Has Woolies found its voice?
In this guest post Matt Robinson argues the success and reach of Woolworths’ social interaction yesterday proves more big brands need to align their social and marketing tones.
The story of the gradual erosion of Australia’s biggest supermarket chain is not a new one. From the once mighty Fresh Food People, to now seeing rapidly declining favourability scores and tales that show some cultural challenges as well, Woolworths are having a tough time of it.
While communications can’t solve every problem, having a distinctive and differentiated brand and embedding it deep into your organisation has been proven to drive significant value.
One of the core tools in the brand shed, is the idea of brand voice. Creating a distinctive and differentiated voice has helped brands from Old Spice to Aldi cut through the clutter.
While doing awesome things like this gets awesome reach and plenty of applause amongst millenials and marketers, does this type of ‘brand voice’ actually resonate with he bulk of people who spend $$$ on groceries?
Agree but disagree. I think the challenge for the big grocery retailers is differentiation and dare I say, purpose. A more authentic / human / intimate / fun / relevant brand voice would be the expression of a differentiated brand not the basis of it. Vanity metrics are great and social interactions can change attitudes but if the values and behaviours of the organisation are misaligned with the external representation of the brand then it’s meaningless.
It’s lovely for Woolies to have something in the news that isn’t about the dire state of their business, but it isn’t going to be shifting any needles that matter in terms of brand or sales.
Coles has been doing this for years. As has 7 Eleven… as have a bunch of large brands. i
It certainly distracted from the 100+ posts to their wall in the following 24 hours about rotten food and terrible service. I’d like to think a more discerning consumer could see it for what it is: a giant corporation that consistently screws over the little guy getting “hip” and “totally down” with the kids for some free kudos. Of course, there aren’t many discerning consumers … sooooo … Go Woolworths?
Oh Matt, I’m pushing a little vom back down my throat. Ever since Woolies stopped stocking about 20% of the items/varieties we usually shop, we switched to Coles. Brand voice. Yep, plunder the mktg budget, charge them $500k to find it. Dinner only comes once a day. FFS. Likes. How many people who jumped on the Ben Quilty/Myo social love fest have donated a dollar or given an hour to change the death penalty. Tapping your iPhone is easy. getting off your arse, well you might miss the latest post……
Fresh Food People wasn’t an advertising or promotions idea – it was strategic. Woollies decided to get into fruit and vegies because the mark up was rediculous and the profits big. And the shoppers didn’t have to drop into the fruit and vegie shop on their way out of Woolworths.
So wouldn’t you think this is the perfect time to find another big strategic idea instead of pissing around expecting brand image changes and likes to achieve anything?
Seems to me the question is one of basic quality differences, if you take the overall quaity of Woolies own branded products, compare them with Coles, there is no contest Coles wins every time. I’m not sure if this is down to employing more savvy source finders, or what – but no amount of marketing wizardry is going to fix a fundamental flaw in the foundations. I have always been alarmed at the market dominance of two grocery chains, it really isn’t healthy – IGA are growing in popularity but we need more variation to service the markets-Coles occupying a monopoly is rather like brand ‘Australia’, it is not really one homogeneous identity but they pitch it like it is.