How and why Russell Stover wins the hearts of shoppers during Valentine’s Day
Boston, MA (PRWEB) February 17, 2015 -- This Valentine’s Day millions of sweethearts received heart-shaped boxes of chocolates, flowers, and greeting cards from their loved ones. The National Retail Federation projected that almost $18.9 billion* would be spent this Valentine’s Day--the most spent ever! Almost $2 billion worth of candy sells during the Valentine’s season--but how and why do some chocolate brands sell better than others?
Mobee created a Valentine’s Day Infographic based on their data collected in the week leading up to Valentine’s Day from nearly 400 visits to CVS and Walgreens stores around the country. The data captured which chocolate brands had the most shelf presence, best displays, and ultimately captured the hearts (and wallets) of buyers in the days leading up to February 14th.
With a lot of brands competing for buyers’ attention in the candy aisles, chocolate brands that are unique and eye catching stand a good chance of persuading buyers to purchase their products. Russell Stover came out on top in CVS and Walgreens’ seasonal aisles with the most share of shelf, most compelling displays, and the largest heart-shaped chocolate boxes for sale. The Russell Stover brand was noticed first by many shoppers— 79% of shoppers who visited CVS and 96% of shoppers who visited Walgreens recorded Russell Stover as the first brand they saw. Hershey’s (53% of visits) and Whitman’s (43% of visits) followed closely behind Russell Stover as the brands noticed immediately by shoppers.
Valentine’s Day chocolate brands viciously compete for shelf space, unique displays, and product diversity to catch the buyer’s eyes. Ultimately, Russell Stover’s presence and iconic displays resulted in the most hypothetical purchases (35% of users). Ghirardelli, Hershey’s, and Lindt’s consistency in displays, shelf presence, and compelling presentation led to 18%, 16%, and 15% of users choosing each brand respectively. It is no coincidence that with Russell Stover’s universal presence on store shelves, the majority of buyers considered purchasing Russell Stover chocolate for their valentines.
The data gathered from this study also elucidated shopper’s buying patterns, including who buyers are shopping for and when they are making their purchases. While 69% of shoppers sampled were planning to purchase gifts for Valentine’s Day this year, only 24% of them had made their purchases before 2/11/15. For the last minute shopper, displays, selection, and creativity** are the deciding factors when it comes to purchasing a gift. Most buyers intended on purchasing gifts for a significant other (51%), family (25%), and/or children (23%) this Valentine’s Day season. While a handful of brands garnered the most attention from buyers this holiday, will the same brands continue to top the charts throughout the year?
Mobee's Valentine’s Candy Tracker Infographic can be found on the the Mobee website.
Mobee was founded with a vision to use mobile technology and the power of the crowd to collect the world’s offline data. Mobee has cracked the code on gathering intelligence in a simple, scalable way, bridging the massive gap between brands and consumers. With a national reach, Mobee is poised to collect thousands of geo-located data points and photographs in a matter of hours, not months. Email contact(at)getmobee(dot)com to learn more about what information you can gather using Mobee’s offline data collection platform.
** http://www.allbusiness.com/ten-last-minute-valentines-day-retail-strategies-13895576-1.html
Erika Gordon, Mobee, http://www.getmobee.com, +1 (857) 233-4989, [email protected]
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