ExcellenceOur mission is to radically improve
the promotional data landscape
and deliver unparalleled analytics.
InnovationWe focus on innovative solutions to
help drive our focus and that of our
customer business.
ActionableProviding a wealth of information is
only part of the puzzle; our findings
increase your profits.
ECRM Market Matchup:
Cub Foods vs. Target vs. Walmart
Minneapolis, MN
ECRMs promotional analytics & reporting provides the most comprehensive information needed to increase profits, predict competitive trends and make better decisions.
Confidential and Proprietary to ECRM 1
INDEX:
Methodology & Definitions
Circular Design & Pricing Trends
Product Mix Comparison
Marketing Strategies
Confidential and Proprietary to ECRM 2
METHODOLOGY & DEFINITIONS:
Feature Ad Block Count: Feature Ad count gives credit to every unique product in an ad block. Each instance of a product promotion in an ad block assigns a Feature Ad Count of 1 for that product.
Effective Ad Block Count: This measure gives shares credit for an ad block among all products included. If 4 products share an ad block each receives a 0.25 count for that particular promotion.
Percent of Space: We measure and aggregate the percent of physical space each brand receives in a particular channel of trade or even at a specific retail chain.
Time Periods: Prior Year : 8/26/2012 8/24/2013 Current Year : 8/25/2013 8/23/2014
Confidential and Proprietary to ECRM 3
Circular Design & Pricing Analysis: Circular Design
A birds eye view of the style of circulars Cub, Target, & Walmart release, in terms of metrics including page count, frequency, price transparency, and ad count
Pricing ComparisonSee whether a basket of goods purchased at both retailers costs the same
Pricing Variation Over TimeDoes one retailer change prices or discount rates more frequently than the other?
Product Level Price Point VariationDoes one retailer have product offerings across a wider
variety of price points?
Front Page Pricing StrategyAre front page items similarly priced to comparable items on other circular pages?
Year over Year Pricing AnalysisHow aggressive are retailers in raising prices this year compared to the year prior?
Confidential and Proprietary to ECRM 4
COMPARING CIRCULAR DESIGNMetrics like these help you understand the design and strategy behind retailers
circular layouts.
Here we can see that Cub Foods has the fewest pages per circular and trending even
fewer. They are also cutting back in ads per page. Walmart has the most pricing
transparency Y/Y. Cub, with its stronger promotional focus on grocery, average about
twice as many ad blocks per page. Target is adding pages per circular Y/Y but they
are becoming less transparent in pricing.
PL = Private Label
Confidential and Proprietary to ECRM 5
Cub Foods Target Walmart
Current Prior Current Prior Current Prior
Circular Count 53 53 58 58 95 82
Pages per Circular 7.1 7.7 26.5 24.7 13.9 15.3
Ad Blocks per Page 19.8 25.4 8.7 8.7 10.3 9.8
% of Ads with Pricing 95.1% 92.7% 89.6% 92.5% 98.6% 98.5%
PL % of Total Ad Blocks 14.9% 14.4% 17.1% 14.9% 8.8% 8.6%
PRICE BASKET CONTENTS AND METHODOLOGY
This comparative basket of goods was developed by analyzing the most frequently promoted items across the three select retailers.
Of seventy-two total observed months (twenty-four per retailer) their count of monthly specific observations is stated on the right.
To control for size & quantity variations, all units were standardized to a single unit size & quantity.
On the occasion that a months data point was not
available, where appropriate, this analysis used the most recently seen price point at that retailer.
Confidential and Proprietary to ECRM 6
Product Size Observations TotalCub Target Walmart
Frito Lay Lay's Potato Chips 10 oz. 23 23 13 59
Tide Laundry Detergent 150 oz. 19 24 14 57
Bounty Paper Towels 8 roll 14 24 14 52
Sunshine Cheez-It Crackers 7 oz. 22 17 10 49
Pepsi Products 12 ct./pk. 22 24 2 48
Nabisco/Christie Oreo Cookies 16.6 oz. 19 16 10 45
Kellogg's Pop-Tarts 12 ct./pk. 18 10 16 44
M&M's Packaged Candy 12.6 oz. 8 22 14 44
Kraft Packaged Cheese 8 oz. 18 14 11 43
Pepsi Soft Drinks 12 ct./pk. 24 9 10 43
Coca-Cola Soft Drinks 12 ct./pk. 24 6 11 41
Gatorade 8 ct./pk. 12 19 10 41
Angel Soft Bath Tissue 12 ct./pk. 11 18 11 40
Chef Boyardee Canned Pasta 15 roll 19 3 17 39
Dove Bar Soap 8 ct./pk. 10 19 10 39
Totino's Pizza Rolls Frozen Prepared Food 40 oz. 19 6 14 39
Lysol Household Cleaners 19 ct./pk. 13 10 15 38
Pantene Pro-V Shampoo 12.6 ct./pk. 14 20 4 38
Aleve Pain Reliever 100 ct./pk. 14 10 12 36
Nestle Carnation Coffee-Mate Refrigerated Creamer 32 oz. 17 11 8 36
PRICE BASKET SUPPLEMENTAL DATA METHODOLOGY
In the price basket analysis, and due to the irregular nature of promotions, we
supplement missing data with the nearest and most relevant promotions for that
retailer to sustain comparative integrity.
This chart shows, of the twenty total price basket products, how many were actually
observed in the given month.
Confidential and Proprietary to ECRM 7
0
4
8
12
16
20
24
Cubs Target Walmart
BASKET OF GOODS PRICE COMPARISONUsing the standardized pricing basket of the top 20 promoted goods, we can see that
in general, Cub competed well with both Target and Walmart. Unlike the Mass
merchandisers, Cubs pricing is trending downward.
$75
$85
$95
$105
$115
$125
Se
p-1
2
Oc
t-1
2
No
v-1
2
De
c-1
2
Ja
n-1
3
Fe
b-1
3
Ma
r-13
Ap
r-13
Ma
y-1
3
Jun
-13
Ju
l-1
3
Au
g-1
3
Se
p-1
3
Oc
t-1
3
No
v-1
3
De
c-1
3
Ja
n-1
4
Fe
b-1
4
Ma
r-14
Ap
r-14
Ma
y-1
4
Jun
-14
Ju
l-1
4
Cub Target WalmartAverage Basket Price
Cub : $93.36
Target : $95.34
Walmart : $100.80
Confidential and Proprietary to ECRM 8
VARIATION IN PRICES
The Coefficient of Variation measures the percentage of variation from the average price each product averaged
over the 24 month period. While the Standard Deviation measures the variation but shows it in average currency
variation instead of percent of change.
Excessive price variation may train customers to hold off on purchases until a discounted price becomes available.
Walmart averaged the least price variation among the basket of top promoted products.
Confidential and Proprietary to ECRM 9
ProductCub Target Walmart
Variation St. Dev Variation St. Dev Variation St. Dev
Frito Lay Lay's Potato Chips 14.0% $0.48 73.8% $7.83 62.6% $1.79
Tide Laundry Detergent 16.4% $0.40 11.7% $0.31 6.6% $0.14
Bounty Paper Towels 10.1% $0.27 16.7% $0.47 6.5% $0.18
Sunshine Cheez-It Crackers 13.5% $0.43 14.4% $0.50 18.1% $0.64
Pepsi Products 7.9% $0.94 7.6% $0.91 4.4% $0.53
Nabisco/Christie Oreo Cookies 25.0% $0.81 22.9% $0.55 12.4% $0.27
Kellogg's Pop-Tarts 16.0% $0.22 10.5% $0.13 21.0% $0.22
M&M's Packaged Candy 14.1% $0.42 12.7% $0.46 7.3% $0.24
Kraft Packaged Cheese 13.8% $0.44 15.9% $0.49 6.7% $0.17
Pepsi Soft Drinks 21.7% $0.32 15.6% $0.20 17.3% $0.24
Coca-Cola Soft Drinks 11.5% $1.21 22.8% $2.05 31.7% $4.02
Gatorade 31.9% $0.51 24.3% $0.38 28.8% $0.46
Angel Soft Bath Tissue 7.4% $0.07 5.4% $0.05 10.9% $0.09
Chef Boyardee Canned Pasta 12.9% $0.16 13.5% $0.19 10.9% $0.14
Dove Bar Soap 15.0% $0.28 15.8% $0.38 2.0% $0.04
Totino's Pizza Rolls Frozen Prepared Food 18.8% $2.49 18.3% $2.41 30.2% $3.61
Lysol Household Cleaners 31.7% $0.03 32.7% $0.03 7.5% $0.01
Pantene Pro-V Shampoo 22.3% $1.06 26.4% $1.20 2.5% $0.13
Aleve Pain Reliever 23.9% $0.39 27.7% $0.49 10.4% $0.14
Nestle Carnation Coffee-Mate Refrigerated Creamer 9.5% $0.06 9.5% $0.06 15.8% $0.10
Average 16.9% $0.55 19.9% $0.96 15.7% $0.66
1 1
11
2
6
3
13
1
4
1
19
4
11 1 1
4
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
$1.98 $2.22 $2.50 $2.75 $3.00 $3.32 $3.33 $3.49 $3.66 $3.88 $3.99 $4.00 $5.99
Cub Target Walmart
PRICE POINTS WITHIN PEPSI SOFT DRINKSNet Unit Prices for 12 ounce, 12 pack cans. Comparing Net Unit Pricing shows the
wide variety of price points possible when you consider the implications of offers and
incentives, even for a fairly commoditized product.
Cub Foods - Minneapolis, MN
Front (3) 8/25/2013 Target - Minneapolis, MN
Front (1) 5/19/2013
Confidential and Proprietary to ECRM 10
Walmart - Minneapolis, MN
Wrap (21) 6/29/2014
PREMIUM PAGE PRICING STRATEGYThis analysis looks at the pricing discount on the front, back, and wrap pages for
products compared to where seen in the middle pages at that same retailer.
Premium pages can be a great place to drive traffic with competitive pric
