Shopper Input Vital To Future Growth of Member's Mark
Sam’s Club members have long played a role in the warehouse club’s product development efforts of its Member’s Mark private label assortment.
The connection between the retailer and its shoppers was recently enhanced as Sam’s Club raised the curtain on an initiative to increase the level of engagement with shoppers and give a larger number of members a voice in the products that will eventually be in stores.
The retailer’s Member’s Mark Community, an opt-in network, allows participants to vote on exclusive flavors and test and trial new items. Company officials said the continuous flow of feedback is the cornerstone for guiding the large-scale development of products to ensure new items align with members’ needs and preferences.
“We don’t send (Member’s Mark-branded) products to our clubs without member approval,” said Myron Frazier, vice president of Member’s Mark.
This unique approach by Sam’s Club was key to the relaunch of the Member’s Mark brand in 2022 and will play a greater role in the retailer’s product development efforts going forward. Frazier spoke with Store Brands about Sam’s enhanced effort to interact with its shoppers.
STORE BRANDS: What is motivating Sam’s Club to expand its Member’s Mark Community?
MYRON FRAZIER: We expanded our member community to strengthen relationships with our members and provide them with more exclusive, high-quality products. Growing the community allows Members Mark to gain more insight from our members and be able to better understand their preferences and needs as we work to deliver those high-quality items.
"The one thing that’s consistent throughout the process is they approve every item before it goes to the club. Regardless of whether members come in at ideation or come in at some point later, we don’t send products to our clubs without member approval."
— Myron Frazier, Sam's Club
STORE BRANDS: Is this growth indicative of additional Member’s Mark products in the development pipeline?
FRAZIER: The expansion of the community does suggest that we'll add additional products. At Members Mark, we continue to innovate our offerings and diversify the range of products to meet the evolving demands of our members.
STORE BRANDS: How does Sam’s choose which consumers participate in a given test of a new product?
FRAZIER: We have our own research and insights team and our data specialists can identify the right members to participate and test new products. Choosing members is based on various factors, but primarily we want to make sure that we're always reflective of the broader member base at Sam's Club. That can include anything from demographics to purchasing behavior preferences, but ultimately we aim to have a diverse group that represents the broader Sam’s Club base.
STORE BRANDS: For consumer participants, is it as simple as using the product(s) at home or are there other elements to the product testing?
FRAZIER: It definitely involves consumer testing at home but the community is really a two-way feedback loop and members can enter into that loop at any point. It could be testing products that we're already developing, whether it’s a food item that's already in the pipeline or it could be as early as asking our members about pain points or asking them about issues that they're trying to solve in their lives. From those answers, we create products for our members that they never knew they wanted and then involve them from ideation through to the finished developed product.
STORE BRANDS: It sounds as if there is no set schedule as to when consumers are brought into the product development process, but done on an item-by-item basis.
FRAZIER: It is done item by item and within the brand, we are inherently innovative to the needs our members tell us they have. For example, if we’re doing a line extension we may not have to ask members about a pain point for a specific extension because we’ve already talked about that and we know we just need to go deeper. If there are new needs and preferences, then we’ll bring our members in at the beginning of the process. The one thing that’s consistent throughout the process is they approve every item before it goes to the club. Regardless of whether members come in at ideation or come in at some point later, we don’t send products to our clubs without member approval.
STORE BRANDS: How often does Sam reach out to its members for feedback?
FRAZIER: We regularly reach out to our members, but as I said earlier, it's a two-way feedback loop, so it's constant. That is really what differentiates this community from other things that you may have seen. It’s not the intermittent conversation where we might ask them to opine on a product. As the product is being developed as we're going through the process, it's a consistent two-way feedback loop, even up to allowing our members to test and try products before they ever even hit the club.
STORE BRANDS: How has member feedback altered the way the Member’s Mark team brought a certain product or product collection to market?
FRAZIER: Mix and match clothing for kids is one example of how our members had a major impact on the product assortment. If you’re thinking on your own as a developer or someone who’s designing a product, you’re simply thinking about the aesthetic within a line. However, insight from our members helped us to ensure that every item in our kids' line could mix and match. This gives moms a breadth of items that the kids can choose from and allows them to feel good about how they dress themselves. But we never would have gone to that level of depth in terms of how many items could be mixed and matched without insights from our shoppers.
STORE BRANDS: Overall, what has allowed the outreach to Sam’s members to be successful?
FRAZIER: There have been several factors that have contributed to our success. Member’s Mark is a member-centric brand and that's been key for us and our ability to gather and analyze member insights effectively. This is vital to our commitment to continuous improvement. We believe we have the best product developers in the world and their ability to take those insights and build off that relationship with our members is a differentiator for us and has enabled our success over time.
