Book review - Supermarket Wars

Brian Moore, Media Week, Tuesday, 13 December 2005, 12:00am,

Supermarket Wars provides a comprehensive history and analysis of the major retail players and their drive to become fully global.

It is aimed at a wide audience, so readers with specific needs may on occasions have to "dig deep" for insight. While it is not directly aimed at media professionals, it provides a useful insight into the basis of super-market power and influence over the consumer/shopper.

From the book, you can see that given the combination of club cards, scanning data, non-foods and services, and the retailers' ability to supplement shopping insight with consumption insight, supermarkets have a far greater claim to ownership of the consumer than the brand owner. The brand owner effectively has to rent access to "his" consumer.

Another media issue is the contrast between the retailers' global influence and their need to market the store locally. The ability to focus an advertising message upon a shopper at point-of-purchase represents a significant threat to traditional media.

However, this book can help in gaining an appreciation of the basic drivers and heightens the need for a major rethink in refocusing agency efforts in developing client relationships.

Review by Brian Moore, CEO, EMR-Namnews

SUPERMARKET WARS

By Andrew Seth and Geoffrey Randall, priced £25

Published by Palgrave Macmillan

4 out of 5.

This article was first published on Media Week