Category Archives: Supermarket marketing

Grocery shopping trends, Supermarket marketing

PBH to Connect Produce Industry With Retail Dietitians, Foodservice Leaders

According to a recent Progressive Grocer article, the  Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBH) will bring a number of retail dietitians and foodservice leaders to its 2022 Retail & Foodservice Immersion Event in October.

Adding a new twist to past practices, PBH will “include a group of foodservice leaders to further support the produce industry’s need to meet consumers where they are influenced to choose fruits and vegetables at the point of purchase.”

Retail and foodservice leaders will also have access to the latest produce innovations and new consumer research, along with tools to spur new fruit and vegetable consumption habits among customers.

“PBH is thrilled to be back in person supporting one of the industry’s largest trade shows, as well as connecting produce companies directly with consumers through the various points of influence – including at the point-of-sale (retail) and at the point-of-flavor (culinary and foodservice),” noted Wendy Reinhardt Kapsak, president and CEO of Brentwood, Mo.-based PBH, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. “The goal of this signature PBH event is to provide retail and foodservice leaders with actionable education and intimate networking experiences that inspire them to get creative with fruits and vegetables and take back ideas and solutions that help drive produce consumption and purchases in their stores, in e-commerce and in dining establishments nationwide.”

Participating retailers are:

  • Big Y Foods
  • Coborn’s, Fresh Thyme
  • The Giant Co.,
  • Harmons Grocery Stores
  • H-E-B
  • The Kroger Co.
  • Loblaws
  • Natural Grocers
  • Rouses, ShopRite-Inserra Supermarkets Inc.
  • Stop & Shop
  • United Supermarket
  • Wegmans Food Markets
  • Weis Markets

Read the full article…

Supermarket marketing, Technology in Supermarkets

Omnichannel Attribution

In a recent Progressive Grocer article, Diana Medina, Director of eCommerce Solutions at Inmar Intelligence, shared some good insights and best practices for today’s supermarkets’ marketing strategies.

The article noted that in a traditional single-channel model it was simple to evaluate a grocer’s marketing efforts. “An ad ran, sales increased and you knew it worked,” she explained.

But today, that attribution becomes a more complex because grocers are using multiple channels to reach customers and prospective customers, and they must”…know what’s working and what’s not, and they need to know it quickly, so they can react and optimize in real time.”

Medina goes on to identify five important factors for optimizing attribution efforts:

  1. Attribution Isn’t Just for Digital Channels. Digital’s direct impact on grocery sales is easier to measure than more traditional marketing — like the weekly circular — but a comprehensive attribution plan needs to encompass all of the marketing channels you’re using to reach shoppers.
  2. Data Automation Is Essential for Measurement. Data is the lifeblood of sales attribution for any grocer. But for data to become a truly effective tool, it needs to be easily accessed and analyzed to create actionable, optimizable insights.
  3. Technology Should Drive Your Media Mix. The days of using one marketing message for all grocery shoppers are well behind us. Thanks to technology and data, you can now predict how an individual shopper might respond to one offer, while another will respond to an entirely different message. That means you can create relevant stories and experiences that engage shoppers when, where and how they prefer to shop, throughout their unique shopper journey.
  4. Predictive Models Actually Work. Predictive, or lookalike modeling, is all about understanding and anticipating shopper needs. The more comprehensive data you have on shopper behavior, across all channels, the easier it is to stay ahead of the competition.
  5. Test, Learn, Test Again! Small failures are almost a certainty when there are so many moving parts, data points, shifting customers needs, media options, marketing objectives and channels. The trick isn’t to avoid failure, it’s to learn and respond to it — quickly!

Read the full article…

Engagement, engaging people, Supermarket marketing

Holiday Marketing in Supermarkets

Spectrio is one of the nation’s leading end to end technology-enabled customer engagement marketing companies, and they shared some simple and innovative ideas for in-store holiday marketing.

Here are a few examples:

  1. Set the holiday mood in your store. First thing first, decorate and embellish your store so it has a holiday feel. Consider adding a few lights, holiday wreaths, or trees. Or, simply update your in-store digital signage so it includes relevant seasonal content.
  2. Create a holiday-themed in-store photo op. While you’re setting up your store for the holidays, create a specific scene that can be used as a great holiday-themed photo op. A photo op is a background or unique element that customers take a photo of and share on social media. This helps spread your brand across social media as people share their user generated content.
  3. Design a high-quality holiday overhead music playlist. It’s not enough to just put on a holiday music radio station. You should curate and use a high-quality overhead holiday music playlist. What makes it high-quality? It’s a list of songs that will please customers — but not annoy your employees.
  4. Infuse your store with holiday scents. Amplify the season by tying it to the sense of smell. Use scent marketing to add fresh holiday smells to your store like peppermint, evergreen, or pumpkin spice.
  5. Update your website. As you create holiday promotions, make sure customers know about them in your store, as well as online. Update your website so customers can clearly see the holiday specials and deals you’re offering. You might also consider combining this step with an email campaign. Spread the message about your holiday promotions by creating email campaigns to send to your customer list. Don’t just send one email. Create a plan for promoting up to the holiday and featuring individual sales, deals, and events.
  6. Create a plan to give back. Don’t make the holiday season all about buying gifts. Also, focus on giving back. Partner with a local charity and donate proceeds or run a food, gift, or clothing drive to spread holiday cheer with your local community.
Customer Service, Customer service and loyalty, Grocery shopping trends, Incremental Purchasing, Supermarket competition, Supermarket management, Supermarket marketing, Systems and scanning

Insight Into Shelf-side Decision Making?

A recent article published by advancingretail.org shared some interesting information about understanding shopper behavior at the shelf.

“Understanding true shopper behavior in the store has become the latest battlefield in the fast moving consumer goods industry,” the article states.

Citing studies that show an estimated 76% of purchase decisions are made in the store, the article goes on to suggest that adding even a single product to a small percentage of shopping trips could equate to significant increases in sales revenue.

Wondering if there’s a way to accomplish this?

According to the article, Shopperception, a company with locations in Delaware and Buenos Aires, offers a platform that is able to “digitize shopper behavior in much the same way marketers are able to understand shoppers’ behavior online.”

Apparently their platform uses three-dimensional sensors combined with sophisticated algorithms to generate the data.

Assuming the decision-making that will be based on the consumer preferences translated by this data is combined with high levels of customer service, could this be a win-win opportunity for shoppers and supermarkets alike?

Customer service and loyalty, Grocery shopping trends, Process improvement, Shopping Experience, Supermarket management, Supermarket marketing

The “Customer of One” Approach to Supermarket Marketing

In a recent article posted on progressivegrocer.com, Gary Hawkins, founder and CEO of Center for Advancing Retail & Technology (CART) shared some interesting perspective on current marketing trends used in supermarkets and other sectors of the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry.

Comparing traditional marketing practices and costs with the newer “customer of one” approach, Hawkins paints an intriguing picture of how supermarkets, manufacturers (brands), and consumers might simultaneously enjoy the benefits of leveraging today’s technology.

“Let’s imagine you are a brand manufacturer and you have just one customer to focus on; let’s call him Joe,” he writes.

“You would want to learn all you could about Joe, but most importantly, you would want to know how often he purchases from your product category and your share of his category business. You would also want to understand Joe’s brand loyalty and discount propensity.

“Armed with this knowledge, you would then want to promote to Joe just before he’s due to make his next category purchase, aligning brand promotion activity to Joe’s purchasing cycle, ideally communicating the right offer (knowing Joe’s discount propensity) at the right time (easy to do in today’s digital world), and in the right place (including in the store as he’s approaching the category).

Over time, you would want to grow Joe’s value to your brand by increasing his purchase frequency, up-selling and cross-selling into larger package sizes, multiple units, and related products.”

The “customer of one” method enables the brand as well as the supermarket to enjoy more regular patronage and sales revenue while spending less of their marketing budget, while the customer enjoys the benefit of shopping with less effort and at lower cost.

And, as noted in various other posts, it seems the trend toward customer-driven decision-making continues…

Customer engagement, Customer service and loyalty, Grocery shopping trends, Process improvement, Supermarket competition, Supermarket marketing

Supermarket “Personality!”

A recent discussion by a group of grocery executives focused on some big changes in the marketing and customer loyalty areas.

“When a customer visits your business, you’re not just selling the items on the shelf…,” says author .

“But rather the entire in-store experience, so make that experience exciting! Engage with your customers from the moment they walk through your doors.”

In a recent American Express Open article, Beightol listed a number of best practices for generating customer loyalty and engagement, which include:

  • Extend the relationship beyond the transaction through the use of social media
  • Make prudent use of “personalized” email messages promoting limited-time special offers or products of interest
  • Target lapsed customers through personalized email campaigns that highlight what’s different about your store
  • Send push notifications to loyalty program members
  • Recognize it is a consumer-driven world, and it is important to keep up! Refusing to innovate can be annoying to customers, which may prompt them to visit a more contemporary and convenient competitor next time around

“The goal should be to turn every customer into a loyal one,” says Beightol.

“How do you do that? Show the personality behind your brand!”

Customer engagement, Supermarket competition, Supermarket marketing

Interesting Perspectives from Food Marketing Summit

A recent discussion by grocery executives on LinkedIn focused on key “take-aways” from the 8th Annual Food Marketing Summit in California, which included:

  • The new world of social media means the creation of new things for marketers to deal with such as Brand Jacking, Comment Bombing and Twitter Jacking to name a few. As an interesting aside, it was noted that more words will be posted on Twitter in the next 2 – 3 years than all the words written in books already in print!
  • The average shopper only spends 5 seconds shopping a category. Shocking news considering how much information most food marketers think that their package is communicating…
  • Although online food and beverage sales are still extremely low as a total percent of sales, the opportunities ahead in food industry for eCommerce are enormous.
  • Consumer emotions are the key drivers of brand choice
Grocery shopping trends, Supermarket management, Supermarket marketing

Top 2016 Supermarket Trends

Interactions, provider of retail service and experiential marketing for retailers and brands, made the following predictions in a recent ProgressiveGrocer.com article:

1. Improved Transparency and Distribution: There will be “less bad, more good,” meaning more products will be introduced with less sugar, less salt,  fewer words you can’t pronounce, and so on.

2. Closing the Digital Divide: The digital shift in retail will continue, leaving brick-and-mortar retailers needing to find better ways to compete effectively in the digital space.

3. Retailers Take More Control of Shelves: Decisions about which items to carry and where to place items on shelves will be more driven by analytics than by brand bias.

Read the full article…

Customer engagement, Customer service and loyalty, Supermarket marketing

Are Supermarkets Focused on “Core” Customers?

A recent article in SupermarketNews cited a study from The CMO Club and IBM, which showed that Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) are finally shifting resources from customer acquisition to retention and loyalty.

The benefits of retention have been well documented over the years, says author Simon Uwins, former CMO of Tesco. “With customers today so easily able to share their opinions, it’s become even more essential for every brand to look after its core customers.”

This is just as true for supermarkets the article suggests, indicating that 60%-70% of turnover is typically accounted for by only 20% of customers. And the growing number of new or revamped loyalty programs does indeed suggest a renewed focus on retention.

However, looking after core customers is more than just a loyalty program. Among the questions management might ask to determine if their company or supermarket is focused on their core customers:

  1. How well do we know our core customers?
  2. How well do we understand them?
  3. Do we make them feel appreciated?
Customer engagement, Customer service and loyalty, Supermarket marketing

Engaging Customers

A number of industry experts agree, supermarkets must become more innovative in their efforts to continually improve customer service and marketing.

For example, in a recent Supermarket News article, author Margaux Drake, a living well expert for a large supermarket chain and a WOTV 4 Women’s (ABC) Healthy Eats crew member, suggests taking care of customers while they travel by offering tips along with a dedicated display of healthy food and drink options that will pass through security and fit into carry-ons.

“With a bit of extra planning,” Drake explains, “your store can offer a more environmentally conscious journey too, so Mother Nature will be smiling as well.”

Among her top tips:

  1. Reusable stainless containers: They are durable, easy to clean and will last forever. When your customer arrives at their destination, they can give them a scrub and use them to store good-for-you snacks for the hotel room, beach or a day of sightseeing.
  2. Berries and wedges of kiwi offer bite size portions of low sugar deliciousness without the mess. The seeds and skin of the kiwi fruit are edible, eating the skin will only increase vitamin and fiber intake.
     
  3. Nuts… what could be easier to pack than raw nuts? No prep required, and the bit of fat in nuts will help ward off hunger as well.

Similarly, Supermarket Guru in a recent discussion Phil Lempert suggests retailers must find more creative ways to engage shoppers. His top three suggestions:

  1. Sample foods
  2. Cooking demonstrations
     
  3. Wine tasting

Maybe you have some creative ideas on how supermarkets might leverage creative thinking and innovation to engage their customers?

Comment…