by DW Green — July 15, 2010
We are often asked about our position on loyalty card programs. Some retailers swear by them, and some swear at the mere mention of them. We advise on their advantages and their drawbacks. If you’re considering a loyalty card program, or if you already have one, ponder this personal approach to building customer loyalty.To build a loyal customer base, the challenge is not just serving customers:- It’s understanding customers.
- It’s being prepared to serve customers.
- It’s helping an angry customer immediately.
- It’s asking customers for information.
- It’s listening to customers.
- It’s being responsible for your actions when customers call.
- It’s living up to your commitments.
- It’s being memorable.
- It’s surprising customers.
- It’s striving to keep customers for life.
- It’s getting unsolicited referrals from customers regularly.
Building customer loyalty through actions such as these is a new-old way of succeeding—a return to the day when the customer was both a friend and a neighbor. Management and employees should view each customer visit as an opportunity to earn another visit by providing an exceptional, memorable service experience. The more a store extends a personal relationship to its customers, the more likely it is that customers will increase their patronage. Theoretically, it’s possible to double sales without adding a single new customer. ...
read moreAbout 25 years ago, I served as Vice President of Advertising, Marketing and Procurement for a regional wholesaler based in Minneapolis called Red Owl Stores. Red Owl had distribution centers in Minneapolis, Green Bay and Fargo, North Dakota, and had struggled for many years with different ownership groups. Margins were tight, sales were slipping and expense ratios were growing.During a discussion with the ownership group, the topic of community giving came up in the conversation. What was our role in community giving? One of the responses: “Jim, the sign outside says Red Owl…not Red Cross.”George Jenkins founded Publix with a spirit of giving in mind. He was once asked, “If you hadn’t given away so much, how much do you think you would be worth today?”His response, without hesitation: “Probably nothing.”When it comes to community involvement, actions speak louder than words. So how does a regional, independent grocer make a commitment to community involvement? How do you manage that commitment in order to provide the most benefit to the community, while steering away from solicited requests that may not be worthy of the limited time, talent and treasure that you have? We’ve all heard stories of the local supermarket that donates to one organization only to have ten other organizations ask for (or in some cases, demand) similar treatment.Each company needs to define and decide where they...
read more by DW Green — June 24, 2010
Grocery bags are a very effective and often underused marketing tool. Bags are the perfect canvas for communicating a host of store attributes, from expressing a company’s brand position to promoting web sites, gift cards, pharmacies, signature bakery and deli products, photo processing and even product variety. I recently saw a grocery bag touting a store’s incredible selection of barbecue accoutrements! Bag designs are also a great way to announce grand openings and grand re-openings, or to introduce a new department or service. Seasonal holiday bags are an excellent idea as well.
Uwajimaya, an awesome Seattle retailer, promotes a “Design Our Next Bag” contest. The design is printed on environmentally friendly, reusable shopping bags available for sale in their stores and the winning designer receives $1,000 in store gift cards! Another Northwest retailer posts photographs in their front lobby of customers posing with their store bags at locations around the world.Grocery bags hang out in consumers’ kitchens, counter tops, pantries, closets, garages… heck, almost anywhere inside or outside the home. People are always carting (pun intended) ...
read moreSeveral of our customers have used posters, shelf signage, ad “drop-ins”, bag stuffer-style information sheets and web content to communicate to shoppers that they offer a wide variety of gluten-free items in their stores. For shoppers living a gluten-free lifestyle, all of these efforts are helpful and appreciated.If you attended our 2009 GPS (Green Positioning Summit) workshop in Phoenix, you heard Melissa McLean Jory, a well respected and nationally known expert in celiac disease and gluten sensitivity, speak on her mission to “increase awareness of celiac disease and help people navigate the gluten-free lifestyle.” If you’re interested in learning more about gluten-free living, view Melissa’s latest blog post.
As Melissa explained during GPS III (click here to view Melissa’s presentation) there are thousands of individuals seeking places to shop that offer gluten-free products merchandised with gluten-free shelf signage.One of our customers, Sprouts Farmers Markets, is currently running a month long promotion featuring gluten-free items. From April 25th to June ...
read more DW Green Company and EnQii today announced their partnership in launching GreenTV, a self-contained digital signage system that delivers powerful, targeted messaging to customers of grocery chains across North America.With the launch of GreenTV, EnQii and DW Green Company will provide grocery retailers with highly effective, supermarket-focused content designed to drive incremental sales and communicate competitive advantages. The customized store content, which includes seasonal reminders, informational messaging and price and item animations, is played on in-store LCD screens located in retailers’ meat, deli, bakery, pharmacy and health and nutrition departments, among others.“Grocery retailers are recognizing the power of digital signage to increase sales and improve the look and competitiveness of their stores,” said DW Green, president and CEO of DW Green Company. “The challenges to retailers in the past have been the initial costs and the ongoing need to maintain quality, relevant branded content. Our new partnership with EnQii allows us to address these concerns while providing supermarkets across North America with a turn-key digital signage program.”EnQii and DW Green Company began working together in early 2009 to develop customized content for supermarket LCD screens with impressive results. Items promoted on the in-store LCD screens have yielded well in excess of 100% sales lifts when compared to items advertised in similar stores using traditional display s...
read more Whether it’s a brand new offering or a long-time customer favorite, chances are there is a story behind it to tell. Product storytelling is one of the easiest and most effective ways to enhance the customer experience and build brand equity. Consider exploring the following inquiries as a way to uncover the stories behind products in your stores:1. Where does the project originate, and why is it a benefit to the customer?
Be as specific as possible. An item that’s imported is often regarded as a specialty product, rare offering or exclusive one-of-a-kind find, which can help justify the higher price point. Local products are just as enticing as those that come from across the globe. 
Customers seek out the unparalleled freshness and nutritional benefits that local foods can offer, and value the opportunity to support their community while making environmentally friendly purchasing decisions.2. How can this product be enjoyed?
What are some helpful tips on how to prep, cook and serve the product? What foods, condiments or wines would complement it? Can the product be enjoyed in a salad, sandwich or dip, or can it be enjoyed as a quick and easy snack or side dish? Get creative and give a detailed description. Cross-merchandise the items you’re recommending, or provide customers with recipe cards or shopping lists...
read more by DW Green — May 20, 2010
Last October I attended The Heart of Leadership workshop in the Seattle area with Ryan Joy, VP of Creative Services, and Erica Hutchinson, Director of Communications. The three of us attended a second workshop, The Heart of Making a Difference, in February of this year. Both workshops were incredible experiences. Among the many things we learned, improving our listening and communication skills were huge, on both a personal and professional level.In early May the DW Green Company had a two-day website review meeting with a client. As it turned out the individuals representing the client web initiative team had also participated in the same leadership workshop. It was one of the best meetings I have ever participated in. 
It’s amazing how deep and rewarding a business conversation can be when two companies are grounded in the principles of listening, communication, relatedness, trust, partnership and collaboration.This same client invests heavily in employee training. Training that goes beyond basic job skills, like checking, bagging, merchandising and safety, with leadership training that improves listening and communication skills. The value and benefit of listening, communication and relatedness knowledge cannot be overstated. After all, relationships are what life is all about, and improving per...
read moreby DW Green — May 13, 2010
I’m not much for acronyms. I find them difficult to remember and confusing. Weird, since my first name is acronym-like! Anyway, this IOW isn’t about acronyms but about OOH, which stands for “out-of-home” advertising. Out-of-home advertising (also referred to as outdoor advertising) is any form of advertising that reaches the consumer while he or she is outside of the home. It includes formats like billboards (I love billboards!); transit advertising for airports, bus depots and train stations; street furniture including bus benches, bus shelters and news racks; and commercial locations like shopping malls, movie theatres, ball parks, concert halls, etc. What about advertising in elevators? Or the new age sandwich board? Human directional signage, sign spinners and sign twirlers are very effective!
Out-of-home advertising consists of many, many venue choices and provides advertising opportunities that are often overlooked in traditional supermarket marketing. Another format, digital out-of-home advertising (DOOH), is dynamic media distributed across place-based networks in a variety of venues. DOOH advertising engages customers/audiences and extends both the reach, and the effectiveness, of marketing messages. Texting can also play a very effective role in out-of-home advertising campaigns.Considering the dec...
read moreby DW Green — April 22, 2010
Recently, we worked with a client to develop their 2011 promotional plan. We began with the holiday weeks, as they are obviously much easier to plan than the non-holiday weeks. When we got to the Memorial Day ad, we started off by talking about promoting the usual summer suspects: ground beef, poultry, ribs, melons, sweet corn, soda and the like. 
Then I recalled a Memorial Day cover page ad we created several years ago to commemorate what this holiday is actually about. The ad honored America’s brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice in service of their country.Will an institutional Memorial Day cover page drive sales and customer counts like a traditional item and price cover page? Maybe, maybe not. The institutional ad will, however, be remembered much longer than the price of ground beef and watermelon. And keep in mind: you still have the remainder of the ad to promote item and price.Most Americans have had family members or friends serve in the armed forces. Sadly, many have lost a loved one in service of our country. For me, my father served valiantly in WWII, and I lost two good friends in the Vietnam War. With many of our troops currently in harms way in Afghanistan and Iraq, recognizing their service and the United States armed forces is a laudatory decision.
