Is the target group of students in consumer research even noticed?
Yes, but it is a very small target group. GfK differentiates between seven lifeworlds, and of course there is one lifeworld that is at the very beginning; young students and trainees are considered here. However, they only make up two percent of the population, and they are even less important in terms of purchasing behavior. So there is a view of that, but this target group is not particularly in focus.
What can still be said about brand consumption by this target group?
We can already see that we have a higher proportion of manufacturer brands here, perhaps because shopping has not yet been professionalized. In general, people buy less from discounters and more from traditional supermarkets, which are more attractive to this target group simply because of their opening times. Then people buy more often what is known and familiar from their parents' home or from previous experiences. In addition, this target group is heavily courted; advertising often tries to capture the lifestyle of this target group. You try to reach the younger generation and convince the next generation of your product early on.
How else can purchasing behavior be described?
In general, shopping is a greater stress factor for this target group. Here you can see a relatively large amount of time stress, which results from the diverse employment - you usually have a part-time job in addition to your studies - and it can be difficult to reconcile that. Household management itself is not the focus either. In addition, consumers in student households are still open, often searching and trying out lots of things. If you look at the number of different brands that are consumed, there are quite a few. In this target group, we have a greater desire to try things out because not so much experience has been gained yet, in contrast to households that already shop routinely.
How have own brands, also known as private labels, developed and established themselves on the German market?
In Germany we have a continuous trend towards our own brand. If you take the food trade for example up to July 2014, we are at 37.7 percent - that is at least 0.2 percentage points more than in the previous year. This trend can also be observed in the long term: since the end of the 1990s, private label sales have risen relatively steeply. This increase has been more moderate since 2005, with only the crisis year of 2009 being an exception. The retail brands in the entry-level price range in particular are currently strong at 24.7 percent.
How does the private label trend affect established brands?
We can also observe a clear trend among industrial brands, also known as manufacturer brands, namely that the middle brands are losing out. These are less profiled brands that are priced between the market leader and the entry-level price range. Here they are now in direct competition with some of the supermarkets' own brands. These are not brands like ja!, Gut&Günstig or TiP, but rather, for example, the Rewe and Edeka brands, which advance into the premium range with product lines or have a certain added value dimension, such as organic or fair trade. Another strategy that can also be observed at discounters is country concepts that are intended to convey a certain attitude to life.
Are the mid-range manufacturers' brands being cannibalized by the supermarkets' own brands?
You can say that so clearly. The first reason for this is obvious: retailers need shelf space for their own private labels. That's why little-supported brands that offer retailers low margins and little profitability are sorted out. And that causes the second reason – the negative spiral. The brands are struggling with declining sales, which often results in promotional campaigns or special prices, which in turn has an impact on the image among consumers. The large corporations are also driving this development forward by sorting out smaller brands that, for example, only have a local connection and do not meet margin expectations.
Can the own brands be described as equivalent to many manufacturer brands?
The fact is that the higher-quality retail brands have caught up with top brands in many respects, including when it comes to emotional factors. Sustainability, organic, fair trade, here the own brands have already partly overtaken the manufacturer brands. They are also close in terms of quality perception. Of course, established manufacturer brands only have a clear advantage in aspects such as tradition or history.
Some private labels also carry the name of the supermarkets. How should this be assessed?
Supermarkets like Edeka and Rewe are trying to create an interaction with their own brands of the same name: the positive image of the retailer brand is then transferred to the own brand and thus in turn to the retailer brand. But what happens when something serious happens? If a retail brand becomes involved in a scandal, it naturally also affects the supermarket brand - which is another reason why this step has not been taken in the past.
How did private labels actually become so hot?
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Is the target group of students in consumer research even noticed? Yes, but it is a very small target group. GfK differentiates between seven lifeworlds, and of course there is one lifeworld that is at the very beginning; young students and trainees are considered here. However, they only make up two percent of the population, and their purchasing behavior is still falling
