In the marketing business, “targeting” is almost as hot a buzzword as “engagement” is when it comes to talking about consumers, and nowhere is that as evident as at Sobeys Inc., the no. 2 player in Canada’s fiercely competitive grocery retailing sector.
The Stellarton, N.S.-based company, which has been expanding throughout Canada for the last decade, has stepped up a campaign of targeting consumers with tailored direct and online mailings and has launched a new player in the burgeoning discount food segment to keep in tune with consumer demand, replacing some of its Price Chopper stores in Ontario with the FreshCo banner.
It comes in a period of diminishing consumer loyalty to grocery retailers and a lot of competition from peers, says Belinda Youngs, chief marketing officer at Sobeys, whose banners also include IGA, Foodland, Thrifty Foods and Lawtons Drug Stores.
“Low prices [are] the cost of entry, and there are loyalty programs across the board,” she said. “We try to talk about being meaningully relevant [to consumers], which will drive more goodwill and more desire to shop in your store.”
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