2.5

1. How is the product presented in the supermarkets/shop? Describe the shop’s atmospheres, using the following elements: general atmosphere, music, colour, shop design, personnel’s clothing. Where in the shop is your product located (in the front; in the back, near the cash register)? Explain why this specific location has been chosen. If your product cannot be found in a supermarkets/shops, describe the “best” spatial environment of the place where you see your product being sold.

I visited the supermarkets Jumbo and the Albert Heijn. Both of these supermarkets are similar in atmosphere, in that they are made to only spend not too much time in. they are well lit and very spatial. The music they play over the radio is hard to notice in that it isn’t too loud, and is also what would be known as pop music, mixed with some occasional commercials from the store itself. I asked one of the employees and they said it is just a playlist, which changes every once in a while. The colour of a store is hard to determine since it is mainly the products you’re looking at, though in the Albert Heijn the predominant colour seems to be blue and in the Jumbo it seems to be yellow. The clothing of both stores is similar, aside from the logo and colours shown on it.

2. Take some photographs of the shelves up to 1,5 meter to the left and right of your product. Where are the best known brands located? Which value brands are offered? Which own-label offerings are present? If not relevant for your product, give a description of how you would locate other brands of the same product and/or other similar products of the same brand.

The Albert Heijn in ******* has Doritos on a lower level than the one in *****, and also lower than the Jumbo, which leads me to believe that the Albert Heijn in ****** that I visited was a franchise store. The best-known brands are, after all, located at around eye-level, with exceptions for products that are exceptionally large or heavy; however, Doritos is neither heavy nor overly large so it should always be at eye level. The Albert Heijn has its own brand of tortilla crisps lower down near the floor (at least the one in ***** does, the one in ****** (probably franchise) doesn’t.

3. Count the number of facings of your product and compare this to the number of facings of competing brands. Measure the space on the shelves and calculate the “share of space” of your brand. If not relevant for your product make an estimation of these aspects.

The top brands that compete with Doritos are Lays and Pringles. There are then some smaller brands, as well as some own labels that are also on the shelves. It is very clear that Doritos, Lays and Pringles are all awarded the same amount of space, and the other brands much less. The exception to this is again the Albert Heijn (franchise) in ******. They have put their own labels higher on the shelves and the other ‘’lesser’’ brands have also been awarded the same, if not more, space on the shelves.

4. Describe the relation between transportation, packaging and communication in relation to your product.

Doritos is transported in boxes where they’re packed loosely together. Since it is a bag it cannot be made to fit the box perfectly, and so there is always some excess space left unused. I took a look at how many bags of Doritos you could get per box, but there were different answers. On Amazon I found that you could order a box with 64 bags inside of it but also one with 50 bags. I am, alas, unsure what the common size is that supermarkets purchase.