Our monthly Shop Talk newsletter provides commentary on major themes emerging from the Insights dashboards. This is a truncated version – contact us to become a subscriber and you'll receive the full report.
This month, we turn our attention to the Grocery category…
As rugby fans are well aware, Checkers Sixty60 is spending big money as a leading sponsor of the Rugby World Cup broadcasts, which began in early September on DStv’s Supersport.
In Checkers' 360, we concluded that it would be very difficult and costly for any competitor to unseat Sixty60, given how dominant the service is in the on-demand category. But Pick n Pay asap! seems to be trying… They’re the leading sponsor of the Cricket World Cup broadcasts on Supersport, which started in early October. Yes, there are delivery scooters all over our TV screens right now!
We haven’t seen any asap! ads with highly-paid pundits commentating on braai techniques (yet) but it is noteworthy that the Pick n Pay advertisements do not feature the partnership with Mr D that was launched with much fanfare this time last year. In other words, although customers can still order Pick n Pay groceries through Mr D, it seems the group is also pushing ahead with asap! as a standalone offering. This makes sense, to us at least, but it calls into question the original strategic decision to dilute control over this driver of growth in the first place.
When it comes to analysing performance, it’s difficult to split the asap!/Mr D partnership from Mr D’s existing business. What we do know is that Mr D has outperformed its main rival, Uber Eats, over the past 12 months. If we attribute this difference in performance to asap!, then we have a generous assessment of asap!’s adjusted performance over the past year.
Even so, it’s not flattering, especially when compared to the towering example of Sixty60. This might also explain why Pick n Pay is pivoting to take back control of their on-demand service.
On the other hand, the marketing spend allocated to this battle is a small respite for DStv executives, who have had a horrid year…
We’re delighted you’ve read this far. But research is only valuable if it’s exclusive. To be fair to the retailers and investment teams who subscribe to Insights, we have to say goodbye before we get to the juicy bits.
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Simon Anderssen
simon.a@22seven.com
+27 84 730 0309
