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Do you really get what you pay for?

Posted in Marketing, Nikki Preston, Latest reporters' blogs September 20th, 2007 by Nikki Preston

Waitrose heads have recently been speaking out about the upmarket supermarket’s on-going struggle to communicate that quality has a price.

Mark Price, Waitrose managing director, has spoken out against rival supermarkets saying that while its rivals such as Asda have committed not to pass on the price increase to consumers the only way they will achieve this is by “de-speccing products”.

As Waitrose continues to chase after the market which chooses quality over price, I think the supermarket’s biggest challenge is educating shoppers about how its products are sourced and why they are so much better.

Supermarkets have in recent years attempted to cover all their bases and appeal to shoppers by offering premium and value brands such as Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference and Tesco’s Finest brands. However, according to Price these brands only serve to highlight that they are only better quality to what else they stock on their own shelves – not compared to what some of the higher-end retailers have on offer.

And while anyone that goes into Waitrose feels the products are priced higher than its competitors, according to Price most of us fail to realise is that the cost of the product is intrinsically linked with the quality.

This is clearly something he is passionate about as he illustrates the Waitrose standard bacon is not only superior and cheaper to the Taste the Difference bacon. Likewise he believes that supermarket’s simply makes some its orange juice look premium simply by degrading some other drinks in the range.

I think this is a fair comment from Price, and while I will put my hand up and admit to shopping at Tesco or Asda – the reason for doing this is simply based on price and convenience and I simply don’t expect the quality to be as good as say Waitrose and M&S. So my question is, do you think consumers really get what they pay for?

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