Sainsbury’s gets to grips with savvy shoppers

November 1, 2009

Gwyn Burr, customer director at Sainsbury’s, told delegates at the 2009 IGD Convention there was a real opportunity for retailers and suppliers to move forward and progress in coming months and revealed details of Sainsbury’s ‘savvy shoppers’.

Burr said the Nectar loyalty card provided data on 1bn transactions a year.

Despite being in “unchartered territory and facing uncertain times” Burr said Sainsbury’s has universal consumer appeal. Its 140-year history has relevance, she said.

“Customers are looking for organisations with deep roots and that signify trust.” Burr said Sainsbury’s has a proposition that appeals to every consumer but there was always a need to stay close to customers.

Part of that customer appeal is a clearly segmented proposition for customers - good, better, best - to help them identify how they shop in Sainsbury’s.

Burr reported on the extension of the Basics value range and revealed 70% of shopping baskets include a Basics item. Basics also offer 50 ways to achieve one of your 5 a day, she said. Customers are carefully selecting what they buy; added Burr and revealed 55% of customers buy both Taste the Difference and Basics.

Burr reported on three key promotional tools for Sainsbury’s, first introduced two years ago.

For its Switch and Save initiative, Sainsbury’s re-engineered several hundred of its own brand products to ensure they matched the brand or was brand beating, said Burr. They also provide a minimum saving of 20%, she said.

Sainsbury’s is continuing to work on this theme with its ‘Taste Challenge’ on branded and own brand products and, to date, 700,000 customers have completed the challenges. “It’s not about brand bashing, far from it,” she said. “It’s mutuality because branded sales have grown over time."

Shop and Save is a promotional programme featuring deeper discounts, said Burr. It focuses on consumers’ cash flow, targeting pay days, month ends and Bank Holidays. It utilises Nectar data so is enormously powerful, she said.

Cook and Save is the third initiative. According to Burr, this initiative is at the heart of the Sainsbury’s business and focuses on families eating from home.

“It’s a great way to deliver value,” she said. It is supported by recipe tip cards - 85m have been distributed over the last two years and they are now available on line.

“The nation really does want to get cooking,” said Burr.

Sainsbury’s Feed Your Family for a Five campaign has driven strong value messaging too. Burr said it took responsibilities around climate change and the environment seriously and especially issues such as packaging and food waste. Sainsbury’s has partnered with Good Housekeeping on a ‘love your leftovers’ initiative, which discourages waste.

Burr reported Sainsbury’s has re-engaged with colleagues to deliver better customer service such as sampling. “Just having a bit of fun with customers is a nice thing to do at the moment,” she said. Sainsbury’s is also launching a coupon at the till promotion in partnership with Catalina Marketing, which tailors offers to individuals at the till, drawing on its Nectar database in the new scheme.

Values remain important too, said Burr.

“Customers are not prepared to compromise on quality or values they hold dear,” she said. “There’s no point in discounting bananas because every single retailer will move to the same price.”

Instead, Burr said Sainsbury’s had made moves such as stopping selling skate because it is unsustainable and had raised millions for Comic Relief this year. “Customers are balancing lots of different priorities,” she said.

“They are rediscovering food and cooking, provenance and ethics, seasonality, quality and fair prices.”

The key, Burr concluded, is understanding what it is that customers value.

Gwyn Burr: not brand bashing