Glad Wrap has been the big winner in the first set of POP UP Shopper Community results from PLAY Market Research, while perception problems are causing otherwise great private label products to languish on the shelves.

Launched in September, the POP UP Shopper Community is Australia’s first syndicated

product testing platform for FMCG companies, offering faster, more cost-effective and more

accurate insights compared to centralised research.

“Our goal in creating the new POP UP Shopper Community is to assist FMCG manufacturers

in branding, marketing and NPD by ranking and benchmarking every product in the

supermarket. In October, we tested 20 new and popular products from across leading

Australian supermarkets and the results were surprising to say the least,” says Chris Thomas,

Founder at PLAY Market Research.

Glad Wrap clings to the top

“What’s clear from our results is that Glad Wrap is truly a stand out product. It got some of the

best scores we have ever seen – not just in POP UP Shopper Community tests but in historic

research as well. With consumer backlash on a packaging design change causing Glad

Australia to revert back to their original packaging in January, I’m sure the marketing team will

be letting out a sigh of relief at this fantastic result,” says Thomas.

The only area Glad Wrap didn’t score highly was its lack of uniqueness at product trial stage,

which according to Thomas is expected given the simple, functional nature of the product,

how long the product has been in the market and the number of copycat products available.

Perception problems for private label

“For our first test, we opted for three private label products across a range of categories.

From our results, we can see that private label products appear to have a number of

challenges,” explains Thomas.

The results reveal that although the private label products are performing very strongly once

tried, and represent great value, the real challenge is getting them picked up in the first place.

“We’ve found that consumers are hesitant to purchase these products due to issues with the

product concept and unappealing packaging. However, once they are in homes, most people

actually would become repeat customers,” says Thomas.

“Gaining trial is clearly the key challenge for supermarkets since these products perform so

strongly. Changing perceptions of the private label image might be more of a long-term goal

through various communication efforts, but packaging renovations would be an easy first

place to start!”

To find out more about the POP UP Shopper Community, please visit:

http://www.playmr.com.au/. Full reports are available on request.

About PLAY Market Research

PLAY Market Research is a nimble, cost-effective, high-quality FMCG research agency

specialising in product testing, sensory, concept, packaging and shopper research studies.

PLAY Market Research offers considerable experience in sensory research combined with a

contemporary approach and an unwavering commitment to continued improvement.

PLAY Market Research approaches research from a human perspective rather than an

academic one, designing surveys that people want to take with simple, eye-catching and

above all useful deliverables. PLAY Market Research focuses on telling the story as simply as

possible, without all the waffle PLAY’s senior team of FMCG researchers have conducted product tests and sensory

research for the likes of Nestle, Kraft, Unilever, Coca Cola, Kellogg’s, Arnott’s, Lion and many

others.