Compliments
Immersion:
Facing competition from President's Choice, the Loblaw's brand that dominated the market, Sobeys undertook a dramatic product development initiative to transform and rebrand their private label line.
Compliments is a complex brand with over 3,500 products organized into three sub-brands: Compliments Value, Compliments Selection and Compliments Sensations. Working with Sobeys' senior management, we led the development process that defined the brand essence and set the communications strategy that would differentiate Compliments from the competition and drive sales.
Insight:
The Compliments customer leads a busy, often stressful life with little time to prepare daily meals from scratch. She has enough on her plate every day without worrying about what goes on her plate every night. And yet she wants the best for her family.
She wants nutritious meals and quick preparation. She wants to impress and do it with ease. She needs to know what she's eating and wants to explore new tastes. And she expects good value.
With their unique three-tier brand Compliments offered the optimum combination of selection, quality and price. More than that, Compliments promised our customer "everyday inspiration".
Ideas:
We introduced the rebranded Compliments to employees first, with a video that brought the everyday inspiration promise to life. We prepared employees to become brand advocates through sampling, product training, and brand education, and encouraged further participation through a "Shop Compliments and Win" promotional website..
The cornerstone of the multi-million dollar consumer campaign was "Inspired by Compliments" - a magazine published in eight regional versions and distributed three times a year at 1,300 stores across the country, as well as to 12 million households through community newspapers. The magazine was promoted with national print and television advertising in English and French.
In-store merchandising was all-inclusive, from sampling to point-of-sale: window banners, freestanding displays, magazine stands, shopping bags and checkout screen messaging. Employees donned "Inspired" t-shirts for four weeks following the publication launch.
We built Compliments.ca, a website that featured product information as well as recipes, tips on food preparation, presentation and entertaining, plus lifestyle articles of particular interest to Compliments' customers. The website also stimulated an outbound e-newsletter program that promoted new products while building a dialogue with consumers. Public relations in key markets and product features in weekly flyers were other elements of the integrated campaign.
Impact:
The program was measured through sales data as well as a quarterly brand metrics scorecard. Response to the Compliments brand relaunch and all subsequent campaigns was overwhelmingly positive from both a sales and brand tracking perspective.
The "Inspired by Compliments" magazine strategy resulted in inventory sell-outs across the country, increased the average basket size and contributed to an overall sales increase of 5.4% in 2006. Awareness and trial numbers also increased each quarter over the previous year. In addition, the television campaign garnered a 2006 TVB Retail Commercial Award for creative excellence.
TOP
