With travel slowly but surely picking up again in pockets across the world, travel retail stakeholders are gearing up to welcome returning travelling consumers.
However, these will not be consumers as we knew them before; the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the world profoundly, and travel retail has to adapt. As we approach the recovery phase, what can brands and retailers do to help restore consumer confidence and support travellers in cutting through the confusion and uncertainty?
In this guest column, Mondelez World Travel Retail (WTR) Head of Global Sales Carlos Granados explains how less could be more on the road to recovery.
“New normal”. “Strange times”. “Unprecedented situation”. However you frame what we are currently experiencing, the one thing that seems certain is the uncertainty.
As travel resumes, we’re facing a retail environment where consumers are acutely concerned about their health and safety, conscious of economic challenges and just anxious in general. Lockdowns in many parts of the world have also driven an information overload as people lean on their electronic devices to stay connected. At Mondelēz International, our primary value is loving our consumers, and as we look towards recovery for travel retail, this is more relevant than ever.
The key is simplicity: focusing on brands that consumers love, products that consumers know, and value that consumers appreciate.
Less variety… more of the core
Times of instability do not encourage experimentation and there is reassurance in the familiar. We’re already seeing clear evidence of this in domestic markets, with consumers gravitating towards big brands that that they trust [IDG Research, The Coca Cola Company, P&G, 2020].
It also makes sense from an economic standpoint; if your spending power is limited, would you risk it on a new product or brand over one that you know and love?
By narrowing the range of products, brands and retailers can focus consumers’ attention on bestsellers, removing the potential obstacle of confusion and optimising spend.
Too many products on shelf decreases visibility and impact, and increases the likelihood of shoppers walking away without making a purchase. This rationalisation process also proactively resolves availability issues along the supply chain, focusing production on the highest demand products and ensuring consumers are able to get what they want.
Power brands like Toblerone, Milka and Cadbury have hundreds of years of consumer trust, and with confectionery being a powerful impulse and universal category, are well positioned to act as catalysts for purchase in an environment where consumers are hesitant to spend.
Less interaction… more satisfaction
Navigating and searching for products in-store is likely to become more difficult for consumers due to distancing measures, other safety distractions as well as limited interaction with staff. Convenience and speed are inevitably more pronounced under such circumstances [IGD ShopperVista COVID-19, The Impact on Shoppers, May 2020]. How do we help consumers find the products that they are looking for quickly and at ease to optimise their shopping experience?
Easy-to-browse displays increase the likelihood of shoppers finding their products, and less time spent browsing improves satisfaction. Reducing the assortment is the first step in helping shoppers to pinpoint the bestsellers that they know, but at Mondelez WTR we’ve identified a number of strategic merchandising approaches to help shoppers make sense of the offering available and reduce their search time.
The key, once again, is simplicity, like grouping brands together, segmenting products by format, positioning and stacking different formats for optimal display and allocating the best shelves for the best sellers. Signposting the category with a key travel retail confectionery brand also helps mission-driven shoppers navigate at ease and with speed.
Lower prices… more value
The pandemic is not just a global health crisis, but a global economic crisis as well. Household budgets for many consumers will be under pressure, which means that they will gravitate towards offers that emphasise value and affordability.
In the 2008 recession, 50% of consumers switched to value offerings or bought smaller quantities of their favourite products [Kantar COVID-19 Barometer: Financial Uncertainty Outweighs Health Concerns, 2020]. Price promotions will be key to supporting consumers in making financially sound choices, while also still emphasising the value of products that consumers love. The iconic Toblerone 360g bar, for example, is intrinsically linked to the travel retail channel – a high quality product that also serves as a great gift or personal memento.
Toblerone’s longstanding status as the number one chocolate brand in the channel highlights that it offers value that consumers appreciate, which will be vital as they look to balance a desire for quality with their financial constraints.
For the foreseeable future, agility, adaptability and cooperation will remain important for brands and retailers alike as consumer needs keep evolving. We’re optimistic that travel retail will once again be a place for new experiences and discoveries, but for now, above anything else, the focus should be on providing consumers with the right products, in the right way, at the right price.
The convergence between the needs of the consumer, retailers, landlords and brands is clear, and we need to collaborate to find the optimal balance for all stakeholders. We’re on the road of recovery to emerge #StrongerTogether, and at Mondelez WTR, we’re dedicated to ‘Delighting Travelers’ along the way.
Mondelez goes for Gold at Moodie Davitt Virtual Travel Retail Expo Mondelez International is a Gold Partner of the Moodie Davitt Virtual Travel Retail Expo. The unique 5-day ‘live’ event, followed by a 30-day showcase, begins on 12 October. It features a star-studded series of events across the five days, including a Symposium, category workshops and a new consumer research initiative. Registration is free for buyers, exhibitors and preferred media partners (Click here to register).
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