Dive Brief:
- Winn-Dixie wants kids to taste test its private label products and have customers submit video reviews for a chance to win a grand prize, according to Store Brands. The contest runs through July 15.
- The retailer’s parent company, Southeastern Grocers, recently revamped its private brand portfolio that is now being put to the test.
- Three new brands were launched — including SE Grocers Essentials, SE Grocers and Prestige — featuring nearly 3,000 new or retooled products.
Dive Insight:
Consumers increasingly are in control of the shopping process, choosing when, where and how they shop. Additionally, they’re quite vocal not only about their retail shopping experiences, but sharing information via social media about the products and brands they buy. So it’s smart for grocers to go straight to the source and solicit consumer opinions about goods they stock on their shelves as Winn-Dixie is doing with its “Calling All Kid Connoisseurs” private label test-tasting contest.
These kinds of marketing tactics seem to be part of a growing trend. Texas-based H-E-B has launched at least two campaigns seeking its shoppers’ input. The regional grocer’s annual “Primo Picks Quest for Texas Best” competition seeks out the best emerging food and beverage products made within the state. Since the competition began in 2014, H-E-B has incorporated 135 products into its lineup of private label offerings.
Another H-E-B campaign involved a statewide video contest, encouraging shoppers to create and submit a commercial featuring their favorite H-E-B Primo Picks, one-of-a-kind products that are featured monthly across the supermarket chain. Based on shopper votes, the grand prize winner received $25,000 and an appearance in an H-E-B commercial.
What do these campaigns have in common and why are they useful as part of a grocer’s overall marketing strategy? For one thing, they’re fun and different. Not every retailer lets its shoppers have a say about what’s carried in their stores. So these types of taste-testing and emerging product competitions enable consumers to feel special and part of the process. The outcome is a unique assortment of items that consumers had a role in helping to discover — something which can build shopper loyalty.
There’s also a community-building and goodwill aspect to the marketing campaigns. By soliciting shoppers’ opinions, products are created and carried with the local community in mind. This creates a “feel-good” aura about the retailer that it’s a community partner who cares about its neighbors and what they think. It will be interesting to see if more retailers follow suit, engaging with shoppers to immerse them as part “owners” of their local grocer’s decision-making process.