Challenge:
A leading Southern California healthy grocery chain had been an Advanced Marketing Strategies customer for years. Our work with them was multifaceted, from brand marketing studies to strategy and implementation, to site location forecasting. Our client grew from a few stores in San Diego to the largest independent grocery chain in Southern California. In order to support this growth, we undertook a research project to help them learn more about their customers. Who were they? Where did they live? What departments did they shop when at the grocery store?
Solution:
Advanced Marketing Strategies implemented a customer survey program, which collected over 22,000 surveys in the 25 Southern California locations. This “live” capture of information provided analysis of the best and worst grocery shopper, traffic patterns during the week and weekend, most profitable stores by department and other differences from store to store (qualitative and quantitative), media preferences, how often they shop, home zip code, etc. From the zip codes, we provided extensive lifestyle analysis to gain further insight about their shoppers. Color-coded maps were produced of the entire enterprise-wide customer base, which was also broken down for each store. These maps illustrated the highest percentage of sales for each area and proved to be invaluable for market plans, direct mail and media buying.
Results:
Our client’s success did not go unnoticed. They eventually sold for $42 million and are now the crown jewel of their parent company, so much so that they are consistently outselling the parent company’s stores.
