NORTHERN PLANNER

I’ve been meaning o post about Sainsburys for ages. I don’t usually do reviews of other people’s work since others do it so much better, but this one’s worth it. It’s great thinking that starts framing a brilliant strategic objective that fed right back  into the commercial hardline. Don’t get me wrong, I really admire stuff like Cadburys but I get a little perturbed at the industry masturbating over stuff like that and overlooking great thinking like this. It deservedly won the APG Grand Prix, but is dismissed by many as it’s not creatively ground breaking. And quite right – it’s there to work bloody hard.

Before I explain a bit more, cast your mind back to the time Sainsburys was on its knees. It was in danger of not just falling behind Tesco and Asda, but the bastard love child of the Morrisons/Safeway merger too. I was doing APG courses at the same, and a couple of tasks were to do with ‘How would you turn around Sainsburys’?

Now lots of wise planners shook their fists at AMV and berated them for not going back to it’s core ‘food hero’ role. That’s what the brand meant to people didn’t it? That’s all you have to do surely?

No! Sainsburys was in a bad way. There was no point pushing shiny foodie ads when they couldn’t even get the right things on the shelves. Sainsburys customers are fiercely low – they WANT Sainsburys to be good. They were being very patient, but any sign that the retailer was taking its eye off getting the fundamentals right would have resulted in them leaving. No one is that forgiving.

Once they has their house in order, it was time to start again. NOW. Once their was a good product to talk about. But just reinforcing the ‘food hero’ positioning wouldn’t be enough. The city was demanding a steep rise in profits. The work would have to be commercial like nothing else.

And so we get to the best piece of thinking I’ve seen in an age. They needed to jumpstart a process that would increase profits by about two and half billion over two years. That’s huge. It’s bigger than the value of most brands you will ever work on. And this is what they did.

They started working out what that really meant. And they found that they didn’t need to attract new customers, they needed to get more out of the ones they had. About £1.50 per visit. That’s not that much, that’s not too scary, that feels do-able. And you know what, they just about did it. The next piece of thinking is really nice, but this piece of pure commercial reasoning takes my breath away. It’s a brilliant re-framing of the objective. It’s a credible goal everyone can work to. Creatives, the Sainsbury board, every member of staff.

Then came the blindingly brilliant statement of the obvious. People sleep shop in supermarkets. They walk around in a bit of a trance. A trance they had to break. And here comes the foodie bit. Back in the 80’s those menu ads were fine – people needed to be taught how to cook good food. Now we have a more more advanced culture. Foodies are always on the lookout for new ideas. They need to feel like they’re constantly moving forward and trying new things. That’s a lot of pressure.

Look at the mountains of un-opened cookbooks in friend’s houses for evidence. Sainsburys, the mid-market food mecca could encourage people spending a little more by giving them failsafe tips. It’s right at the heart of the emotional logic of the brand, it’s so coldly commercial it makes your eyes bleed, and it lends itself to whatever media and promotions you want. And it’s a role the newly acceptable Jamie Oliver could lead with real credibility.

So there you have it. Hat’s off to AMV. Well played for knowing when to unleash the brand, for knowing that brilliant advertising can be brilliant by being useful rather than entertaining, it should be inextricably linked with a commercial objective – and doesn’t need to be a gold to be something we should all admire through gritted, envious teeth.