Supervalu Simplifies Center Store Signage

Variety may be the spice of life, said Shawne Murphy Johnson, group vice president-brand strategy & marketing at Supervalu, but in retail stores, too much variety can turn customers off. Murphy Johnson told attendees at the Shopper Technology Institute's recent LEAD Marketing Conference in Rosemont, Ill., that Supervalu's growth-by-acquisition strategy had resulted in inconsistent store presentation and varying degrees of message clutter. (In 2006, Supervalu bought 1,100 stores from Albertsons, a company with various retail banners such as Acme, Jewel-Osco and Shaw's, and began operating them alongside its existing banners such as Cub Foods, Shop 'n Save, Hornbacher's and Save-a-Lot. Supervalu now has more than 2,350 stores operating under 12 banners.) While there were good reasons to maintain the various regional identities, Murphy Johnson said, customer research conducted as part of the Eden Prairie, Minn.-based company's effort to reinvigorate its center store shopping experience indicated that shoppers were missing key messages. "We'd reached a point where the consumer was inundated with product-branding messages that [blocked out] those that communicated what Supervalu was bringing them," she said.Pruning SignsTo identify solutions, Supervalu used a variety of research tactics including in-depth store audits, audits of competitors and retailers outside of the grocery industry, online attitudinal comparisons, focus groups, and eye-tracking technologies, she said. An audit of stores found, for example, that there were more than 700 templates across the various banners and approximately 1,000 signs in the average store. These have been cut by about 25%.Shelf tag types were reduced even more dramatically, from 133 to 11. "Some of the key benefits of this effort," Murphy Johnson said, "included the ability to reduce material costs by standardizing sizes, simplifying our tag processes and improving our labor efficiencies across the enterprise." Valassis, Livonia, Mich., was Supervalu's partner in this effort, which started with Albertsons stores on the West Coast and extended to Jewel-Osco in the Chicago area. "In our Southern California region, we've had an 80% reduction in sign-stock designs and a 73% reduction in item-price-sign templates," she said. "In an industry where margins are razor thin and every penny counts, radical changes like this have an immediate impact on operational costs, not to mention the increases in measures like labor efficiency and waste reduction. When implemented, our in-store brand experience needed to provide the sense of a holistic store that is easy to navigate and [offers] an engaging experience." Holistic ExperiencesWith the help of Minneapolis-based retail branding agency FAME, Supervalu divided the store into five physical levels of consumer communication, Murphy Johnson said: Department/Wayfinding; Inspirational/Brand Signage; Category; Pricing/Promotional; Informational. "In creating a more holistic store experience, we are striving to deliver a more unified look and feel using common design, graphic elements and color to create a distinct, yet complementary, in-store environment," she said. The signage/communication hierarchy, meanwhile, was keyed in to how shoppers interact with sightlines in the store. "We have extended this to include the customer's experience with the store before even walking through our doors," she said. "We looked at websites and ad circulars -- key tools that we know today's customers are accessing prior to starting their grocery shopping trip. The engaging experience relies on clearly communicating value while calling out the store elements that differentiate a Supervalu brand or experience." She continues, "This includes delivering exclusive promotions and creating an emotional bond with our store that encourages long-term loyalty. This goes beyond signage and websites. We know that customers prefer a clean, contemporary look in their grocery store, and that ease of navigation is key. They want to learn about new products and seek meal solutions that suit their busy lifestyles."To accomplish this, Supervalu looked at three core elements: Create communications that align with how the consumer best interacts with the store;Use a simplified approach to signage that does not overcrowd or duplicate information found elsewhere; and De-clutter and streamline the store environment to increase brand and value messaging while simplifying the shopping experience.How To Say 'Sale'Supervalu also researched words that best communicated the idea of a sale, Murphy Johnson said. The company looked at terms like price cut, special, price break, red tag savings, knocked down price, bonus buy, promo price, value buy, value price, and budget buy. But shoppers aren't as interested in this kind of creativity as marketers. They simply preferred the word "sale" on signs, she said, "and by a hefty margin. Many of the other terms tested were considered misleading or tricky, and those aren't perceptions anyone wants attached to a pricing strategy. So we needed to clarify our value messaging without the kind of marketing-speak that is so pervasive at retail." As part of the shelf-tag optimization, Murphy Johnson said price reductions are now presented in terms of how much the customer saves: "We tell you when the promotional price ends, and the price is big and bold. These are the things any shopper wants to know -- clear, fast and easy."Not only is it a service to customers, but the optimized tag offers a visibility advantage over past designs without compromising other functional and attitudinal perceptions. "There was very little consumer risk in implementing this design," she said. "No one was going to get angry over clear tags. And it resulted in significant operational efficiencies for Supervalu."It is the same for display signage. "Today these signs are working harder for us," she said. "They are more effective at calling out price. They eliminate the math, the savings are clear and well showcased, and this further supports our value brand message to customers."I.T. was another challenge posed by Supervalu's growth-by-acquisition strategy. Currently, Supervalu has 12 store banners operating under five different I.T. systems. "A one-size-fits-all solution was not going to be possible," she said. "A perfect signage program would have taken years. Instead, we went with the adage, 'Don't let perfection stand in the way of good.' The urgency of this program is such that we determined appropriate workarounds wherever full compliance was going to be impossible in the short term."While she wouldn't disclose specific sales numbers, "We are seeing positive results in the markets where we are testing and implementing. We'll continue to refine, re-test, audit and change. If there's one thing to learn from the customer, it's that their needs are constantly shifting. Our job is to keep pace."

Supervalu Simplifies Center Store Signage

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