺, I can understand it wants to say that its products are worth the money you pay. Yet it looks like a confession that it's not the cheapest retailer.

The promotion mechanics of this ParknShop Money Back promotion is a copycat of credit card promotions where every Money Back card holder is given a target spending amount and if you achieve that, you will get 10x points. The objective is of course to increase consumer share of spending with ParknShop . 羊毛出自羊身上. If you are a rational consumer, you can imagine the point benefits should come from the prices of the products you pay. So the question is : how can they offer the claimed lowest prices at the same time ?

It is meant to be funny but it's lousy humour in fact. Yet another "歡樂今宵" ad. When Park'n Shop first advertised its low price, the Consumer Council coincidentally reported that the so called low prices at supermarket chains are not that low anyway, compared with other smaller shops. Negative publicity is still lingering. I wonder why it still advertises low price with this second TVC. Advertising lacks credibility and using it to fight against negative publicity is simply a dumb idea. At least, it should wait a longer while before a new campaign is launched.

You just won't appreciate what is happening in this TVC if you are not a Cable TV viewer. The story is associated with the TV show 一粒鐘真人蘇 on Cable TV. In this show, 蘇絲黃 goes to audience's homes to try their home cooking. Funny that this ad is aired on TVB. If you pay attention, you would easily find this ad trying to appeal to the price-conscious, less affluent consumers : the old flat, the private label products in the cupboards and HK$30 per meal for the whole family. I wonder how many of them can afford Cable TV in their homes. It costs HK$200+ to subscribe to Cable TV a month. That costs the same as almost a week of food for the whole family ! Do they have Cable TV ? High chance that the story is not too relevant to this group of consumers. I just don't really understand why Park'n Shop tries to appeal to this group of consumers. With all the rental and staff costs on the rise, shouldn't it trade up to get more businesses from the more affluent consumers ?

Generating publicity can be as simple as this : selling a designer bag at a very low price with a limited quantity. It was said in the news that there were 5,000+ people queuing up at the Landmark. 執輸行頭慘過敗家, such mentality is universal and this old track always works (look at the launch of iPhone in the US). After all, it's just a canvas bag with a few funny words on it, worth less than HK$30 at cost. It's now selling at HK$1,500+ on Yahoo Auction. Lack PR idea ? Here is one worth considering.

In my previous post , I mentioned that 御前之麵 is the own brand of Park'n Shop. As it develops, it seems that Park'n shop really want to use this brand to beat 合味道 by giving 御前之麵 plenty of instore exposures and promotions. I visited Park'n Shop yesterday trying to buy my favourite 合味道海鮮麵. This picture shows what I discovered. At the shelf, 御前之麵 is put at the eye level while 合味道 is now sitting at the bottom. Since the two brands look very similar, I was just confused. It is a demonstration that confusion by imitating the market leader is the trick of private labels. Also you see the bottom left corner of the shelf is empty ? It is the space for 合味道海鮮麵, the fastest moving item and it is running out of stock. This is another trick of how retail chains de-market a brand : allocating less shelf space to the market leader. When the popular item runs out, consumers will consider alternatives, i.e. its private label. If you were 合味道, what would you do ? To defend with push strategy ?...

Joint promotion, cross-over, partnership, whatever you call it is a serious matter like marriage. We just don't marry anyone who is willing to say yes. This is a strange marriage. Bonluxe, the shape-up lingerie, is being promoted at Park'n Shop where you can enjoy attractive price offers with enough stamps collected at Park'n Shop. Well, you would appreciate the thinking : Who are the frequent supermarket shoppers ? Middle-aged working/non-working housewives. As being middle-aged, they probably need this kind of shape-up lingerie to look good. Let's catch them where they shop ! The thinking is perfectly logical. But look, there is one important factor to consider : image fit. It's silly to promote expensive image-driven lingerie at a place where consumers buy their groceries.

Have you been to Park'n Shop lately ? Tell you what. It has become a rather confusing shopping experience. Recently they have launched a "all yellow tag" promotion. The promotion promises that all of their items are on promotion with yellow tags. As a consumer, I have been "trained" to distinguish what are on promotion and what are not from the white and yellow tags. Now that everything comes with yellow tag and I feel cheated. Why ? Some of these yellow tags only feature every minimal savings, like from HK$6.90 to HK$6.80, from HK$20.9 to HK$19.90 and so on. In the past, yellow tag meant 10 - 15% saving. Who on earth has come up with such a promotion that tries to kid us, the smart consumers ?

Make a guess where this 御前麵 comes from. I can't be 100% sure but I bet this is the own private label of Park'n Shop. What brand does it look like ? Obviously it is an imitation of 日清合味道杯麵. This is how retail chains launch their private labels. They imitate the packaging design of the market leader where consumers will mistaken that it is the brand they want to buy. Of course the price is set at a much lower level than the market leader. Trials occur and it may become accepted if consumer find it of similar quality at a lower price. This is how they grow their own private labels. Tricky, huh ?