Spotlight On Frozen Foods

Freezer-door graphics and graphic floor mats are just two tools retailers could use to merchandise their store brand frozen foods.

For time-starved Americans, frozen foods are the life-savers of meal planning. From family-size entrées at the dinner table to bite-size appetizers at a cocktail party, frozen foods can satisfy hungry people in almost any situation. And if a frozen food product is a quality store brand item that saves the shopper money, all the better.

But retailers need to do more than just offer the right selection of own-brand frozen foods. They also need to put a good amount of merchandising muscle behind their private label frozen foods to get them to fly out of the freezer case and into shoppers' baskets.

To learn what retailers are doing well and not so well here, we visited the frozen food departments of three limited-assortment grocery stores: a Save-A-Lot in Chicago, an ALDI in Chicago, and a Trader Joe's in Glenview, Ill. Our visits took place on a Friday morning in late June.

Save-A-Lot

General observations: The frozen foods section at this Save-A-Lot is located on the right-hand side of the store (looking into the store from the front entrance). The section comprises a doored freezer that runs along one-quarter of the wall, and a coffin case parallel to that freezer that runs from the front to the back of the store. The store merchandises frozen breakfast foods, frozen juice concentrates, ice cream and frozen novelties in the wall freezer, while it merchandises meat, seafood, frozen vegetables, frozen appetizers, frozen pizzas and more in the coffin case.

Of the three stores we checked out, foot traffic was the lightest in the Save-A-Lot. The store also was the most unkempt of the three we visited.

Roughly three-quarters of the products in this store's frozen foods section represented the retailer's own brands — the smallest selection of store brand products of the three stores we visited. Among the national brands we found were Banquet, Michelina's and El Monterey.

The upside:

• On a cart next to the ice cream freezer, the store placed a number of national brand and store brand ice cream cones and toppings. Private label products on the cart included Crown Creamery maraschino cherries and World's Fair cones and chocolate syrup.

The downside:

• Some of the products in both the wall freezer and the coffin case needed to be restocked.
• We could not find any store brand promotions in the frozen food section.

ALDI

General observations: The frozen food section of the ALDI we visited is located on the right-hand side of the store (looking into the store from the front entrance). It is composed of a doored freezer that runs along two-thirds of the wall and a rectangular unit made up of four small doored coffin cases. Foot traffic was strong in the frozen food section.

All of the products in the wall freezer were store brand products except a few items — such as Jennie-O Turkey Burgers and Papa Charlie's Italian Beef. Most of the items in the coffin cases were store brand Special Buy products (available for a limited time) — including Grandessa Baby Back Ribs, Cattlemen's Ranch Bacon Wrapped Beef Tenderloin Filet Mignon, Sea Queen Stuffed Clams and Belmont Strawberry Shortcake Cheesecake, among others. We also found a few national brand Special Buy products here.

The upside:

• The section was clean and well-stocked. A few shipper displays were empty, but team members were attentive and worked fast to restock them.
• The store places shelf tags with a "Look What's New" logo under recently introduced products.
• The store used most of one Special Buy coffin freezer to merchandise two limited-edition SKUs rolled out in honor of Independence Day: Sundae Shoppe Red, White & Blue Pops and Sundae Shopper Red, White and Blue Ice Cream Cake.

The downside:

• We couldn't find any products cross-merchandised in the frozen food section.

Trader Joe's

General observations: The frozen foods section of this Trader Joe's takes up an aisle running through the middle of the store. The section was made up of two long coffin freezer cases on each side of a long aisle, with a taller freezer case between each pair. Foot traffic was strong — about equal to that which we encountered in the ALDI store.

Of the three stores we visited, Trader Joe's featured the widest selection of private label products in the frozen food department. It also was the most active in promoting its own-brand products — we spotted many colorful signs with prices and product descriptions throughout the frozen food section.

The upside:

• The section was well-stocked, clean and organized.
• Above each section of the freezer case, the store stocked complementary shelf-stable products and hung a sign detailing the price, the product's description and a "Pairs Well With" list for each. For example, the store stocked jars of Trader Joe's Mango Ginger Chutney above its frozen Indian entrées and sides.
• Above Trader Ming's Mandarin Orange Chicken, the retailer hung an arrow-shaped sign that displayed the price and read "A TJ's Best & Tastiest Seller."
• In one of the tall freezer cases, the store featured a "Party Favorites!" sign and merchandised a number of frozen appetizers. In the other tall case, the store displayed a "Joe's Pizzeria" sign and merchandised a variety of frozen pizzas.
• The store placed a "Great on the Grill" sign above a selection of burgers.
• Above a number of items featured in the latest edition of Trader Joe's Fearless Flyer, the store hung two signs: an arrow-shaped sign with a price and product description, and a "Fearless Flyer Guide to Summer" sign.

The downside:

• The retailer is somewhat inconsistent when branding its ethnic products. For example, while we found gyoza (potstickers) under the Trader Joe's brand, we also found a complementary gyoza dipping sauce under the Trader Ming's brand.

Make the most of merchandising

It's a shame when a store brand product fails because the retailer didn't put enough effort in the R&D process. But it's an even bigger shame when a perfectly good store brand product flops simply because the retailer failed to properly merchandise it.

Peinturier Thierry, sales and marketing director with Delta Dailyfood, notes that in the past, some retailers merchandised their store brand frozen foods simply by tossing a bunch of discounted products into a freezer chest. Today, retailers need to make sure they're getting a little more creative with merchandising strategies.

For example, retailers looking to stop shoppers in their tracks should consider placing graphic floor mats that promote nearby frozen foods, Thierry says. Retailers also should think about posting decals on freezer doors.

Anne-Sophie Mommessin, director of sales and merchandising with Palo Alto, Calif.-based Frial Inc., also believes in the effectiveness of freezer-door decals, noting that stickers could say "New Product" or detail a product's origin to get the shopper's attention.

But retailers shouldn't limit their frozen food merchandising strategies to the frozen food section, Thierry explains.

"For example, [pair] a frozen meal with bottled water and prepared fruits — [via] signage in the deli section referring to the product in a frozen aisle — for a complete meal," Thierry says.

Of course, placement and promotion aren't everything. Packaging also must be appealing — as appealing as the product inside, says Teri Valentine, president and CEO of Glendale, Calif.-based The Perfect Bite Co.

Packaging also must be informative. For example, Mommessin says a frozen entrée box should communicate health claims (high fiber, low fat, gluten-free) in a clear and concise manner.

"Retailers can also add the country of origin where it is relevant — i.e., 'Product of France' for a cheese soufflé," she notes.

And for the smartphone-wielding shopper, retailers should consider printing quick-response codes on frozen food packaging, Thierry explains. By scanning the code with a smartphone, a shopper is redirected to a webpage or video featuring anything from details about the product to videos on how to prepare the product.