Film shoppers expect famous name brands - 1994 Power Brands, part 2 - Industry Overview

Discount Store News, Oct 17, 1994

The impact of new fully featured automatic SLR cameras and the batteries that power them had a major impact on the film category in this year's Power Brands research.

Consumers named Duracell and Eveready preferred brands in the film category, not bad for two companies that have never made a single roll of film.

     Film: Consumer Brand Preference

(Among consumers who shopped discount stores in the past year)

                       All Discount

Power Brands(1)           Stores      Wal-Mart   Kmart   Target
Kodak                       89%         90%       89%     90%
Fuji                        12          13        13      14
Duracell                    7           9         7       7
Eveready                    6           7         7       5
Polaroid                    4           5         4       2
Scotch/3M                   1           1         1       1
Bell & Howell               1           1         1       1
Panasonic                   1           1         --      --
  Rank by
Store Managers(2)
Kodak
Fuji
Polaroid
Focal
Scotch/3M
Canon
Olympus
Panasonin
Asco
AT&T

(1)Based upon discount store consumers' response to the question: "If you were shopping for (product) in discount department stores, which brand of that product would you want?"

(2)Based upon store managers' response to the question: "What are the best performing brands in (department)?"

Source: DSN/Leo J. Shapiro & Associates, July 1994

Life stage analysis: Film

(top brands by age group)

    Busters           Boomers          Empty Nesters


    (Under 35)         (35-49)         (50 and over)

Kodak      86%   Kodak      88%   Kodak      97%
Fuji       13    Fuji       17    Duracell   4
Duracell   9     Eveready   8     Polaroid   4
Eveready   7     Duracell   7     Fuji       4
Polaroid   3     Polaroid   5     Eveready   2

Source: DSN/Leo J. Shapiro & Associates, July 1994

But the popularity of the two brands actually makes sense. Consumers who use the advanced, but simple, automatic SLR cameras go through expensive NiCad batteries almost as often as rolls of film, as the battery is responsible for powering a flash, all focusing, zoom lenses, rewinding and more. That in turn leads to a lot of trips to the film counter for replacement batteries. And in this subcategory, Duracell and Eveready own the market.

As usual, Kodak dominated the category, with 89% of consumers naming it a preferred brand, compared to 12% for rival Fuji. Since Fuji is really the only major alternative to Kodak in the 35mm film segment, its rise, coupled with a flattening of Kodak's market share over the past two years, could indicate opportunities for alternative brands. 35mm film from Konica, Polaroid and others has found its way to discount shelves over the past few years, with variable success.

Tolerance of non-Kodak brands does not, however, extend to private labels.

Nearly all consumers polled (97%) said they shop for film with a specific brand in mind, the survey's highest brand-preference percentage. Only 44% said they'd consider such a purchase, among the lowest PL percentages in the survey. However, many of these shoppers are no longer considering PL film but buying it.

PL film is virtually the only growth area in this category, apart from single-use cameras.

On a nine-point scale measuring consumer confidence, shoppers scored film 8.02, the second highest mean rating in the survey (household cleaners led the way with a rating of 8.11).

In addition, two-thirds of all film purchasers said they were certain of finding the brand they want. This was the highest rating in the survey.

Seemingly at odds with this finding is that nearly half of all film shoppers said they would switch brands rather than leave the store empty-handed.

Such customer satisfaction has helped keep Kodak at the top of the Power Brands list. Second only to Cannon soft home products, Kodak is among the very few power brands in multiple categories. It is a power brand in film, camera and blank videocassettes. Polaroid, too, made the power brands list.