Quack stats say Belgians care about branding. Perhaps.

"Shoppers vote with feet after Belgian supermarket removes Unilever products" says the headline in Marketing Magazine - apparently almost a third of supermarket chain Delhaize's shoppers will head off to where they can get their hands on lovely Unilever bits.

Er, or will they?

As of the survey taking place, Delhaize hadn't actually taken ANYTHING off its shelves - that only happens this week. So the survey only looked at intentions, rather than reality.

Judging from the article, it looks like the question might have been slightly loaded as well: "... 31% of Delhaize shoppers had decided to shop elsewhere for Unilever goods..." (emphasis mine). If the survery was asking specifically about Unilever goods, how many people actually know what they're buying is Unilever? I don't, much of the time, and I would class myself as more interested than most.

A commenter on the article makes similar points - and also raises the suggestion that almost 70% of shoppers really DON'T care about Unilever going AWOL.

Gotta love them surveys...