E-comparing prices, like-with-like...?

Yesterday’s top NamNews item on Mobile Food-price Checks indicates that shoppers increasingly want to know how food prices compare at point-of-sale.

To be precise, they are seeking a true like-with-like comparison of Prices, thus leaving them free to evaluate Product performance, Presentation and Place, in order to complete their decision to purchase.

The issue for suppliers and retailers is whether the product or brand can stand the comparison…

In other words, in a true like-with-like comparison of the four Ps, would the competitor’s product win ‘hands down’?

In which case, we can but jeopardise long term equity and credibility by making a direct comparison more difficult. Instead we should perhaps use our energy to objectively assess all category members vs. real consumer need, and then re-engineer our product offering, stripping out all redundant attributes, in order to provide a better match with that need in terms of value for money, compared with alternatives available.

Eventually, this open comparison will drive price indication and consumer choice at point-of-sale, with e-comparison merely accelerating and amplifying the process….