2. Are British supermarkets being disloyal to Scottish salmon?
The criticism of British supermarkets by SQS comes as a surprise, since it is less than a year since an independent study of the state of the Scottish salmon farming industry, commissioned by the Scottish Office and Highlands & Islands Enterprise and conducted by Public & Corporate Economic Consu ltants (PACEC) was published. In this report, the SSB, forerunner to the SQS of which Mike Lloyd was also marketing manager, confirmed that several large multiple retailers who had previously resisted using the Tartan Quality Mark (TQM) on packaging were now doing so. If this were true, then these current accusations of cheating are hard to believe, since the statement that several large multiple retailers must encompass virtually every British supermarket group.
Immediately after publication of the PACEC report, Callander McDowell conducted another round of its regularly survey of British supermarket chains, investigating the market penetration of the TQM mark. The results are repeated below:
Table: Presence or absence of TQM salmon in the major retail stores, on and around 30/4/99.
Notes.
a). Safeway have only a limited number of fresh fish counters. Previous visits have found fish both tagged and not tagged with the TQM.
b). Although no TQM present on fish counter itself. Stores display TQM poster on the back wall of the fish area. This is not always where the customer looks.
c). Pre-packs do not include the TQM, but a TQM shelf label is attached to the display case. However, many other shelf labels in use and the one TQM label is not that evident.
d). M&S stock packs with an integral pre-printed TQM, However, the store also stocks Orkney salmon, which does not carry the TQM and is priced at a premium.
e). Waitrose use pre-formed TQM price labels on the fish counter.
f). Tesco have at times used TQM on pre-pac ks, but their pre-packs change regularly and have been either TQM Scottish salmon fillets, Scottish salmon fillets (no TQM) or just salmon fillets (no mention of Scotland or TQM). Currently, both Scottish (no TQM) and non Scottish are both evident
g). The fish counter at Selfridges in London, does stock fish with TQM gill tag and display a TQM poster. However, at the last visit, Glenarm salmon, from Northern Ireland, were also available priced well above that of the TQM Scottish fish.
It is interesting to note that the authors of the PACEC report interviewed all the major retailers representing an average of 85% of all salmon purchases. These retailers stated that they would not substitute non quality branded salmon, if the price of branded Scottish salmon increased.
The actual wording of this statement is somewhat confusing since it is highly unlikely that any producer or processor would supply branded salmon, which is of inferior quality. This is more likely to mean non branded, quality salmon, i.e. salmon which meets their quality requirement, but is not TQM branded. It is not clear from this statement whether they mean that the salmon should be Scottish or not. However, it is clear from both the survey carried out last April and also the current one, loyalty to the TQM brand is neither universal, nor of a similar standard. This refers to the fact that whilst Safeway salmon includes a TQM sticker complete with traceability code number, M&S salmon only has an integral TQM mark, with no individual pack coding and Morrisons, who just display TQM posters and shelf labelling, but do not mark their packs at all.
3. Are British supermarkets likely to face a strong consumer backlash if they are misleading their customers?
A MORI poll, commissioned by SQS, found that half the 1945 consumers surveyed said that they would not buy salmon again from a supermarket that they have found to be cheating. One in ten said that they would boycott such supermarkets completely.
Sadly, SQS are deluding themselves if they really believe that half of salmon consumers would stop buying salmon if they found the labelling on pre-packs to be misleading. It is even harder to believe that 10% would actually boycott the store concerned. This is for two main reasons.
The first is that because of the way in which most consumers do their food shopping. Most consumers are loyal to one specific supermarket, usually their local one, which they visit once or twice a week to make all their food purchases. Thus, consumers will visit the fruit and vegetable section to buy their weekly fruit and vegetable needs, the meat section for their meat and so on. If the consumer wants fish, then they will either buy fresh fish from the wet fish counter, a chilled pre-pack or frozen . If the specific fish they want is not available, then they will buy something else or leave it for that week. What is highly unlikely to occur, unless the fish is required for a special occasion, is that the consumer will visit a competitors store.
Mike Lloyd, of SQS, states that consumer should look for the Tartan Quality Mark which is of course endorsed by the SQS, when buying their salmon. Yet, the results of the survey of pre-packs available from British supermarkets shows that only two, possibly three, stores offer TQM salmon. It is extremely unlikely that a regular Sainsbury's customer is going to make an extra visit to Safeway to buy TQM when Sainsbury's offers a whole range of pre-packed salmon products. The fact is that most consumers trust their supermarket to supply food of the highest possible quality for the price paid, irrespective of whether it carries additional quality reassurance or not.
This is confirmed by an in-house customer survey conducted by Tesco, details of which were published i n the PACEC report, Tesco found that whilst 69% of customers would buy Scottish, rather than imported salmon, even if it were more expensive. However, when asked if they would be put off buying salmon from Tesco if it were not Scottish, most people said that they felt that the quality should be the same if it comes from Tesco.
The second reason why British supermarkets are unlikely to face a customer backlash is that the results of the SQS survey might, themselves be misleading. Even though the survey was conducted by a respected market research group, the way that the questions were posed might produce a result which is weighted towards the existing views of the SQS. Without access to the specific questions posed, there will always be an element of doubt that there is such strong consumer feeling towards salmon purchases. The subject of opinion polls will be discussed further in the next question.