2008
How Much do We Pay for Brand Loyalty?
The vast money that companies spend on establishing their brands really works. We come to believe that a certain brand is the gold standard and everything else falls in behind it, usable or edible perhaps, but simply not as good. More often than not this has nothing to do with our experience of the alternatives, but because that idea has been so effectively fixed in our minds.
I’m very, very fussy about sausages. I love Superquinn’s sausages and they’ve been one of the things that keep me going back there.
So for all the time I’ve been shopping in Lidl, two years and counting, I never even tried their Irish sausages. I just assumed they’d be awful. Until Saturday.
I bought 9 premium pork sausages, which are 86% pork, for €1.99. They were absolutely gorgeous. I’d go as far as saying they might even be nicer than Superquinn’s.
I feel like a complete idiot for not trying them before now, but I’m not alone.
Ireland: Officially Brand Addicted
A report published in 2007 confirmed what has long been known by marketers - that Irish consumers are far more loyal to brands than their counterparts in Europe, with well over half of shoppers sticking to the brands they know and not shopping around.
To put this in context, only 8% of Norwegians were found to stick consistently to known products.
It may not be the only reason, but there is some justification for the comment from the survey’s author that: “this loyalty may help to explain why Irish people pay higher grocery bills than their European neighbours, as branded products are not being replaced with cheaper alternatives.”
Change is happening already. For one thing the clear trend in the survey is that the younger the consumer the more fragile the brand loyalty. And of course the coming to the market of Lidl and Aldi has definitely caused a drift away from better known brands. But it’s still a slow change.
Try Something Different
The other day I watched two women in succession pause in front of a display of dishwasher tablets, consider their options, and choose a box of Finish All in One at €8.99 for 30 tablets over a box of Lidl’s own brand W5 Perfect 5 tabs at €4.29 for 10 tablets more.
Now I’ve been using the Lidl ones for a long time, as have many people I know, and they totally do the job and do it very well indeed. You could see the women struggle to believe this, perhaps even because of the huge price difference. It’s quite hard to believe that something costing about a third of the price could be anything like as good as something you just ‘know’ is the best.
But if you use your dishwasher once a day, making this simple switch could save you almost €70 in a year - just on washing up! It may not seem like a fortune, but repeat a similar saving with 3 more items and it would be the equivalent of about a 1% rise in take home pay for someone on the average industrial wage. As the old adage goes, a penny saved is a penny earned.
So, here is a challenge for you: this week step outside your comfort zone, jettison one of the brands you have steadfastly stuck to and buy a cheaper alternative, not necessarily in Lidl, anywhere you like.
Sure, it may be a disaster. On Saturday, as well as the sausages, I also tried Lidl’s Toppers Diet Coke and I won’t be doing that again. But there are bound to be some revelations also.
Come back and share your experience - pooling our knowledge will make cannier shoppers of us all.
Tags: Brands, Diswasher Tablets, Prices, Sausages
September 10th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Excellent post!
September 10th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Agree Kate. I buy a lot of stuff in Lidl (but will admit to going to Dunnes or Tesco for some things) however, I buy ALL my cleaning stuff from Lidl, and by cleaning I mean washing powder, fabric conditioner, dishwasher tablets, salt, rinse aid etc, washing up liquid, kitchen cleaners, bathroom cleaners, bin bags, sponges/cloths. The list is endless.
I’ve recently started using their ‘Iseree’ day cream. It smells beautiful. I really like it. Also like the liquid soap, and my husband uses the shower gel and shaving gel and finds them just as good as the more expensive brands. Any plans to do a post on Lidl cosmetics at all? I’d say a lot poeple would be quite interested.
September 10th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Food for thought indeed - I’ll swap the Superquinn sossies for Lidl ones this week and see how I get on (out of curiosity, what’s the pork content of the SQ ones?)
My favourite biscuits are McVities Masterpieces, not cheap but gorgeous. Recently tried the Lidl equivalent and was pleasantly surprised, will certainly be buying again. But I’d agree on the coke, tried it a few years back and was climbing the walls for hours
September 10th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Karen: I’m no expert on cosmetics, but I love the Iseree facial scrub and the shower gel. I use Aldi’s day and night cream. Maybe Lidl’s are just as good, but the Aldi ones have had very good press and done very well in blind tests:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1982854/Aldi-skin-cream-%27as-good-as-designer%27.html
Rosey: Bet you love the sausages! I think the pork content is roughly similar, but I’m not sure.
September 10th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
I’ve used the Aldi creams as well Kate, but couldn’t get any in my local store one day, so I just picked up the Iseree one in Lidl instead. I find them pretty similar to be honest. and as far as I remember they’re around the same price. I just prefer the smell of the Lidl one.
September 10th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
On the subject of cleaning products - branded or otherwise and cosmetics - I am very concerned about the huge volume of chemicals in these products that we are bringing into our houses and liberally spreading over our bodies. Over the last year or so I have been trying to find ways of replacing these products with more old fashioned & natural alternatives. I haven’t managed to replace all products successfully yet but am getting there. It’s very easy & costs about 20% of regular products.
September 10th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Best money saving I’ve found by using Lidl - razor blades for my husband. I had to buy a razor to fit them there too which was about
September 10th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
Subject: Use it or lose it
I would like to tell you how much I enjoy your e-mails and recipes - can’t believe you are not an employee of Lidl!
I love Lidl myself and as we live half way between Kilkenny and Thurles I have the choice of two. Also in Thurles we have Aldi and if and when you get Aldi in Kilkenny, you will be loving it too.
We have lived and travelled extensively in Germany and found the bread there very much to our taste. When we first arrived in a town or village we headed for the Conditorei - the array of breads is fantastic and the best coffee is to be found there.
Now I have found Lidl’s Breadmaking Mix, it is so easy as I don’t even have to add yeast or salt.
At home I have made my own yeast bread for years but much as I enjoyed the kneading I find in old age I am unable to stand to do it. I don’t like bread baked in a breadmaker so have found a great alternative. I mix and prove the bread in the breadmaker using the dough setting and then transfer it to a tin or shape it and let it rise again. Then bake it in the oven 20mins @ 220 degrees and then 180 degrees for about 30 mins. For the loaf below I used 675g of Lidl Bread Baking Mix, Scant 400mls of flour and 3 soup spoons of olive oil (Lidl’s) The seeds are optional but we like them. I also mix the flours if I have some left from a previous packet and it makes interesting and lovely bread.
I am so afraid that Lidl will stop selling the flour as the assistants tell me that they don’t sell much so I am urging people to buy it and try it please.
The coffee problem is also solved as we find Lidl’s Melangerie - Guatemala-Kenia-Columbia (red packet) is very much our cup of coffee.
I send my good wishes and again thank you for your e-mails.
Dorothy
IMG_0132
September 10th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Why not try the W5 Dishwasher powder?, I use about a tablespoon and it gets the dishes as good as new. Put it into some tubbaware for easier access. It is even cheaper than the tablets.
September 10th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Sorry I should have said - scant 400mls of WATER - think I have flour on the brain!
September 10th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
You might be interested in this, Kate.
http://forum.lowcarber.org/showpost.php?s=af80841fe72333d70f740cb99bf4bd8c&p=1306446&postcount=9
September 11th, 2008 at 11:29 am
But do keep an eye on Lidl’s price policies. They certainly have a propensity to gouge when they can - and not just work on costs.
I just noticed the bottle of Winarom Apple Cider Vinegar to be 59 eurocents in Slovenia - and 1.39 euros in Finland.
Inasmuch as SAME product, SAME 0% customs, similar VAT, similar transport costs - the ridiculous 236% higher Finnish price cannot be explained by rents and salaries being a bit higher.
I have noticed similar non-explainable gouging on a number of Lidl items.
September 11th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
I take your point Bill, the truth is that all stores try to get what they can when it comes to pricing, they are in it for profit, not altruism. Our job as consumers is to work around that and get what we can.
However I think your description of salaries as being “a bit higher” is disingenuous. The average annual salary in Slovenia in 2006 (last year I can find figures for) was just over €9000 per year. In Finland it was comfortably over €22,000. That isn’t “a bit”.
September 11th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Thanks for your considered answer.
I truly believe that the proper way for ALL companies to behave is to price based on COSTS and setting reasonable margins. It is not a question of altruism at all.
Such a policy is certainly possible in the food business. Trader Joe’s in the US is maybe the ultimate example. They have extremely high qulaity and even specialty items - yet the pricing is VERY keen.
And they do VERY well financially - even being such a plum that they were bought up by the big Aldi group in Germany.
I am VERY familiar with costs in Slovenia and Finland - living in Finland and 10 trips with some 80-100 days in Slovenia in the last 2 years. Salaries ARE lower in Slovenia - even significantly but just how much of HANDLING and SELLING a bottle of vinegar is going to be tied to salaries? One is in a very sad position in BOTH countries even trying to find an employee of whom to ask a question.
It certainly goes NOWHERE to explain a 236% difference in price!
Rents and property costs in both countries are rather similar - Slovenia being valued for central Euro location and climate - Finland losing out for terrible climate and isolated geo position even though having good services.
My ‘bit higher’ was related to the combo of property and salary - and also that the main COST of the product is the product ITSELF - which is IDENTICAL.
Lidl still las a lot to learn. They are particularly interesting in Finland because the food companies here have run a complete oligopoly with no foreign competition. Lidl is the only ‘foreign’ company - no Teso, no Carrefour, no Aldi. So it has been overall a good thing. But still after the first blooming, people have begun to be wiser and more discriminating.
(Also please note that in my original post - Lidl increased their price 40% - there have been no 40% increases in any cost in Finland - and the product would not seeming itself have been subject to any real cost increases as it is still 59 cents in Slovenia and has been for the 1.5 years I’ve seen it there)
September 11th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Re. brand loyalty - not only do the Irish have one of the highest rates of brand loyalty in Europe, but we start at an incredibly young age - and it can be very difficult to tell a child that the Lidl or Aldi cereal/blackcurrent drink/cereal bar is as good as (and, in nutritional terms, sometimes better than) the branded product.
Having grown up in Germany, I was always used to Lidl/Aldi as normal supermarkets so was delighted when they opened up here - and amazed at the snobbish attitude of many Irish.
I’d agree with Kate on cosmetics - between Aldi and Lidl you’ve got skincare/make-up covered.
Two points about pricing: Both Lidl and Aldi are cheaper in Germany than in Ireland. And, at least in Lidl’s case, low prices are also due to poor labour practices: in fact, in Germany the retail unions have a ‘Lidl Black Book’ website highlighting their poor practices.
Oh, and before I forget - there is one brand that Lidl stocks: Fairtrade. This is not due to altruism (see above re. unions) but to consumer demand - so the more Fairtrade products we buy from Lidl, the more they’ll stock
September 13th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
[...] me and I read a bunch of entries nodding my head at her no nonesense wisdom and shaking my head at my own brand snobbery laid bare. It’s nice to know that, like me, she is fond and particular about good food, and also shops [...]
September 15th, 2008 at 10:28 am
Re: the comment above about using powder instead of tablets, our local Lidl (Greystones) has unfortunately stopped selling it for some reason, but yes, it is a whole lot cheaper than tablets, even the Lidl W5 branded ones. Have had to resort to Dunnes “St. Bernard” branded powder instead.
September 19th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
I totally agree with you on the sausages. they are nicer that any other sausages in a packet.
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:45 pm
May I ask what the Hatherwood Salt and Vinegar Sticks cost in Lidl/Ireland - or any other market for that matter?
October 4th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Bill, I’m not sure, but I’ll check next time I’m in and let you know.
October 10th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
there are only a few brands I buy: Coca Cola and its different varieties (Lilt, Coke Zero, Fanta zero etc), mayonnaise (Hellmans) and ketchup (Chef). Everything else I will happily scavenge from various shops. I have a Tesco, M&S and Dunnes, Aldi, Lidl and a few pound shops quite close to me in work (none of them are massive but stock most basics) so I probably spend a fortune buying different bits and pieces from all of them! *shame* Let’s face it, there’s no one wonder shop out there that stocks absolutely EVERYTHING you want
January 15th, 2009 at 8:08 pm
I have used lidl dishwasher powder since they opened and found it fantastic and quite alot cheaper than tablets, but I am very disappointed that Lidl does not seem to be stocking it anymore.
March 7th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
We should look to the youth not to the cost because we are cutting jobs by not buying irish products and supporting our irish nation.
please think before you buy.
April 27th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Can someone please tell if Lidl sells the Winrom brand of Apple Cider Vinegar in Ireland (or anywhere else) - they have pulled it off the shelf in Finland for unknown reasons.