By Joel M. Albrizio, President
"Digital Advertising Meets 1950's In-Store Graphics & Signs"
So how do we advertise a supermarket with success? Most food retailers follow a very predictable brand marketing path. Some lean more towards digital and some lean on the print, but most retailers agree the trick is a well balanced marketing program.
The debate slides from 60/40 print/digital to 60/40 digital/print. Most retailers agree the printed ad is still the solid bread winner while digital erodes the analog dollar more every year.
When we survey the retail food landscape the marketing is so predictable until....OOPS, how does Trader Joe's advertise?
Could this food retailer with a nutty crunchy feel enjoy any success? Is this a retailer with just a couple of lucky locations?
We think not. Trader Joe's is a very sophisticated retail food specialist. With a magical imagination Trader Joe's has morphed a limited list of items we don't recognize and branded themselves with a cult like following.
With a great private label program and a distinction of each item being important and significant, Trader Joe's has signed it's interior so...
The customer must slow his or her shopping pace in order to take in all that is Trader Joe's.
Now, lets break down the Trader Joe's marketing game plan. The external marketing plan is primarily digital with a focus on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pintrest and the Trader Joe's blog.
The internal marketing plan features the fearless flyer (in store bag stuffer) and original hand painted or chalked signs with a look once popular in the 1950's.
In every store is an associate with the artistic ability to create and deliver on site the single stroke sign style of a time gone by to create an identity for the retailer with followers who believe like non other.
The Trader Joe's customer has a reduced item selection. You won't see Coke or Pepsi but what you will find is a fresh artistic approach to marketing that allows us to try products we may never have noticed elsewhere and come to love.
With demo's throughout the store the customer samples as they shop and with each sample Trader Joe's has not only created a feeling of obligation to purchase, but ....
Trader Joe's has slowed down the shopping pattern allowing the basket size to build.
Now having tried these unique items along with this refreshing approach to Branding we become hooked on items we can not find elsewhere. So now we become the latest Trader Joe's customer/member.
This unique retailer founded in 1967 in Pasadena California has over 450 locations with a national following. When we look to be successful in the retail food space it becomes easy when any supermarket becomes a destination store.
With a focus on healthy living and dining Trader Joe's defines what retail food locations are capable of when the time is spent to develop a special brand.
A one of a kind brand that directs food choices to a retail location with a fraction of the SKU'S of the traditional supermarket with names of products we have never heard of before.
As long as the finished product lives up to the hype.....
We have the definition of "The Brand"
That's what we look for as marketing professionals. A brand with the ability to allow the customer to trust and try the product and then become a fan of this product they could never find anywhere else.
Just try to think of another retailer in any category who has ever accomplished anything like this. If you can think of one please write to me.