One Brand To Do It All

The Fresh Market employs a single, powerful store brand to serve all categories, meet customer needs and encourage loyalty. By Randy Hofbauer

It has been said that the best way a retailer can make products fly off the shelf is by giving wings to its customers. This truth speaks volumes in the gourmet retailing sphere. While consumers might shop other channels for convenience or value, they shop the gourmet sphere for a store's promise to deliver a premium, high-end experience that cannot be found anyplace else.

Delivering on that promise is what has helped The Fresh Market become a popular destination for many food-loving shoppers. Whether it is providing free coffee samples or piping in soothing classical music, the small-format retailer stimulates the senses in the same manner as an open European market.

The Fresh Market set up its first store in 1982 in Greensboro, N.C. Since then, the retailer has expanded its operations from that single 14,000-square-foot store to 105 stores in 21 states (in the Southeast, Midwest, Atlantic and regions — with continued expansion throughout the country planned), the company says. And although many factors have contributed to The Fresh Market's growth, its store brand program plays a central role.

“Our customers shop our stores because they know we are searching the world and their local communities for the best peaches or aged ribeye steaks or pimento cheese in our perishable department,” says Marc Jones, senior vice president of marketing and merchandising. “Our own brand showcases that same commitment in packaged products.”

Each private label product is the fruit of many days', weeks' and — in some cases — years' worth of hard work tasting, reformulating and negotiating the best product that can be found at a particular price, Jones says. This work pays off by bringing to the shelf products that customers can't find at any other retailer's store.

In fact, since 2008, The Fresh Market's year-over-year portfolio growth of new store brand SKUs has ranged between 10 and 36 percent, says Jennifer Oas, private label coordinator.

“Last year was a bit on the lower end because we redesigned over 100 items,” she says. “If you count a new item as each individual product with a unique design, we have launched about 80 items this year already — including some replacement programs and redesigns.

The one and only

While many retailers develop their private label program with a two- or three-tier strategy The Fresh Market goes to market with just one brand. Its premium The Fresh Market brand (which the retailer casually refers to as the TFM brand), found across the entire store, makes it easy for customers to identify whether or not a particular product is owned by the retailer.

“We do not tier our brand or change the name based on categories or departments,” says Karen Stout, vice president of merchandising, non-perishables and private label. “Maintaining a single, consistent brand makes it easily distinguishable for our customers.”

But even though all store brand products share the same brand name, the retailer does not take a cookie-cutter approach to its store brand program.

“We consider each individual product and what it is trying to achieve within a category, allowing each product design to take on a personality that reflects the type of product that it is,” Stout says.

In some cases, the TFM product might be an item as basic as organic ketchup, Stout says. In other cases, the product might be more unique, such as a line of Italian chocolate or seasonal chips — or even Jersey milk.

Of the retailer's newer TFM products, Oas says she is very pleased with the Live Leaner and Live Crunchy cereal SKUs. She also is quite thrilled about the three all-natural cereal SKUs launched in mid-March (Cran-Almond Crunch, Frosted Flakes and Raisin Bran).

“Everything came together well on this project: a great product spec, a great design and a strong vendor partnership,” she says.

In terms of overall product lines, Oas says she is excited about two recent introductions: an imported premium chocolate bar program, as well as some new ice creams.

TFM Totally Churned is a line of reduced fat and light ice creams prepared in the “churned" style. According to the June issue of the retailer's Inspirations magazine, the ice cream is rich and creamy, with half the fat of and fewer calories than regular ice cream. It comes in Vanilla, French Vanilla, Chocolate and Fudge Trails varieties. To complement the TFM Totally Churned line, The Fresh Market also launched four SKUs of all-natural ice creams that boast a “simple ingredient list you can pronounce” and comes in Mint Chip, Chocolate Cherry, French Vanilla and Vanilla Bean varieties.

“These programs included custom specs unique to The Fresh Market that the consumer cannot find elsewhere in store brands,” Oas explains. “And the packaging is engaging, dynamic and fun.”

The retailer also launches a number of “in-and-out items” across multiple departments on a regular basis. Introduced this season, TFM Red, White and Blue tortilla chips are doing especially well, Oas says. And several SKUs of limited-edition dessert coffees have generated a lot of excitement and consumer feedback.

One SKU of the limited-edition coffee — named “Put Da Almond In Da Coconut” — is an almond-coconut-flavored blend with packaging that features a cartoon almond sipping a tropical beverage while soaking in a coconut-shell hot tub.

“In-and-outs can be challenging for private brands sometimes because of packaging commitments, but they are fun, exciting and unique to The Fresh Market shopping experience,” Oas says.

Fresh inspiration

Speaking of packaging, when looking for package-design inspiration, the retailer doesn't simply study its competitors in the gourmet channel. Oas says the design team identifies design trends from other sources, including online marketers, clothing retailers and hard goods stores.

“Every category manager is passionate about how items look on display and is very involved in the creative process,” she says. “In addition, our internal designers find inspiration from all sorts of media, such as classical literature, children's books, fine art, abstract art, etc. We want our packaging design to be an extension of the unique shopping experience that is at the core of The Fresh Market's concept.”

For example, when designing packaging for its new imported chocolate program, Oas says the retailer wanted something “bright and unique” that would stand out on shelf. The product also needed to grab the consumer by communicating an Italian origin. Therefore, the design team chose Commedia dell'Arte, a form of theater that began in Italy in the mid-16th century, as inspiration for the chocolate's packaging.

“We felt it was a perfect fit, given that here, ‘arte’ does not refer to ‘art’ as we currently consider the word, but rather that which is made by ‘artigiani,’ [or] artisans,” Oas explains.

It was imperative to make sure every step of the design process stayed internalized within the company, Oas adds.

“We created all the graphics by hand — from the marbled paper pattern at the base of the design to the illustration of the specific characters used on each flavor profile,” she notes.

‘ We do not tier our brand or change the name based on categories or departments. Maintaining a single, consistent brand makes it easily distinguishable for our customers. ’

— Karen Stout, vice president of merchandising, non-perishables and private label

‘Our internal designers find inspiration from all sorts of media, such as classical literature, children's books, fine art, abstract art, etc.’

— Jennifer Oas, private label coordinator

Let's work together

R&D for both packaging and products, however, depends quite a bit on the manufacturer. According to Oas, a “perfect” R&D situation for The Fresh Market is when the manufacturer is willing to create something truly creative and custom. Lucidly, the retailer is fortunate enough to have a number of creative vendor partners willing to take an idea to their R&D teams, return bench samples to The Fresh Market, and tweak the product until the desired results are realized.

“Ice cream is a perfect example,” Oas says. “All of our super-premium pints are a custom spec. We worked on the flavor profile with our manufacturer for months until [it was] perfect.”

On the quality assurance (QA) side, Oas says all of The Fresh Market's store brand manufacturers must meet good manufacturing and food safety standards. The companies also must have met or be working to meet Global Food Safety Initiative standards. Oas says most of the retailer's vendors have achieved Safe Quality Food Institute (SQF) certification — or other similar certifications.

That's not to say the retailer doesn't face any challenges when it comes to QA, though.

“Some of the most time-consuming challenges include Country of Origin documentation on multi-ingredient products. As you can imagine, this is a lot of paperwork,” Oas notes, adding that in the end, however, customers appreciate the retailer's transparency in sharing the origin of food products even when not required to do so by law.

Customer connection

On the topic of transparency, The Fresh Market also approaches marketing and customer interaction in an open and honest manner. Andy Lewis, director of marketing, says he has had some great success in connecting customers with the TFM brand via social media. For example, the retailer asked customers to name a new coffee via Facebook. The opportunity drew a great response.

“We also supported the launch of The Fresh Market line of yogurt using Facebook, offering a free coupon for our customers to try the product,” Lewis says. “It's an area we're really excited about because it's as close as we come to mimicking our in-store experience, [which] features customer engagement around great food.”

The retailer also connects customers with its store brands via two publications: Inspirations, a monthly print magazine; and Fresh Ideas, a weekly e-newsletter.

“Inspirations is a great tool to communicate our private brand quality and value because customers spend a bit more time with it than our other marketing communications,” Lewis says.

In the June issue of Inspirations, the retailer announces new TFM products and exclusive offerings, as well as seasonal products, weekly “big deals” and recipes incorporating TFM products. The retailer also printed a QR code with a recipe that can be scanned with a smartphone to allow users to view a video of a chef preparing the recipes.

Meanwhile, the June 8 edition of Fresh Ideas contains weekly deals, breakfast suggestions, an online special promoting the retailer's Coffee Club (in which members can sample various coffees for a fee), a weekly recipe and even a “Produce Tip” — a special section featuring background information on the retailer's Eastern Peaches, as well as the grower supplying the products.

Speaking of suppliers, Oas says a key private label goal for 2011 and beyond is to find excellent vendor partners that are willing to go out on a limb to create unique products and flavors that aren't “simply national brand equivalent.” After all, these kinds of suppliers are what make The Fresh Market and its TFM brand so unique, Oas says.

"We are fortunate to have a number of suppliers like that now,” Oas says, “and they are the most dynamic and fun to work with.” PGSB