Weekly grocery store ads are a lot like the weekly marketing bulletins we used to write. Very important — especially to the person who wrote it.
Like many in our chain, much of what we did revolved around “the ad.” As each drew near, the weekly ad was refined. Sometimes the lead produce item became a secondary item or dropped altogether. We scrutinized the ads in board meetings. Was the lead item strong? Was the price point aggressive and competitive? We haggled over each produce ad. Was there a balance of fruits and vegetables?
Convenience items and staples? Was every item the accurate description, correct regarding price per-pound or per-each? Were we double-dog positive that the photos matched as well as other details?
We always had several people scrutinize the “blue line” for last-minute edits before it went to press.
But how about on the retail side? As much work as went into planning, ordering for, developing and delivering an ad, what do customers think?
It took over two decades for me to push away from retail and work on the foodservice side for a while to find out.
Turns out, the printed ad was not nearly as big a deal as I thought. If you observe customers walk into a store (with some exceptions), few customers grab a hard copy. It reminded me of attending a football game as an adult at my old high school. I thought as a teen that the thousands in attendance came to root us on and watch the game. Bzzz! The crowd of kids attending were mostly there because it was a social event. Few seemed to care about the game as most talked among themselves.
The same kind of thing seems to occur with grocery ads — they're more important to those who wrote them.
This doesn't mean that customers don't care about ads. They do. How I later observed customers shop the ad is that they look for these items while they shop. In the produce aisle it's especially obvious: the bigger and more prominent the ad display, the more likely they are to shop and stock up.
Make smaller, less bountiful ad displays? You certainly sell less product.
But that is not what ads were intended to do. Produce ads are, by design and investment, a tool to attract customers in to not only buy what's on sale but to purchase what is seasonal and what is an exceptional value. Push the ad hard, merchandise aggressively. You'll know when an ad is a success when you sell more than usual in future weeks and beyond — when the item is not on sale.
Build the displays, promote the ad items. In marketing it's known as a win-win.
Armand Lobato works for the Idaho Potato Commission. His 40 years' experience in the produce business span a range of foodservice and retail positions.