A winning customer campaign

I was hankering after something special to fill my belly, after 62 laps of the pool. And my usual bowl of homemade granola simply wasn’t going to cut it.

So, off to Waitrose for a fresh and bouncy Pain au Chocolat for me on the way home. (the time I spent working in the South of France means I have a slight addiction).

I always say the best brand inspiration is all around us – in the brilliant (and terrible) ideas that bigger brands have, you can learn about what might work and not work for your own business. 

And, as I was bundling my pastry, jar of sun dried tomato paste and box of satsumas into my shopping bag, something stopped me in my tracks. The receipt machine spat out (or should I say ‘elegantly deposited’? This is Waitrose, after all), the following tiny bit of paper:

In case you can’t make it out, the paper simply states, “Sun Dried Tomato Paste” (one of the items I bought) and offered a QR code that links to a recipe I can make with it. 

It didn’t look like much at first glance (just a scrappy bit of till paper), but on closer inspection I thought, “WOW.”

At a time when all the other supermarkets seem to be using loyalty cards to drive down prices – with seemingly little thought that customers might value quality and experience,

In theory, there’s nothing wrong with offering low prices if that’s genuinely what your customers want, although a race to the bottom is never advisable.

Waitrose chose to stand out and be unique

But the people at Waitrose categorically know that’s not what their customers want. It would go against everything they stand for. They know that quality is important to their customers. So they decided to do things a little differently.

Using their deep understanding of their customer they decided to zig against the zag and use their loyalty cards to offer something extra, something they believe their customers will value.

They know their ideal customer is time poor, values quality, home-cooked food and struggles to come up with new meal ideas – instead of slashing prices, and compromising quality, they decided instead to surprise and delight their customers with an easy meal idea.

To be specific – Veggie balls in tomato sauce.

So simple.

What they didn’t do:

  • Join in on the race to the bottom of pricing, which they would never win, and actually isn’t the priority for their customers anyway.
  • Overwhelm that customer (who they already know is busy) by offering twenty gazillion recipe ideas (they offered just one, easy sounding recipe).
  • Spend a load of money on some huge campaign – it was just a receipt coming out of the till – simples!
  • Make it really difficult to find the recipe – they offered a QR code right there on the receipt.

Customer benefits from this simple idea:

  • Stand out in the marketplace with something different.
  • Show a deeper understanding of what’s important to their customers.
  • Drives traffic to their website – where the recipe is hosted.
  • Show their customers they really care about their problems and want to help.
  • Encourage their customers to try something new, which might drive them back to Waitrose to stock up on ingredients for.

That’s why it’s genius! Simple, cheap and (probably) effective.

Did they come up with this idea by boldly saying: “We want to serve everyone,”?

NOPE

Or making generalised assumptions that everyone just wants stuff for cheaper, and doesn’t care about anything else?

DOUBLE NOPE.

A deep understanding of your customer is VITAL

Waitrose ONLY came up with this idea because they got down and dirty with their Brand Story first. They got into the weeds of EXACTLY who their customer is, what they value, and worked out a clever idea to make their brand stand out.

This is the kind of idea that any business could action…it’s not a multimillion dollar campaign requiring you to sell your soul to billionaires to finance.

But it does require you to spend some time thinking about your Brand Story and what you stand for.

If you want to stand out in the marketplace, truly understanding your customer, your brand and what makes you unique is the only way.

Why not revisit your Brand Story? 

My Brand Story Canvas template is a great starting point, and will walk you through the process. 

You can grab a copy here.

If you want to go deeper or find out how to turn that Brand Story into messaging that cuts through the noise and helps your brand to stand out, then 1-1 Coaching sessions can help. Find out more here.