Heinz Beanz consideration drops following price increases

Fewer consumers are considering purchasing Heinz Beanz products, as price rises and the ongoing cost of living crisis continues to impact consumer choices, according to new data released today, while perceptions of value and quality have also declined in recent months.

The update comes despite Kraft Heinz insisting its “savvy” promotional activity is meeting consumer needs.

Heinz Beanz’s consideration score on YouGov BrandIndex, which tracks whether consumers will consider a brand next time they are looking to purchase a particular product, dropped from 35% to 29% between the beginning of March and end of May, among those who are the sole shopper in their household. It also fell from 36% to 34% among people who are partly responsible for the shopping and from 35% to 32% among the general population.

YouGov suggests price increases are likely to have contributed to this decline, as the cost of Heinz Beanz products has increased faster than competitors in the past year.

Data from The Grocer published in March shows the average price increase of Heinz baked beans was 40% year on year, compared to 28% for own label and 35% for the challenger brands.

Value perception drop

Heinz Beanz’s value score, which measures consumer perceptions of value for money, has also fallen significantly, from 12 at the start of March to 4 by the end of last month.

Meanwhile, Heinz Beanz’s quality score dropped from 40 to 35 in the same time period among consumers who are the sole shopper in their household. Its quality score also fell from 40 to 38 among those who are partially responsible for shopping.

In March, consumer watchdog Which? shared the results of a taste test, which gave supermarket own-label baked beans from Asda a top score of 77%, compared to Heinz Beanz which scored 71%, despite being the most expensive of the brands tested. Aldi’s own label baked beans came second with a score of 75%.

Consumers are increasingly turning to own-brand goods in search of greater value for money.

Sarah Hutchinson, YouGov

Heinz’s recent ‘Unbeanlievable’ ad campaign launched in February was named Britain’s advertiser of the month in March and April, meaning that public awareness of its ads grew faster than any other brand tracked by YouGov during this period.

However, this has done little to stop the declines in Heinz’s value, consideration and quality scores, says Sarah Hutchinson, director of consumer brands at YouGov.

“Consumers’ discontent with rising prices is reflected in Heinz Beanz’s value score, which fell from 12 to 4 between the start of March and the end of May among those responsible for the shopping in their household. Like many other branded goods, the prices of Heinz products have risen in the past year and our data tells us consumers are increasingly turning to own-brand goods in search of greater value for money.”

Are big brands really fighting off the private label threat?

YouGov data shows 34% of British consumers were buying mostly own-brand goods in March, compared to 29% who opt for mostly branded goods. Meanwhile, data from Circana (formerly IRI) shows private label products now account for 37% of FMCG value sales in the UK – up 4.3% since 2022.

Last month, Kraft Heinz admitted it is seeing continued competition from private labels, but claimed it has grown accustomed to this environment amid inflation.

Kraft Heinz CEO Miguel Patricio said it was being “savvy” about how it deploys its promotional activity to reach consumers, as well as ensuring it has “the right solutions in the right channel” to meet consumer needs in response to the threat from private label products.

Earlier this month, Heinz launched its first-ever global brand platform – said to be Kraft Heinz’s biggest media investment to date – using the ‘It has to be Heinz’ slogan to promote a variety of Heinz products, including beans and ketchup. The campaign is part of wider plans to increase Kraft Heinz’s market share and increase its marketing spend, announced last month.