Interesting line of discussion. What the heck, I'll chuck my few cents worth in... The ads in question are adequate, but nothing more. Mind you, all P&S advertising since they dropped mailers has been pretty naff. They have a hypocritical attitude towards advertising. They say the won't waste money on mailers, but then blow mega-thousands on TVCs to maintain profile... and tell potential customers nothing of any use. Seems to me that direct mailing is way more cost-effective and more likely to entice shoppers.
Example: I live within walking distance of two supermarkets and a ten-minute drive to two others, one of which is P&S. Since I have no idea each week what they have on special, I never go there. But I do sometimes go to the other one that is the same distance away. I suspect I'm not alone - why would I bother going to P&S on the off-chance I can get a good deal on goods I might need, when all the others tell me each week what they're offering? It's a no-brainer and P&S potentially miss out on over $10K a year from my household because of their daft attitude to marketing.
I think it would be interesting to know for sure what their market share has been like since they adopted this approach. If it was such a great idea, why haven't the others done the same or similar?
Yes indeed! Exactly right. Got the feeling there should be a nervous marketing manager lurking out there somewhere... If I was CEO I'd be asking who the hell thought this approach up and why does he still have a job!
I find the ads pretty benign and uninteresting, as are all the other supermarket ads on the telly. I am only concerned with the purchase of intoxicating beverages, the CEO of all things domestic in our household deals with the rest (the lovely and financialy prudent Mrs Wob), probably definitely sick of me going to Countdown for some milk and returning with $600 worth of wine, a DVD player, 2.5kg of blue cheeses, six loaves of Freyas bread and a whole snapper - "Honest sweetheart, it was all on special, I had to buy it!!?!"
In saying that, I have just been to P&S in Dunedin (it's the only supermarket in walking distance from my office) for a couple of things for lunch, and what is far more interesting than the ads is the new "self-service" check-outs they've got there now.
The technology in these things is seriously cool. It's not a new concept, Sainsburys in the UK had a "scan your own stuff" scheme for a while in the early noughties - it didn't last long though, I think it took more staff intervention to make sure they weren't being ripped off than required to man the check-outs. The P&S system is excellent - I will go back there just to play with it! Example: after putting my first item in the bag, I popped into the bag a novel I had just bought down the road (Peter F Hamilton for $2 - can you believe it??!?), and the screen said "Unidentified item in the bag, please remove before continuing", and it wouldn't let me do anything until I had taken the book out.
Yep, it's pretty cool technology - New World in Nelson (2 stores) are using the same setup. The vocalised instructions can be a bit annoying though. After you've used it a couple of times, you don't need some voice telling you to place objects in the bag or swipe your ATM card and enter the PIN or select payment option or... you know the drill.
And (it hasn't happened to me yet) how embarrassing would it be to have that loud voice telling everyone else in line that you have insufficient funds for the EFTPOS transaction! Yoiks!
IMHO the self service checkouts are nothing but a gimmick. The Shop 'N Go system used by Pak 'N Save stores in the Lower North Island is a far better solution from a customers perspective. You get to see a running balance of your goods, you're not stuck at checkout waiting unless you're slected for a rescan. I just fail to see why people get excited about scanning their own groceries at checkout. Most people are typically around 1/2 the speed of an average checkout operator even after they have used the system many times.
Maybe so for some people... I'm PDQ though. If there's a scanner free, it's definitely faster for me than waiting for an operator.
I do like the more detailed displays of purchases you see on updated checkouts though - reckon it's better for the consumer to check that things have scanned properly and, as you say, the running total is a good improvement.
I hate junk mail for a start but nothing bothers me more than those huge clunky new world coupon books that you would have to flick through each page to read. The bigger recycled paper adverts are so much easier to read IMO. Curiously, if they started offering website advertising who would look there for specials, especially since they don't do online shopping...
MrPink: I hate junk mail for a start but nothing bothers me more than those huge clunky new world coupon books that you would have to flick through each page to read. The bigger recycled paper adverts are so much easier to read IMO. Curiously, if they started offering website advertising who would look there for specials, especially since they don't do online shopping...
I'd look on websites, but are they pretending to themselves that they would lose competitive advantage (their competitors could see their pricing) if they put their specials on a readily accessible website?
It's not like they can't already check out competitor's pricing.
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