Until recently, Safeway has been one of my whipping boys when I contrast the indifferent and engaged buying personalities. It appears I will have to change my story.
My old story goes like this. I am the food person in our household. I buy the food and cook the meals. When I buy basic ingredients I am look for the best trade-off between price and convenience. I am indifferent to the store and brand. Safeway gets about 80% of this business because they are only three blocks from my house. However, if Albertson’s catches my attention, I will sometimes go the extra few blocks to save a couple of dollars.
In contrast, when I am planning a dinner party, I will routinely drive 35 miles to a specialty store. For example, I might buy Bomba rice imported from Spain and willingly pay 3 times as much as I would for rice at Safeway. Why? The specialty store where I get it doesn’t just sell me ingredients, they serve up inspiration, get me engaged or fuel my desire to pull-off a great dining experience for my guests.
Up until now Safeway get none of this premium business or the associated loyalty and advocacy.
In recent years, traditional grocery stores like Safeway have felt increased competition from two directions. Big box stores like Wal-Mart and Costco have increased the pressure for them to compete on price. More alluring specialty stores pull away the growing premium business. Recently, Safeway remodeled its stores in an effort to make them more experientially appealing and to capture some of the premium business. I must admit that the meat and seafood counter is attractive and the stores are offering more prepared meals. However, this didn’t win me over. The store changed but our relationship didn’t.
In my view, to shift the focus of a relationship from buying and selling “things” to one where the relationship matters requires a deliberate process. Relationships matter to customers when the vendor helps them become emotionally engaged in a compelling experience. To make the shift from selling things, like Safeway has been doing to me, they need to instill “hopeful trust.” They need to do something that gives the customer “hope” that by becoming involved in a relationship with the vendor, they will gain something meaningful or of value. That is, they will gain something beyond a commodity that delivers utility.
“Hope” is the attractor. If the vendor delivers on the desire it stimulates, real relationship value could emerge. And, if it does, the value in the relationship will lead to commitment and fuel advocacy.
Ok, so what sparked “hope” in my mind? What might cause me to shift my transactional relationship with Safeway to one where I value the relationship and become less price focused—the summer edition of Every Season: Recipes and Solutions From Safeway.
This 50 page publication is extremely well done. It has an appealing design, enticing photographs and great copywriting. That’s what kept it from going directly into the circular file. Here’s what gave me “hope” and drew me in emotionally. The whole magazine (yes, magazine) comes off like it was designed and written for me. I seek inspiration and great food experiences. I wants health related information from respected sources and I value “how to” tips and suggestion. Every Season delivers. Most importantly, it signals that Safeway wants me get more meaning and value out of my food experience. The signal is clearly win-win as content and emotional appeal make up well over 85% of the publication. The remainder draws you to Safeway products that can help you make it happen. In this context, when Safeway tells you their peaches are picked for peak flavor—they are credible and believable. The heavy-duty branding typical of grocery store flyers almost doesn’t exist. The Safeway logo is small and only appears on a few of the pages. Instead, you find tips for preparation, suggested wine and food pairing, and of course they do suggest some of their premium products.
Every Season comes off like a food focused issue of Sunset magazine without the advertising, and I willingly pay for my Sunset magazine subscription. Well, the fact is, Sunset produces the magazine for Safeway. In my mind this only adds to Safeway’s credibility and my willingness to shift the focus of our relationship. Kudos Safeway!
Check out the online version at www.everyseason.com.
