In today’s age, we face higher prices, less disposable income, and we are spending significantly more on groceries. We choose where to shop based on what is most important to us at the time. It can be convenience, price, service, product offering, comfort, or familiarity – we like what we know.
I have worked in retail or distribution for most of my career. Additionally, I have been a consumer my entire life. I have come to recognize a few strategies that can help you to save money when grocery shopping.
Make a written list. This will keep you focused and reduce impulsive buying.
Do not go to the grocery store hungry. If you do, you will pick up “ready to eat” temptations.
Shop by yourself. The more family you have with you the more you will end up spending. Everyone adds to the cart.
Be wary of red dot specials, they are the bane of lists.
Shop with cash. Credit cards are convent but the interest kills.
As a point of interest, I observed 311 shoppers across 11 supermarkets in Barbados and the majority of those shopping did not visibly have a list in use (paper, phone or other electronic device):
Article 4, in the series: Retirement Planning from a Barbadian Perspective
My circumstance
I had decided two years ago to invest 4% of my salary towards retirement. I was uncertain whether to invest in a personal pension or a mutual fund. My current employer did not offer an employment pension plan. I ended up signing up a registered private pension plan to transfer my prior employment pension. Then I started contributing 4% of my salary to a mutual fund.
My decision was based on a discussion I had with a financial professional. His reasoning at that time, was there are no tax incentives on pension contributions. The money I am using to pay to my retirement is already net of income tax. Pension income is taxable income and If over $45,000, will incur 28.5% taxes. Essentially paying taxes twice. Where as, investing in a mutual fund, will incur a 15% withholding tax on the earning from the fund. Withholding tax is not charged on contributions.
Financial Planning for Retirement
When planning for retirement you need to think about what lifestyle you wish to live. How much you need to save, where to invest and when to invest. Also taking into consideration:
Return on investment.
Administration costs.
The financial strength of the investment options.
The investment strategy of each fund and the associated investment risk.
Your investment timeline.
Tax implications.
Affordability.
Prior performance is not a predictor of future performance. You can use historical data to compare the performance of different funds over time.
Personal Pension
Your future pension income is based on your contributions, the funds’ investment performance and the funds administrative fees. You pay the contributions, bear the investment risk, and do not have a guaranteed pension income for life. You can pass on any remaining value in your personal pension to your beneficiary.
State Pension
The NISSS Old Age Pension is for life. There is no inheritance to pass on, with ‘unused’ contributions remaining in the fund. The current pensionable age is 67 and over the coming years, it is highly likely that pensionable age will increase. The government can adjust the pensionable age as well as the calculation of benefits as it develops its national policy.
The outflow of the NISSS in terms of expenses and disbursement of benefits, is greater than its inflow of contributions. Projections are that this trend will continue into the future.
Employment Pension
Employment pension plans come in two main types: defined benefit plans and defined contribution plans.
Defined Benefit Pension Plan
Defined benefit pensions offers employees a guaranteed percentage of their salary on retirement for life. The employer holds the risk of ensuring that the pension fund meets its membership commitments. Retirement age is often 65 with the opportunity to retire early – ages 55 to 60. The plan can offer inheritance benefits, depending on its design.
Defined Contribution Pension Plan
Many businesses have migrated to defined contribution pension plans, set up and administered by financial institutions. With this type of pension, the employer has no liability to guarantee its employees a pension for life. In all other respects, it resembles the personal pension plan described above, with the employer contributing directly to the fund.
Employer contributions to employment pension plans vest after a required period of continuous employment. This means that when vested, the employee keep all contributions in their plan.
Mutual Funds
There are several mutual funds in Barbados, that are available to invest in. Each fund has a predetermined value to open an account, with many starting as low as $100. Mutual funds are not for short-term investing or speculating. You can access your mutual funds, within the agreed terms set by the fund.
Conclusion
Income tax incentives and awareness is need to encourage Barbadians to invest more for their retirement. Barbados’s state pension is under press. It’s workforce is aging with less younger people entering the workforce.
Getting older, forces you to think about how to retire and maintain your standard of living. The changes proposed for the state pension, sparked my desire to understand their impact.
My first article of this series reviewed how the NISSS and Old Age Pension works. The second highlighted and discussed the challenges facing the NISSS and why the need for change. This article builds on the analysis of the previous two articles.
Early retirement age will increase from age 60 years to:
61 in 2025
62 in 2028
63 in 2031
For persons who do not turn 60 years or older on January 1st, 2024, eligibility to receive Old Age Pension, the number of weeks of contribution will increased from 500 weeks, to:
The number of weeks contribution will increase by 30 weeks per year, until 2030.
From 2031, will require 750 weeks contributions..
A new funding policy to be laid in parliament.
A funding policy and a Compulsory Adjustment Mechanism will be incorporated into the National Insurance and Security Act.
Pension benefit, using best five-year wages average, will change to best 10-year wages average.
Increase in flexibility for self-employed to contribute to the NIS.
For every year of early pension, benefits will reduce from 6% to 9% per year up to national pensionable age
For every year of deferral of pension up to age 70 years benefits will increase from 6% to 9%.
Annual pension benefit adjustment:
In 2023 pension benefit increase by 3%.
For subsequent years, “up to 1.5% annual increases thereafter, except when 3-year average price inflation is higher than 3%. In this case the Actuary will advise on the appropriate amount.”
Old Age Pension Formula:
“There will be changes to the pension formula for future Old Age Contributory Pension (OACP) awards that gradually result in smaller average new pensions over 5 years that are seven percent smaller.”
Monthly paid workers insurable earnings increase from $5,120 to $5,200.
Weekly paid workers insurable earnings increase from $1,182 to $1,201.
Benefits
Minimum Old Age Contributory pension has increased to $254 per week.
Grants
Funeral grant: $2,220
Maternity grant: $1,280
Gap between state pensionable age and the termination of private employee contracts
The pensionable age in Barbados moved in 2018 from 65 to 67 years and will move to 67.5 in 2028 and to 68 in 2031. Government workers have the advantage of The Pensions Act, Cap. 25 of Barbados that governs the pensions of public officers. It includes provisions for the grant of pensions, retirement conditions, and other related matters. The private sector however, has no standardized legislation for retirement age, with most employment contracts terminating at age 65.
Options to consider to bridge an income gap between termination of employment contract at age 65 and eligibility for Old Age Contributory pension at age 67, 67.5 or 68
Early pension, will incur a 9% penalty per year until pensionable age is reached.
Negotiate with your employer to extend or offer a new contract past age 65.
Seek alternative employment or become self employed.
Contribute to a private or employer pension plan to help bridge the gap.
Live off of saving.
Reduction in new pension benefits
Changes to the Old Age Contributory Pension (OACP) formula will reduce new pension benefits by approximately 7%. What has been proposed is to increase the average annual insurable earnings from the best 5 years to the best 10 years.
This change can reduce the average annual insurable earnings used in calculating your state pension, which can negatively impact the value of your pension.
At the time of writing this article, this proposal has not been implemented.
Increase in the value of individual NISSS contributions
The NISSS has consistently raise the ceiling on maximum insurable earnings without altering the contribution rate. This can result in individuals seeing more of their salary or wages allocated to NISSS contributions. Contribution value is calculated by taking the individual’s insurable earnings and multiplying it by the contribution rate.
The missing self-employed
The self-employed, are not doing themselves or the wider society any flavours by not contributing to the NISSS. There are benefits from the NISSS that should be considered:
Sickness benefit
Maternity benefit
Invalidity pension or grant
Old Age Contributory pension or grant
Funeral grant
Survivors’ pension or grant
Of note, self-employed are not eligible for non-contributory old age pension.
This said, it is unrealistic to ask a self employed person to contribute 17.1% of their insurable earning to the NISSS.
Within the NISSS category of self-employed, “contributions and levies are payable on insurable earnings up to a maximum of $4,880 per month or $1,126 per week and a minimum of $21 a week or $91 a month for persons between ages 16 and pensionable age”. Discussions are evolving around flexible contributions for self employed persons.
Conclusion
Sustainability
In the next 10 years, the viability of the NISSS state pension is in question. The premise that the NISSS state pension will always be there, is no longer a certainty.
Risk
The NISSS faces diversification risk and credit risk with 69% of its investments in the Barbados government. There are no sureties in place to ensure that future governments do not renege on their obligations. to the NISSS.
With expenses exceeding revenue earned, the NISSS continues to face long-term sustainability risk.
Independence
The NISSS board should have greater operational independent from the government in how it invests and offers services to its contributors.
Population
A population in declined, requires society to plan and develop generational strategies. This requires long-term planning and commitment, that will not bear fruit in the short term.
Private Pension
Employer and personal pension plans, and private sector investment funds will be critical for future retirement planning.
With the right incentives, private pensions could reduce the overreliance of many Barbadians on the NISSS as their primary source for pension income.
Part 2: Challenges facing Barbados’s state pension scheme.
Introduction
Barbados’s Old Age Pension and Non-Contributory Pension is an important source of retirement income. My first article in this series, focused on how the National Insurance and Social Security Service (NISSS) pension scheme works. This article identifies key challenges facing the NISSS.
The following is a direct quote from the report, “At current contribution rates and pension provisions the NIS is not sustainable as future generations will be required to contribute substantially more, or receive substantially reduced benefits, than previous and current generations.”.
Key reflection points are:
In the 10 years prior to 2020, Barbados population was in declined.
The Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) wrote off $1.32 billion debt owed to the NIS.
NIS investments did not follow investment policy limits.
NIS reserves were $4.2 billion, or 5.2-times expenditure in 2020.
The NIS has not issued annual NIF (National Insurance Fund) annual reports since 2011.
The fund will deplete by as early as 2034 or at the latest 2041.
69% of all NIS investments are with the Barbados Government and 87% in total is in Barbados.
Barbados has an ageing and declining population
Population in decline
A population being, youthful, ageing or growing, is dependent on it’s birth rate, death rate, and net migration.
The Total Fertility Rate or TFR is a measure to determine whether a population is growing or in decline. “A Total Fertility Rate (TFR) of 2.1 represents the Replacement-Level Fertility: the average number of children per woman needed for each generation to exactly replace itself without needing international immigration. A value below 2.1 will cause the native population to decline.”
The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) for Barbados in 2023 was 1.6 (Live Births per Woman, 2023). Source: www.worldometers.info, September 23, 2023.
An extract from the Barbados Statistical Service website, “For the first quarter in 2023, male registered births – 345 exceeded those of females – 288.
Registered deaths in the period under review for 2023 were reported as follows: males – 476 and females – 453.”. This means that in Q1 of 2023, the death rate in Barbados exceeded its birth rate.
Net Migration measures migration vs emigration. Barbados Net Migration rate in 2023 was -0.276 percent per 1,000 population. This means that more people left Barbados to live and work abroad than those who migrated to Barbados.
The population significantly declines after the age group 65 – 69. Current pensionable age is 67, with plane to increase to 88 by 2034.
The highest population age groups are between 45 to 64.
If you look at the age groups between 0-4 and 60-64, it shows how the total population is growing old.
The future working population is shrinking. This impacts future NISSS contributions, availability of work force to fill job vacancies and future demand for goods and services.
The population of the 0-4 age group is jumping out as low compared to historical data as seen in the older 5-year groupings.
In 2021 estimated 0-4 age group was 11.916 vs 17,352 in 2010.
Total estimated population in 2021 was 269,090 vs 277,821 in 2012.
The NISSS needs a workforce, whose contributions to the scheme are sufficient, to cover its obligations. The situation where expenditure exceeds contributions means the NISSS is using its investment funds to bridge the gap.
Taxation on pension contributions
In 1992, the government of the day remove all personal income tax incentives, for contributions to the NIS or personal pension. This means that all contributions made to the NISSS and personal pension plans are taxed.
Pension income received from NISSS or registered retirement plans, are treated as taxable income. This creates the potential for individuals to pay double tax.
If you receive a pension and are over the age of 60:
the first $40,000 of your earned income is tax-free,
any income earned above $40,000 is subject to a 33.5% tax rate.
There are no tax incentives for an individual contributing to the NISSS pension or private pension.
Government policy impacts NISSS pension fund
2014
In NIS’s 15th Actuarial Review, December 31 2014, it notes, “After falling behind on its contributions and rental payments, the Government of Barbados covered some of its arrears by issuing Treasury notes and debentures to the NIF”.
As far back as December 2014 the auctorial review identified the risk of government defaulting on its debt. It was identified at that time that the NIS faced the risk of fund depletion as early as 2045.
“The National Insurance Scheme (NIS) will not be hampered in the long run as a result of the major haircut that the state-run social security system took when Government restructured the domestic debt under the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) program. This revelation was made by NIS Manager of Investments Luther Jones.”
“The reduction in the bonds will result in a reduction in the principal and interest. However, the interest rate in the latter half has increased by one hundred per cent and it is anticipated that the amount of money to be received at the end of the 25-year period will compensate,” he said, as several members of the audience asked for more specifics.
The idea that government can wipe out 1.32 billion in NISS investments and avoid severely impacting the fund and its contributors is a fallacy.
2023
A statement from the Minister of Labour and Social Security, Minister Colin Jordan, “The National Insurance Fund is strong … Even though the Fund is not in crisis now, we know that we have a date with destiny between 2034 and 2041. We refused to kick the can down the road and instead decided to ensure the people of Barbados will have a social security system that is sustainable and will be able to provide benefits for all, particularly the most vulnerable.” Article by Jonteau Coppin, The Nation News, July 28, 2023.
The history of NIS and NISSS shows the credit risk of the organization to the will of government’s national policy, which may not be aligned with NISSS contributors and future pensioners.
Investment challenges
The above table is from the Barbados National Insurance Scheme 17th Annual Actuarial Review, July 22, 2022. The NIS has an Investment Policy Statement (IPS) that guides the NISSS investments. The table compares as at December 2020, how the NIS has invested its funds vs its IPS.
It is clear that NISSS continues to not follow its Investment Policy Statement. This was noted in consecutive actuarial reviews, raising diversification concerns, with 69% of NISSS fund assets in public sector (government and SOE) securities, and 87% of total investments in Barbados.
A fully diversified investment fund can reduce investment risk, by spreading its investments through different types of assets, across industries, markets, and countries. NISSS’s unwritten investment policy of supporting national government policy, is not likely to change, and to its own detriment, as experienced in 2019.
Conclusion
With a population that is both ageing and in decline, the NISSS is spending more than it is earning.
To achieve sustainability of the NISSS past 2035, requires a wider national discussion and consultation on the future of Barbados, its economy, desired population size, debt management, social security, tax structure.
The NISSS needs to diversify its investments and follow its Investment Policy Statement.
Part 1 of 3: An overview of the Barbados National Insurance Pension Scheme
Are you financially ready for retirement?
From the time I joined the workforce in 1996, I have been contributing towards the National Insurance and Social Security Service (NISSS). The overriding benefits of contributing to a national social security scheme is clear: unemployment, sick leave, maternity leave, and pension.
In July 2023 the Barbados government announced planned changes to the state pension scheme and how it will work in the future. This has resulted in various debates and for me, a recognition that we, contributors to the NISS, need to understand what the impact will be for our future.
Retirement vs Pensionable age: dilemma facing Barbadians.
About two years ago, I recall listening to an online seminar by the Ministry of Labour, and the Labour Officer made an acute statement, Barbados does not have a national retirement age, it has a state pensionable age, which is 67 years old. That said, there are plans to increase the pensionable age to 67.5 years in 2028 and to 68 in 2034 (https://nationnews.com/2023/07/28/changes-pension-nis/#).
Private sector
Many private sector employment contracts, end at the age 65 and will have to figure out how to bridge the gap between the end of their employment contract and the time that they can claim state pension.
Public sector
From the 1st of January 2018, public sector employment contracts have a compulsory age of retirement of age 67, which gives an additional two years vs the Private sector.
For many Barbadians, the NISSS Old Age Contributary Pension or Non-Contributory Pension is their only source of retirement income.
How does the Barbados NISSS Pension Scheme work?
The NISSS pension is national pension scheme, financed through contributions from persons working in Barbados, and from contributions from private and public sector employers. The pension scheme invests any excess cash flows (contributions less pension payouts) to generate income for the scheme’s future obligations.
Within this pension scheme are two types of state pensions, a contributory pension, and a non-contributory pension. Non-contributory as the name indicates, is for individuals who do not contribute sufficiently to meet the minimum requirements of the Old Age Contributory pension.
This state pension is designed for Barbadian citizens and permanent residents who do not meet the minimum eligibility requirements of the Old-Age Contributory Pension, and have reached the age of 67 years. The Non-Contributory Old Age Pension is currently BBD$230 per week (approximately US$115). You can call the NISSS directly, to discuss your personal situation and get clear guidance.
Is a contribution-based state pension. There are three bases of calculating the contributory pension, based on the date that you were born. Please see table below, that outlines the differences, based on the individual’s date of birth.
Points to consider pertaining to the table above:
Minimum contribution is:
have at least 150 contributions actually paid to one’s account.
have at least a total of 500 contributions paid or credited to one’s account.
The current pensionable age is 67.
You can opt for early retirement as early as age 60, however, there is a significant penalty in terms of reduction of your weekly pension, should you choose this option: [Weekly pension – (0.5% x every month taken early x weekly pension)]
The maximum age you can contribute to the state pension is age 70.
There is a benefit to taking late retirement, which equates to [Weekly pension + (0.5% x every month taken early x weekly pension)]
Maximum weekly pension is 60% of the average annual insurable earnings (average annual insurable earnings, “the sum of the insurable earnings on which contributions were based during the best five contribution years of the insured person’s contribution life, divided by 5” (https://www.nis.gov.bb/old-age-contributory-pension/, September 21, 2023)
A significant miss from NISSS’s website is there is no option to check your current status, how many contributions you have made, and your average annual insurable earnings. This is information that one needs to be able to make informed decisions about planned retirement, and you will have to directly contact the NISSS’s office to get that information.
Contributions and Levies are compulsory for payments to cover several NISSS services, including the state pension. In this article, I have pulled out some of the categories of employee that I feel represent much of the workforce in Barbados: Government Permanent Employees – “P”, Private Sector Employees – “R” and Self-employed – “S”. As you can see from the summary table above, Government Permanent Employees – “P” contributes 9.8%, Private Sector Employees – “R” 11.1% and Self-employed – “S” 17.1%. The current ceiling at the time of writing this article is $1,201 for weekly and $5,200 for monthly.
Over a 10-year period between 2014 and 2024, the NISSS insurable earnings ceiling has increased by 13.3% for weekly workers and 19.3% for monthly.
Conclusion
The most significant change to the national pension scheme has been the increase in retirement age from 65 to 67, with a planned future increase to 68 by 2034. There seams to be a disconnect between government policy pertaining to pensionable age and employment contracts. In the near future, we could see increasing number of workers who will face the dilemma of between one and three years, with no employment income and no state pension because their employment contract has ended and have to wait until age 68 to receive their state pension.
Social digital assets, are the resources you use to develop and maintain your online presence.
For intangible assets such as social digital assets, there are no mandatory rules, principles or regulations to follow. It is up to each company to put in place their own system of governance.
The storage and use of personal data is another matter. In many countries, there are laws and regulations in place that businesses must adhere to with regards to storage and use of customer data, For example, the UK has a law for data protection, called the Data Protect Act 2018.
Intangible assets
This article is not about crypto currencies but rather social digital assets that are used primarily for communication purposes.
Customer engagement: “clicks”, “likes”, “shares”, comments, customer reviews, direct calls, and map directions.
Digitally formatted advertising and communication material
Social digital assets are multifaceted and interrelated and so when combined create a value greater than each individual part.
Measuring value
A traditional challenge of marketing and advertising, is the ability to measure performance. Digital marketing has an advantage of measurability, allowing the marketer to determine relevance and effectiveness, and return on investment (ROI).
To measure performance, you need to have clear objectives, a defined budget and time period, and your objectives should to be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Agreed-upon, Realistic and Time-bound).
Sales performance: conversion of “clicks” to the purchase of products or services
ROI: comparison cost of digital campaign to the sales and profits generated by the campaign
Customer engagement: number of page likes, shares, visits, call / map / ad clicks / customer reviews
Number of physical store visits or call center calls during the digital campaign period
Search: clicks to web page
Businesses need to be clear in what they want to achieve. It is very easy to say something is not working or is too expensive, if you are not measuring performance in relation to an agreed set of objectives.
Back-end of the social digital assets
Registering a URL address is influenced by two things:
Generic: how unique or search ready the name is
Availability: is the URL name already in use or for resale.
The cost of registering a URL address increase based on its “searchability” attributes. To get past generic names, marketers have been creative in the use of spelling and phonics as a work around. The first step is to identify what name you would like to register and then do a search to see if the name is available and price. Have a couple options ready, incase your first choice is not available or is too expensive.
An important part of good governance is to keep track of the renewal of URL addresses. This will avoid your website been taken down and mitigates the risk of losing your URL to predatory opportunists.
Lost access to website and social media pages, due to a disgruntled former employee or third party service providers with admin privilege’s, may seem extreme, but can happen if the administration side of digital assets is weak. Remember the phrase, “you do not know what you have until you lose it”.
Websites and social media pages have an administration back-end function that provides you with options to manage this issue. Good governance and management controls are needed to maintain ownership and accessibility of approved persons to manage, maintain and administer the various online mediums or presence.
Smooth transition of social digital assets
Create a social digital assets register, ensure that it is updated on a regular basis and stored in a secure location.
The Social Digital Register should include the following information:
Website and Social Media:
confirmation of URL address ownership, where it is registered and who is managing the registration renewals.
Administration:
Identify who has access to the digital assets and their level of authorization, duties and responsibilities.
Administrators and Editors
Contact information as well as a signed agreement that all the digital assets including content is the ownership of the company.
3rd party service providers:
Letter of agreement or contract, establishing that the business is the sole owner of its digital account with the social media platform(s) or website(s).
Contact information, confidentiality agreement, identification of duties and responsibilities
Storage and Access
It is important to store your social digital assets in a location that is both secure and accessible for authorized use. Keeping your assets up-to-date is important, retiring old campaigns to avoid future use, changes to logos, current labels and product photos.
Without management of these assets, miss-use can occur, especially if the assets have a limited life or a defined use. For example, paying for an advertising campaign for use in one territory, but then using it in another for which you have not paid the rights. Using creative for a print campaign, but did not pay for the rights to use it on-line. These types of scenario can lead to unplanned expenses, embarrassment or law suits.
There are cloud based services designed for storage and managing access to multiple users. For small and micro businesses, there are some cost effective cloud based solutions such as Google Drive, Onedrive and Dropbox. Businesses can also set up a shared storage file on its local network. The key points are:
the need to store your digital assets in a secured location
authorized access only
Digital assets must be managed to ensure that they are up-to-date for use, are used for their intended purpose and there is accountability for their use.
Future use
Social Digital Assets are resources that are critical to how business communicate, advertise and drive future sales or services. Like tangle resources, they needs due care and attention, to ensure that the assets are available for future use.
Businesses should ensure that it’s social digital assets are managed in a manner that when it is time to transition to a new team, access to the assets can easily be facilitated, with the least amount of disruption. A history of the digital assets journey should also be maintained – with the knowledge of our past, we can better plan our future.
This article is written by Graham Greenidge, a Fellow member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and is an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment.
A couple weeks ago, my dishwasher overflowed and it was time to get my grease trap cleaned. What I did not know, is that my call would lead to a fantastic customer experience.
Around noon, I called The Grease Trap Man, a service which I have used twice in the past two years. The person who answered was pleasant, I explained the situation and mentioned that I had to leave for a 2 p.m. meeting. Her response was, “let me see what I can do”.
12:30 : place call
1:00 : the cleaning crew was outside my house
1:30 : service completed
1:45 : bill paid by bank transfer
2:00 : I was at my meeting.
Within an hour, my grease trap was cleaned, stress reduced and I got to my meeting on time. This is an example of how a customer journey can be positive, memorable and exceed expectation. It’s a good reminder that positive customer experiences, can be your greatest asset in creating a competitive advance.
I recently taught an “Effective Selling Techniques” training seminar on behalf of BIMAP for Banks Holding Limited. What an experience that was meeting members of BHL’s sales and merchandising team and the opportunity to work with them to build on their skills.
The seminar was about six hours, coving topics that included: Sales Technique Building Blocks, Personality Styles, Closing Techniques, Solution Selling, How to Handle Objections and more. As intense as it may sound, the seminar was a lot of fun and the interaction and level of participation was phenomenal.
If interested in sales training for your teams, please reach out to #BIMAP and ask for #grahamgreenidge, #Effectivesellingtechniques.
As a marketer, I am intrigued by consumer behavior. The following article describes one of my shopping experiences at a local supermarket, my interaction with the environment, my thought process and how that experience played out.
The scenario
One Sunday morning, I was tasked with my wife’s list of grocery items, inspired by a pending week of tropical waves, forecast to roll across our island Barbados. The hurricane season is June 1st to November 30th, and many of us wait until the last minute to prepare and this was one of those occasions. Not wanting to get caught up in the after-church shoppers or worse yet panic shopping, my journey through the supermarket, began early for a Sunday morning, at around 9 a.m. The worse thing to do is to get caught up in a last-minute shopping frenzy for a storm. With rain pouring and thunder rolling, your reasoning goes out of the window. Without a planned list, you can end up picking up things that you had no intention of buying, but because you see others buying or the shelf is looking empty, you buy it “just in case.” In behavior economics, this could be referred to as ‘herd’ mentality.
The List
Fortunately I had a list to keep me focused. It was my wife’s list, sent using the latest technology – WhatsApp, but I also had a mental list of a couple items that I wanted. It was a firm mission, but with enough wiggle room to allow for some browsing. The timing was perfect, the store not too busy and the cashier lines one to two people long. Sub point, my wife kept sending additional list items that extended the shop. I am now falling into the trap of ‘the longer you are in the store the more you will buy’. There are many versions of this phrase, but retailers know that the longer a customer is in their store, the more likely they will buy.
Focused
There is a brand of instant coffee that I like. I had coffee at home, so it was more of a top up situation. I found myself seeking it out, and contemplating and them deciding “no, I can wait it out to next week.” So, shopping almost done, I had stuck close to the list. I did buy some peaches that were hard to refuse, but no major deviations or extravagance. Got to the end of my original list and realized that my wife had send some additional item requests and a picture of a brand of deodorant. I love getting pictures, that way I do not have any doubts of what I am looking for. Targeted pinpoint focus at its best.
I got caught
As I made my way to the back of the store, I got about halfway and happened to pass by a gondola end, with a promotional box offer that caught my attention. It was the same coffee brand that I was looking at earlier, but this time in a larger package size and with a promotional offer of a “free mug.” I am a sucker for a mug. After less thought than the first time (and the price point was higher), the offer was in my shopping cart.
Conflicting emotions
I was intrigued by this shopping experience and my own shopping behavior. The marketer who worked the promotion did several things right:
Secondary display: gondola-end in the middle of the store and not close to the product category.
Attractive display to catch my attention
“Free offer,” as an incentive or reward to encourage purchase
It caught me at the right time, I was at a crossroads, I had wanted the coffee, but I needed something more to justify my purchase, to make me feel better about it. The ‘free mug’ was the incentive I needed. It offered additional value to help me to reason that it was worth the buy.
After putting the item in my cart, I was feeling what I would describe as buyer’s remorse or guilt. So, I did something I had never done before while shopping. I decided to check online to see if any stores within the area sold the item, to compare prices. I wanted to know that I was not being overpriced for the promotional offer – some logic was starting to get into my buying process. More than likely, I needed further justification for my decision, and I was looking for that evidence. The first online search was easy to run, but they did not have it. The second store search proved a bit problematic, the search function was clunky, I had difficulty finding the store online: I was sent to the corporate site, I then had to find their storefront, then after selecting the item I had to identify the country to get the price, to then be told “not available.” After what seemed like over five minutes I gave up. The item stayed in my cart.
When I was pulling together my thoughts for this article, I used the opportunity to test out my new coffee cup. To be honest, the “free mug” experience was disappointing. The mug lacked refinement – probably my expectations were too high.
Did I get caught by a marketing promotion? Yes. Did the offer live up to my expectations? No. Would I recommend it to another customer? No. Do I hold the experience against the brand? Not. It was however, a good lesson in the first rule of shopping, ‘buyer beware’.
Graham Greenidge is a Chartered Marketer and Fellow Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
Graham has remained up to date with the latest market intel for any product he works with. Graham defines work ethic, importance of building and maintaining relationships and most importantly staying one step ahead.
Graham is a master brand builder with a creative mind. He has also become my ‘go to’ person for guidance and insight in Barbados and occasionally the wider Caribbean.
Graham’s vast experience and knowledge on how to effectively sell, market and distribute brands and products in competitive markets, is a must have prerequisite strength that any business would relish and need, if they want to be successfully from the get-go.
I recently taught an “Effective Selling Techniques” training seminar on behalf of 
