Store Brands 2.0

A successful store brand-focused social media strategy focuses on the end user — not the product.

Most corporate executives could name — or even are using — at least one of the major social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. But how many of their businesses know how to leverage the platforms properly?

A July 2010 survey of 2,100 subscribers to the Harvard Business Review magazine and e-newsletter found that two-thirds of the companies surveyed either are currently using social media channels or have social media plans in the works. But at the same time, 75 percent did not know where their most valuable customers were talking to them, and 31 percent were not measuring the effectiveness of social media.

As a social media strategy becomes more critical in helping retailers and their own brands stay relevant, it's important for decision-makers to know where to begin. Brands help define a consumer's lifestyle. And when provided with a forum to discuss and interact with their favorite brands, consumers become even more intimate with those brands. — especially brands that already have a history (think A&P or Safeway).

"We buy a lot of brands because our grandmother bought them," says Sue Reninger, managing partner with RMD Advertising, Columbus, Ohio. "Knowing that food is emotional, the social media space isn't any different from a marketing space. … If we want to influence a consumer, we have to figure out a way to make those emotional connections."

Don't just shout it out

Simply shouting messages about a product isn't enough to make a connection. Even in a brick-and-mortar store, no one enjoys being cornered by a salesperson. What people want from a brand is an honest and intimate conversation.

"If all you're doing on Facebook or Twitter is pushing product, consumers will rapidly become disillusioned with your brand … and they'll unfollow you," Reninger warns.

Andrew Lewis, marketing director for The Fresh Market, Greensboro, N.C., agrees.

"The future will be about more and more interaction between the marketer and consumer," he notes.

Because of its dedicated interactions with customers over Facebook and Twitter, The Fresh Market was honored with a Store Brand Achievement Award in the November 2010 issue of Progressive Grocer's Store Brands (to read the article, visit http://bit.ly/fNftLF). The retailer not only uses Facebook to link to weekly specials, recipes, its Coffee Club and the digital edition of its store brands-focused Inspirations magazine, but also maintains ongoing conversations with fans.

For example, on its Facebook wall, the retailer promoted its "Nut of the Month," a Honey-Roasted Cajun Almond. When a Facebook user said he would return to The Fresh Market when Jalapeno Peanuts do, the retailer responded, announcing the product's summer return.

"It's important to not focus on the store brand as a line of products, but as an integral part of people's lives, fulfilling an important role," says Joel Rubinson, president of Rubinson Partners Inc., a Huntington, N.Y.-based consultancy. "You will see how well Whole Foods does this if you go to their Facebook page and start clicking."

True — the Austin, Texas-based retailer takes the same kind of local and organic approach with its social media that it takes for its loyal customers. For example, along with profiles for topical information (@WFMCheese, @WFMWineGuys and @WholeRecipes), the retailer has a Twitter profile for every metro area it serves and for nearly every store. Dan Garfield, manager of online marketing for OrangeSoda, an American Fork, Utah-based research firm, says this strategy makes the retailer "one of the best" at using social media that he has encountered.

"Rather than interacting with Whole Foods' corporate brand, consumers are interacting with the Whole Foods down the street," he says, adding that this local approach offers transparency and plays into the trendy "buy local" mantra.

Speaking of transparency, consumers also want to know they can turn to peer reviews if they have any doubts about the quality of a store brand product. Facebook is an excellent place for that, says Bernie Breenan, co-author of Branded! How Retailers Engage Consumers with Social Media and Mobility. Retailers that allow Facebook users to share their thoughts about particular store brand products openly and honestly with other Facebook users create a better sense of trust and a stronger connection with a brand.

Scott Creamer, president and founder of The Screamer Co., an Austin, Texas-based advertising firm, advises retailers to take this approach even one step farther.

"If you are using Facebook for your social media campaign, I would advise [you to] try not to restrict comments and feedback to your Facebook page as 'wall posts,'" he points out. "Instead, create a discussion board for more effective and dynamic two-way conversation."

Lend an ear

Sarah VanHeirseele, digital director of Northbrook, Ill.-based Blue Chip Marketing Worldwide, says Facebook is a great place for retailers to really listen to what consumers are saying about their store brands. For example, Minneapolis-based Target's Archer Farms brand has several fan-made Facebook groups and pages. Groups and pages such as this could be a goldmine of information on what consumers desire from a store brand.

Another example of good listening: Hannaford Bros. Co. — a Scarborough, Maine-based banner of the Belgian Delhaize Group — hosts videos on a web page called "Hannaford Conversations" (http://bit.ly/gS2neG). The videos, which stream from YouTube, feature busy mothers having authentic discussions on ways Hannaford already meets or could meet their needs.

Listening well to social media conversations also could help on the R&D side. In a Feb. 28 blog entry, Paula Rosenblum, managing partner with Miami-based Retail Systems Research, wrote that designer Tory Burch released a unique line of socks after receiving overwhelmingly positive fan response to her tweet, "Is it me, or is everyone grossed out by having to go barefoot through airport security? Should I design a line of travel socks?" The resulting $48 socks, which rolled out in the 2010 holiday season, sold well.

Rosenblum added that you can't call this example "wisdom of the crowd" so much as fans interacting with a brand manager to co-create a product.

"And the thing about being a co-creator of a product is you get invested in it," she wrote. "And of course you want to buy it. You helped design it, after all."

'If all you're doing on Facebook or Twitter is pushing product, consumers will rapidly become disillusioned with your brand.'

— Sue Reninger, managing partner, RMD Advertising