Essity, the Swedish health and hygiene group, is backing its new Cushelle Quilted toilet paper variant, launched in January, with an integrated below-the-line campaign aimed at helping drive awareness and trial of the new variant – which is claimed to be the brand’s “most cushiony-soft toilet tissue ever”.

Cushelle Quilted was introduced into retail stores in the UK and Republic of Ireland in January 2018. The new campaign, which spans the full shopper journey, aims to increase penetration by reinforcing the product superiority and ‘Quiltiness’ by asking shoppers to test just how ‘Quilty’ the paper is for themselves.

The activity, created for Essity by Manchester-based marketing agency Blue Chip, includes a money back guarantee being promoted across selected shopper media to drive trial at the point of purchase. Additionally, a door drop and Automated Teller Machine (ATM) couponing will deliver the same message and a further incentive to purchase out of store.

The door drop, featuring the Cushelle brand character Kenny the Koala, will hit 4 million doormats across the UK in March, a week after a new Cushelle Quilted TV advertisement hits screens.

Lauren Roberts, Account Manager at Blue Chip, says: “This promotional activity carefully considered how we would convert shoppers to the new Quilted product. The money back guarantee is a proven trial driver, removing the risk of purchase and making it the perfect choice for this NPD. Driving penetration was also a key objective. By adding a door drop with two £1.00 money off coupons, we aim to further incentivise shoppers to try this new product for themselves.”

The money back guarantee will be valid in retailers including Asda UK, Waitrose UK, Co-op UK, Ocado UK, Morrisons UK, Tesco ROI, Dunnes ROI and SuperValu ROI.

Essity was formerly part of SCA, the giant Swedish paper products group. Its brands include a number that were bought from Procter & Gamble in 2007, when SCA acquired P&G’s European paper operations, including Charmin. While Charmin is still sold by P&G under that brand name in the US, SCA rebranded Charmin as Zewa in Germany and Cushelle in the UK.

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Tim Eales of IRI looks at the implications of the massive fall in the number of price promotions in retailers

Increasing pressure on UK retailers to be more transparent in their pricing has seen pure price-based promotional activity drop to its lowest level for around a decade. For the retailers and suppliers involved in managing the fallout of these reduced levels of price promotions, the challenges are great.

For consumers who have become used to taking advantage of the numerous multibuys, BOGOFs and other special offers in store during their regular shop, the fact that there’s been a significant reduction in the number of items on discount in store might come as a bit of shock.

When it comes to price promotions, the most recent change we have seen in the industry is the direction encouraged by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) back in 2012 when it set out its guidelines around the idea of pricing transparency. Since the demise of the OFT, many of its responsibilities have been taken over by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), including issues of pricing and how prices are communicated to consumers.

Back in 2012, the OFT raised concerns about prices being artificially inflated to make later discounts look more attractive, and stated that products should not be on promotion for longer than they are off promotion. This actually led to concerns by some retailers at the time that it would increase incidents of ‘yo-yo pricing’ rather than make it more transparent.

We’ve also seen pressures coming from other quarters, including increased competition from the main discounters, Aldi and Lidl, who have made it their mission to create a much more simplified approach to pricing than the major multiples, offering a limited range but at attractive low prices.

As a result, they have rapidly grown market share in the UK, forcing the supermarkets to rethink their strategy on ‘everyday low prices’, rather than simply relying on discounts and special offers to get shoppers through the doors.

According to a recent study by IRI on Price and Promotion (launched in August 2017), there was a 25% reduction in the number of items on discount since November 2012 (when the OFT guidelines were announced), with the proportion of items on price promotion as a percentage of all items stocked falling from 37% to 29%. The effect, it seems, is more pronounced in food categories.

During 2017, trade promotion levels were lower than they have for almost 10 years, while deal depth has been falling since early 2016. Shoppers effectively lost £3.7bn worth of offers.

This represents an 18% reduction in the overall benefit that price-based promotional offers have previously provided, although it has been offset to some extent by everyday (off-promotion) prices having been held lower than they would have been, or even going down in some cases.

For retailers and manufacturers, we are already seeing them pulling back from trade promotions, preferring to put emphasis on communicating the brand benefits rather than on consumer price promotions.

There is now increased competition for promotional slots and for off-shelf displays in stores, so in this climate of greater price transparency, it’s clear that brand owners need to know which categories are performing well and which aren’t, which deserve the highest levels of promotional support, and, most important, what effect different promotional strategies are having on different products.

The challenge of price promotions is not an easy one. It’s generally accepted that promoting products on price alone can drive short-term sales, but also eat into profit margins. Once the cost of discounts, displays and in-store marketing materials are taken into consideration, the positive effects reduce or even cease altogether.

However, there are other benefits, over and above driving short-term sales, including driving trial and penetration for both the retailer and brand, generating footfall for retailers, maintaining premium value positioning, and also augmenting the benefits of advertising, where this can be proven.

So, when prioritising promotional choices, retailers must look for categories where the effects from price promotions on the products promoted also result in a volume benefit for the category as a whole, delivering a win-win for both retailer and supplier.

Tim Eales is Strategic Insight Director of IRI, is a leading provider of big data, predictive analytics and forward-looking insights for FMCG, OTC health care, retailers and media companies.

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Ahead of the Great Newham London Run taking place this Saturday at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Official Partner of the 2016 Great Run Series Duracell has released a new film that celebrates three of the UK’s most inspiring runners.

Duracell is officially powering the 12 race series that sees 180,000 runners compete annually across the UK and includes marquee events such as the Great Manchester Run, the Great Newham London Run – which concludes with a lap inside the Stadium at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park – and the world’s biggest mass participation running event, the famous Great North Run.

The partnership also includes turning the race pace makers into the iconic Duracell Bunny at each race to champion their role in helping runners go for longer.

The brand is also reviving its iconic ‘running bunny’ commercial in a TV campaign later this summer.

In the new film, each of the three ‘hero’ runners tells the story of their own struggles and how running has helped them ultimately triumph. The three runners are:

• Christopher Goddard – a 25 year old who was diagnosed with MS last year;
• Maxine Langtree (pictured) – a 68 year old who started running at 66 and is now running 10 kilometres alongside people 50 years her junior;
• Emma O’Gorman – having quit smoking and started running, Emma is now much healthier and an example for anyone looking to improve their health.

The film is part of Duracell’s campaign to help runners of the UK unlock their own power within to go further.

Brendan Foster, former British Olympic medallist and founder of the Great Run Series, says: “Sport at the elite level is for only the dedicated few. For the vast majority it’s about converting the inspiration we get from champions in their field into personal goals. Films like this are very valuable in helping encourage people to get out and get active. I’m delighted that Duracell, a new sponsor of The Great Run Series this year, are helping to encourage greater participation in running across the UK.”

Alex Haslam, Duracell UK Marketing Manager, adds: “For all runners, motivation is a really important factor in them performing at their best. As part of our campaign we really want to help UK runners maximise their own performance and do the best they can, and we hope that the example given in this film by these three incredible individuals can help inspire the runners of the UK on to bigger and better things.

The film can be viewed on Duracell UK’s YouTube channel. 

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