A short Supermarket News article recently caught my eye concerning a new interactive initiative undertaken by Price Chopper, a Schenectady New York-based grocery chain. “Price Chopper Adds Interactive Recipes to Website.” At first blush, it doesn’t look like a big deal… but read on.
“Working with Webstop, Tarpon Springs, Fla., Price Chopper is offering hundreds of exclusive recipes on its website; the recipes can be added to personalized shopping lists, emailed to friends, or added to a personalized cookbook.” So, what else is new?
How about this: there’s also a “Feed Your Family for Less” recipe collection to assist time and cash-strapped customers plan a weekly menu that nets down to less than $5.00 per serving. Better yet, recipe ingredients can interact directly with an online circular so that customers can see what’s on sale.
According to the article, it gets even better. “The online circular allows shoppers to browse and search, change font sizes, add products to shopping lists, and click directly to a recipe that uses sale items.”
This kind of smart marketing presents real service to Price Chopper’s customers. Helping them save time and money really resonates with consumers. And showing them how they can do it is worth much more. Especially these days when soaring grocery bills are a major concern for many families.
At a time when customers are being incessantly wooed by retailers of every stripe, including grocery chains, by low prices–no–the lowest prices–at every turn, it’s refreshing to see a different approach.
Are consumers more likely to remember which grocery store in their area had the lowest prices last week on some of the staples they use? Are consumers going to remember the price comparisons from various store circulars when every one of them touts the “lowest prices” week after week?
Or are consumers more likely to remember the grocery store that offers them this kind of service? I’m betting on the latter. Here’s a resource that enables the customer to download family recipes, save money on some recipe ingredients and make nutritious meals for less than $5.00 per serving. Or, consumers can check out what’s on sale and find recipes that include those ingredients.
The highly interactive nature of Price Chopper’s initiative might give other companies ideas on how to better engage and retain their customers. Isn’t this a great way to build brand loyalty?
Questions:
* What kinds of interactive programs have you personally engaged with that made life easier for you?
* Did it make you more loyal to those companies or brands that offered great web site services?
* Which companies or brands do a good job engaging customers on their web sites?
I’d love to hear from you.
Related posts:
Ted, I like how Kroger and Dunnhumby are offering clipless coupons based on the items a customer purchases the most. Items that have a manufacturer sponsored coupon are paired with the customer’s shopping history discoverd via data from the use of a customer’s loyalty card. So all he/she needs to do is scan their club card and off comes the savings! This is a terrific example of the value of data mining in driving more customer loyalty.
For more on this, see;
http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/21/magazines/fortune/boyle_datamining.fortune/index.htm
Thanks for sharing this with us, Paul. You’re right: these two supermarket chains have found another way to help their customers, and win their loyalty, in turn. Let’s hope retailers, who are truly struggling now, start finding more inventive ways to help their customers in this economic crunch. Consumers are grateful and they’ll remember this kind of treatment. Thanks for weighing in, Paul.
More grocery stores should pair up with food banks, but not in the traditional way. I would like to see grocery stores become depots where people can drop off excess produce from their gardens on their way into the store to buy milk, cereal or salmon.
Food banks should consider locating in closed-down big box locations near grocery stores so that donating is more convenient for grocery store shoppers.
But collecting more produce or running produce swaps could be more important this year. Seed companies report higher demand, and if more people have gardens where everything comes on at once, some may want to share it. Make it easy for them to feed the community.
These are excellent, well-articulated ideas, Barbara. I am aware of many grocery stores that donate food to community food pantries. Some leave large receptacles out and encourage their customers to drop donated food in them on their way out of the stores, as well, so it’s very much in line with your first suggestion.
Food banks sometimes send out volunteers to pick up food at the supermarkets or in some cases, supermarkets might drop food off at local pantries.
Love your idea about setting up community seed banks, Barbara. Seeds are in short supply this year and seed companies are struggling to fill backlogs of orders. Many Americans plan on getting back to making large gardens to help feed their families in tough times. Sharing seeds is a super idea. Let’s hope this one catches on.
Thanks, Barbara, for weighing in on this.
A timely concept. But spend a moment actually trying to find each recipe. eventually, you may realize that a double click on the name gets you there. They stumbled a bit on making it intuitive all the way through.
You’ve raised a good point, Matt, and I thank you. While it’s really great when businesses do something helpful for their customers, it’s also important to make sure the program works as it was designed to. . .right? Looks like Price Chopper needs to streamline its site and get it working as cleanly as possible. Otherwise, this initiative which is good on the surface, may cause consumer frustration and do the opposite of what it was meant to do.
Thanks again, Matt. Great observation.