NORTHERN PLANNER

This article from The Independent discusses the UK’s increasing love for fine foods and throws up some interesting stuff:

The growth of  retailer premium private label food ALONGSIDE organic and fairtrade maybe shows how much ethical buying is status as much as morality.

Intersting to see that M&S may well lose out on two fronts – from competition from the supermarkest AND cooking from scratch (largely thanks to celebrity chefs).

By the way, I love Sainsbury’s ‘Try something new today’. Rousing customers out of ‘sleepshopping’ uses a great insight, but it’s the way the idea can be executed down a mundane product and price ad that I you see how well it works.

Of course Sainsbury’s returning to a ‘real food hero’ positioning was obvious, but few appreciate that doing it any earlier would have been a mistake. They had to sort out distribution first. I used to work on another supermarket and we all knew that Sainsbury’s shoppers WANT Sainsnburys to do well. They love it there and feel closer to it than customers of any other supermarket. Simply making sure the shelves were stacked properly would win old customers back – not sorting this would just piss them off again.

The genius of the current strategy is that encourages current customers to to buy more, and possibly upgrade, while giving new customers a reason to visit, forage and explore. Very, very clever.