People want to be fooled - Føtex vs. Bilka
The fianc? discovered something the other day - one of the clear-cut discoveries that make you realize how much you get ripped off sometimes. For the danish audience - take a look at the following two web-sites: Føtex vs. Bilka. See any similarities? Okay, that was a rhetorical question - F?tex and Bilka is brands of the same company. The fiancé got curious - how come the prices were different - and she decided to e-mail one of the customer-supports.
And you know what the answer was? For once, we got a no-nonsense answer from a sales-division. The answer was simple - “The quality is the same, the product is the same - we at Dansk Supermarked just decided that Bilka will always be cheaper than F?tex.” And actually now that they mention it - I recall a lesson back at the commerce academy explaining this very way of doing business. There is just one problem - this works perfectly in offline shopping, but I’m not so sure in the online world. Let me explain.
Problem no. 1: Offline shopping relies on a lot of factors beside the product and the price. You have the whole ‘Customer Experience’-thing. Location, presentation and service among other things. Online shopping? You have product, you have presentation and you have price. Problem is when your presentation is - in this case - absolutely identical. You have no way of making the customer feel they weren’t ripped off - they got no additional experience - they just paid about 50% more for the same product - and if they find out? They will be mad - if not furious.
Problem no. 2: Price comparison is easy when it comes to these simple products. And to add insult to injury - these are outsourced products. It’s probably a completely different company handling the actual sale (in this case: The German company PhotoWorld. This means that your brand can be damaged by people getting confused which is which. Bilka is known for being cheap, more cheap and still more cheap. F?tex is known as a quality place with decent presentation and more relaxed atmosphere and at medium prices. Problem is getting the customer to distinguish between the two - they are essentially relying on this external company to handle their brand… and the same company with both brands… to me this sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.
But I guess, they will eventually learn to separate the brands by either using different suppliers for these services - or at least covering their tracks better. Oh, and a funny exercise? Try comparing the URL’s… and then start substituting the number at the end… funny stuff… Oh, and don’t get me wrong, people will every single day pay more than they have to for the same stuff… I know, I do (but F?tex is so much nicer…). You just have to be up-front about it. People aren’t stupid… at least not everyone - and consumer habits are far different online compared to offline. In an online world, brands are really important - and you have to be carefull not to let your otherwise proffessional attitude slip when you go online.
Nan said,
August 11, 2006 at 22:17
BASTARDS!!!!!!
Kreel said,
August 16, 2006 at 13:29
Omg - that’s funny as hell :D
Goblincave » Supermarkets... have to hate them said,
May 18, 2007 at 18:36
[...] but this other supermarket is far cheaper (even though they are owned by the same company - look here for their reasons) - so we go there every month or so and go for the big [...]
Alan said,
June 6, 2008 at 13:41
The costumers are willing to pay a larger amount of money, about 10 - 15 pct., for products both in Føtex. This is only because of the location. Føtex is a city-supermarket where Bilka is an periferi supermarket. Føtex has to take a higher price cause to the more expensive location. So nothing is wrong.
GoblinHero said,
June 8, 2008 at 21:06
Hey Alan - I think you missed my point. I agree that the philosophy holds for physical stores - the problem here is that it isn’t a physical part of the store. You can only buy the products online - and at an outsourced site.