Strong performance at upscale discounters; consumers demand top brands and expect to find them - brand preference and personal care appliances - 1995 Power Brands

Discount Store News, Oct 16, 1995

Upscale discounters are much more pleased with brand performance in the personal care appliances category than are conventional discounters. According to consumer responses from the Power Brands study, the category is groomed for national brand growth yet many retailers seem hesitant about brand expansion.

Consumers' sense of brand preferences has risen fairly swiftly over the past four years, and their confidence in finding their chosen brands in discount stores is up.

Consumer interest in private label falls to about the middle of the field, compared to all 26 categories in the Power Brands study, and has remained nearly unchanged from last year. Slightly more than half--56%--would give store brands a try.

Retailers' perceptions are quite different. This year, conventional discounters, as opposed to the upscale discounters, seemed to be considerably less enthralled with the performance of the top brands they mentioned last year. Discounters in general said there was little evidence of national brand growth in the department.

Private label, especially the well-executed brands (such as Jheri Redding from Kmart and Salon Series from Target), may be stealing some of the national brands' customers.

This year, consistent with 1994's results, nearly three-quarters of consumers surveyed mentioned they have preferred brands. But four years ago, barely two-thirds of consumers were brand-aware.

This uptick in brand preference is similar to the climb H&BC consumers have made in recent years.

This year, 93% of shoppers mentioned preferences. In 1991, only 85% of consumers studied did so. Cosmetics shoppers followed a similar pattern. Since 1992, 85% of female consumers considered themselves brand conscious. This year 92% did the same.

In the same pattern, housewares shoppers are 10% more brand aware than they were four years ago.

Brand-preferring personal appliance shoppers have been heading to the discount store with more confidence than they had in 1994. Shoppers this year rated their chance of finding their preferred brand a 7.74 (on a scale of one to nine). By comparison, shoppers' confidence in finding their preferred H&BC brands was 8.0 this year.

Consumers are slightly more brand loyal in the personal care category than they've been in the past couple of years.

For the first time since 1992, the willingness to substitute another personal care appliance brand for an unavailable desired brand has dropped. More than half (57%) of the consumers polled said they would switch to another brand rather than walk out empty-handed, whereas for the past several years, over 60% indicated willingness to switch.

Despite all the brand recognition, retailers' impressions of brand performance has dropped. This year, slightly more than a third of conventional discounters named Power Brand Conair as a top performer. Last year, nearly half of those surveyed did.

Upscale discounters were much less perplexed. Responses from retailers like Target took only a three-point downturn.

Conair is a dominant player among Baby Busters. It won preference status from almost half of all the consumers under the age of 35 and one in four Baby Boomers (those aged between 35 and 49).

Vidal Sassoon, the brand of second choice among Busters and Boomers, also lost a measure of performance power at conventional discount chains. Its mention rate from retailers like Wal-Mart and Kmart dropped from about one-third to about one-quarter.

Vidal Sassoon's brand performance image remained strong among upscale discounters, inching up to a 43% mention from 41% last year. The brand is Target's dominant choice, earning kudos from half of this upscale discounter's team.

Clairol lost a bit of its performance appeal among conventional discounters, but boosted its image among the upscale stores. Clairol's gain among this hard-to-please segment of retailers was a significant uptick, from 17% of total mentions last year to 26% in 1995. This stands out especially strongly since most other brands dropped in performance or gained only marginally as judged by the upscale discounters.

Remington saw a drastic drop in total mentions among conventional discounters-from 25% last year to less than one in 10 in 1995. With upscale chains, however, Remington inched up from a small response to a greater than a one-in-ten rate.

In private-label opportunities, price could be a key factor in some of the national brands getting higher performance ratings from the upscale discount chains. Many of the trendier hair-care, shaving, and health-related products are marketed as more technologically advanced--with this comes much higher price tags. These products may make a better fit in the merchandise mix of upscale discounters rather than at other tiers.

At the same time, a niche may be open for labels in between those perceived as upscale national names and those seeking to gain share by offering lower price points. Some leading chains are already working on it.

Discounters, as well as other merchants, have invested in store brands and controlled brands. Conair, a Power Brand that produces PL product for about 20 chains, said this segment of business has increased in 1994 and 1995. "The increases we've seen are mostly from base accounts, with some new business," a spokeswoman said. Last year, Conair's private label partnership business experienced double-digit growth.