Sainsbury's - New strapline ahoy

27 May 2021

Even more on Sainsbury's today as they land their new food campaign, centred on their new strapline of "helping everyone eat better, one plate at a time."

The signage adorns most of the key areas in store and stand out well, it's a fair old while since they changed strapline (their best one was making life taste better) although Where Good Food Costs Less was also memorable.

They have often played around with straplines - Try Something New Today saw Nutmeg sales (not the clothing brand at Morrisons, the spice) rise by 200% or similar when Jamie Oliver suggested putting it in to the Spag Bol (I believe it was).

They can work well, the Sainsbury's one does unify itself around helping everyone eat better, without actually specifying what better looks like.

Better is likely health related initially, but of course, a lot of work has gone on already in relation to that around removing hydrogenated fats in ready meals for example.

In addition, the changes on the gondola ends (no more impulse) means that retailers are scrambling to find a solution here too.

Better can also mean better all round, whether it's wholemeal instead of white bread and other subtle changes there, that is better.

In addition, perhaps there'll be a push on food standards and internal specifications (some of which were loosened) to further enhance the better messaging.

Better is also about the planet (I feel as though I'm writing the blurb for the marketing agency here) but Vegan and Net Zero are closely entwined and this will only grow in awareness as we exit the pandemic.

Basically it means a number of things and Sainsbury's will be good at spreading this message around the stores and driving inspiration.

QR codes are used well notably, customer sentiment is now high for these given their usage for the COVID19 check in service and the like. In aisle signage links to the recipe website which highlights various recipes that Sainsbury's are recommending.

I scanned one in Sweetcorn which I thought may give me recipes that featured Sweetcorn which would have been possible (if a little complex). So expect to see the ends and ladder racks appearing soon with recipe ideas and perhaps a push on provenance and quality too.

All things that are relatively basic for Sainsbury's but for one reason or another in recent times, they've stopped talking about it and others have stepped on the gas.

QR codes were used effectively across Produce and indeed within the wider ambient world too.

Around the store; noted some dialling down of commercial monies perhaps but it remains an ongoing challenge for the business, balancing up that need for certainty with income against the fact the store turns in to a branded gallery of non essential signage.

Greater relevance here ahead of the World Cup, but alas, this isn'y always as strong.

25% off 6 bottles of Wine for the bank holiday weekend was also stronger deal.

Lots of new lines and they've a fair old target to hit here; however I do wonder how many of the lines are range extensions - larger pot based yoghurts are not a terrible line to expand in to - but it's just a range extension.

Helps margin but can impact price perception, similarly, BBQ ranges are also strong but feature some pack size extensions rather than lots of meaningful innovation - 10 pack of Burgers e.g. as a new line.

Dreadful.

They keep trying to flog these mop as it's a system and thus you have to buy refills, however how often do you need the mop replacing?

£20 on a shipper.

Might only have £25 for the week, looking around given the Aldi price match and then see a shipper where if you buy both items, you're left with £1 for the rest of the shop.

Near madness of supplier money overruling reality. We never know what damage it does to price perception of course but that doesn't mean we ignore it, because we can show that P&G will pay ££ to feature a shipper in store.

Equally here.

The signage doesn't even highlight the pack sizes clearly enough to adjudicate the deal.

Just £7!

Likely to see you running away.

Post pandemic - I am out in the market pushing Grocery Insight's services to more and more people. From a brand perspective not enough know what we do nor what we can offer....

So part of that work is talking to many people to see what people do for their insight now, their internal structures and if we're able to fit in at the table and 'do a job' for the customer, we save folk time by definition. But we add value too, whether that's via our knowledge, image database, our insight, perspective, opinion or sharing of best practice.

We will do a job for the client and add value.

Therefore, with that in mind, what does this signage do? If there was no financial benefit to putting said signage in, would it be in store? No.

I don't mind the colour blocking and stripping, it's reasonably inoffensive and highlights the products nicely enough. If a customer is interested in said brands then they're able to get involved.

However the + signage at the top highlights extra benefits but those lines are 3 wide on shelf so perhaps don't sell all that well in any case.

The wash colder is more of a space filler but it's a big message nonetheless.

Not the worst example, but the creep is evident. It quickly moves out of control as the (£) for year 1 is banked but the over-arching category didn't do the numbers. So more money is needed which means more is given away.....

Sainsbury's have arrested this slide somewhat, but we saw it in Tesco all those years ago.

It's one of the best ways to spot a retailer struggling, the number of branded signs, shippers and full displays that adorn their stores... Especially said branded signage doesn't really add value to the customer.

This does - it at least tries to highlight a benefit of the product and also features slower moving product with the benefits there. But for other examples?

A sure fire sign of an issue.

Lastly from Sainsbury's - their Aldi price match has gone down reasonably well with the chain talking happily about their value perception improvements at the latest results to the city.

However there's a reminder as to why Aldi and Lidl work, due to their limited ranges mean that the confused picture where multiple tiers conflict with each other.

Despite Aldi and Lidl adding some value products, generally they're few and far between, especially in Produce.

However for Sainsbury's with their layouts and enhancement of the Aldi price point, means that the gap between value and own label is huge. Amplified by the signage both on shelf and also around the store itself.

Mixed Pears in the value bag (Looks like Comice) and size and spec is far smaller and less impressive at 57p but the larger bag of Conference Pears at £1.50 just illustrates what a huge price gap there is.

Challenge is for price match - it makes own label mid tier look expensive. Which could see customers trading down and thus, Sainsbury's deflate themselves.

Which is ok, but the marginal gains have to be expanded across the store to compensate.

Conversely - in this example. There's confusion over the price points and tiering here with negligible price gap of 19p.

300g pack in the core mid tier pack, however 500g for value so it makes the gap a little larger but not all customers consider the weight when purchasing.....

Work to be done here on these anomalies and much will depend on the lines featured and how the campaign continues to expand over the coming trading year.

9:30am should not see anything other than the standard above in reality but we know that Sainsbury's and other retailers have really struggled with rigour and routine, even pre COVID.

It was good to see such a strong leading edge on a difficult category to get right, smaller products and pack sizes mean it's a category that needs some expertise and the standards were pleasing too.

A key reason why Sainsbury's have started to improve, they've made a real effort to stop punching themselves in the face with store standards. (for the most part!)

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From the Grocery Insight newsletter archive, first sent to subscribers on 27 May 2021. Steve now writes at read.groceryinsight.com. See also the blog archive and briefings.