Interview with Supervalu's Jim Fuqua

SM: What are some of the most pressing internal challenges your In-Store Experience and Shopper Marketing teams face? Fuqua: Over the past two years, we've been building up Supervalu's capabilities around shopper marketing. The most pressing challenge that stood out was alignment within organizations -- both retailer and manufacturer -- between marketing and merchandising departments. To address this challenge, we started at the top and continue to work our way down to address alignment head-on. We understand that to be truly customer-centric, we need to speak in one voice with our manufacturer partners as we look to grow our shared businesses. That way, as we are aligned internally and develop plans with manufacturers, we can articulate what needs to be done from a marketing and a merchandising perspective.SM: How can your CPG partner's best help and support Supervalu's In-Store Experience and Shopper Marketing initiatives? Fuqua: We need to break down the silos. I think the Retail Commission on Shopper Marketing's collaborative framework gives us a process for having the right kinds of conversations. These conversations will not be easy because of the mindset that trade is trade, brand dollars are in one bucket, and shopper dollars in another. However, at the end of the day, those dollars have to work as hard for our manufacturers as they do for us, so we need a collaborative mindset focused on doing the right things based on shopper insights.At Supervalu, we are striving to be a branded house -- not just a house of brands. Traditionally, the grocery industry has allowed manufacturer branded displays and signage to be front and center and that eroded their distinct brand identities. Today, everything we do in my department is about differentiating Supervalu to our shoppers and taking back control of our stores.SM: Is multi-vendor shopper-solutions programming important at Supervalu and, if so, is it growing?Fuqua: Absolutely. We are ramping up a lot of solutions-based programs, especially through the "Good Things in Store" demonstration program implemented in the spring. While we still showcase new products, we try to avoid the traditional one-product demo. Instead, we want interesting ideas about specific cuisines, easy-fix ideas or remedies to common problems. An example is our "Fish in a Flash" campaign. There's no doubt that, at first glance, fish and microwave ovens don't seem to go together. But once we were educated, we learned that when you use oven bags, the fish really does come out flaky and moist. We created a very successful event that brought together Alberto-Culver's Mrs. Dash and Reynolds Consumer Products.SM: Given the reality of "internal silos" that need to be addressed, how can CPG manufacturers best sell these kinds of programs in to your company?Fuqua: When we review any new program, it all starts with shopper insights. We ask our manufacturers to bring their customer insights to the table. Ultimately, it's all about collaboration and finding the sweet spot between our shopper insights and the manufacturer's customer insights.Whether you have a lot of shopper insights or not, at some level, it's pretty simple: It's all about understanding that moms need quick solutions and creative ways to make their lives easier. Vendors should be looking at their customer data to answer the following questions: What would our customers want? What would they be interested in? What would make their lives easier? How can we deliver relevant solutions to Supervalu's shoppers?

Interview with Supervalu's Jim Fuqua

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