Advertising - "The Invitation"
Lets talk about why we advertise and what we expect from our investment.
When we advertise, we must attract new customers to be successful. Advertising, either in print or digital, is an investment. Any investment must reap dividends. In the retail supermarket industry, these dividends are called customers. The larger the customers’ basket size gets, the larger the dividend created by the advertising strategy.
Many retailers quickly toss together a predetermined number of items in each department every week to complete their ad. However, under this disjointed strategy, the ad is not truly complete. This can demonstrate a lack of ad plan, direction, and any true attempt to tell their story. This lack of substance can, and will, contribute to an overall lack of advertising success over time. There will be no increases in sales and, as attrition of older customers affect these numbers over time, the supermarket retailer begins to fail.
In retail food it's easy to fail. It takes a great deal of attentiveness to both the details of your brand identity and to your strategy of retaining existing customers. All of this must also be executed in a way that builds both customer count and individual basket size. A well-executed combination of all of these elements is the key to ultimate retail success.
To write a great ad we must first agree that the ad is an invitation to shop. Invitations for retailers vary as much as they do in every other part of our lives. A child's first birthday invitation would look much different than a wedding invitation, thus your ad must be distinctive in its purpose and theme as well.
Retail supermarket locations vary just as much in size, service, sku's and departments as a wedding does from the child's first birthday.
Therefore, the invitation the retailer sends the potential customer (the ad) must describe exactly what the store is offering as its "value proposition" and a call to action. It then becomes a question of what we will offer the customer so they choose to enjoy their individual shopping experience with us. We must also keep in mind what we will offer to continue consistent shopping until the retailer gets the mix, or the larger order necessary, for retail success.
Every store must reach deep to find the points of differentiation between themselves and the competition. You need to tell the story of your store through every aspect of your ads appearance to present what the customer should expect when entering the store.
We need to understand those half dozen items that, when purchased, will convert the cherry picker to a full-shop customer. Once identified, these items must then be priced and position aggressively. Lastly, yet quite importantly, we must know the customer well enough so that we may both meet and exceed their expectations – both in our ad and in the store.
If you spend the time to write a creative ad and demonstrate retail excitement, both your existing and potential customer will be more likely to tune in every week for what new. This distinction will create genuine brand loyalty, as opposed to seeing your offering as just another advertisement.
We are available to help you differentiate your retail location from the competition and grow sales.
Contact us anytime with even the simplest of questions, Joel