Co-op adjusting to Somerfield customer needs

The BWS team at the Co-operative insists it is still familiarising itself with Somerfield customers following last year’s takeover of the superstore chain.

While the Co-op is pushing forward with its thrust towards offering an increased range of Fairtrade wines to its customers, category marketing manager Vicky Wood told the drinks business the company is “getting to understand” the Somerfield customer.

“We are doing a lot of focus groups and research,” she said at the Co-op tasting in London on 27 May. “The customer profile is a very neat fit between the two chains in terms of age, sex and ABC.

“Wine at the Co-op has grown above the national average for the last few years and sales have been excellent – up 5.35% on the year at the moment.

“We believe our strength in ethics, in Fairtrade and in pricing will help us bring the Somerfield consumer along on the ride with us.”

Head buyer Paul Bastard agreed that the “ethical” business practices of the Co-op are the company’s major USP and is enticing a new generation of customer through the doors, and that it has put its corner-shop image behind it.

“The Co-op brand has come of age,” he said. “Gone are the days when it was consigned to one sector of society and I think the ethical nature of the business has struck a chord.”

Indeed, Bastard believes the banking crisis of the past couple of years has worked to the Co-op’s advantage as it sought to replenish its ageing customer base,

“When people started banking with us through our ethical banking service, we started to see younger people come through the doors who perhaps we wouldn’t have had in here previously.

“We had a very loyal customer base among older people, but they started to die out and we had no new customers coming in.

“But then the banking crisis started and I know a lot of people who switched to banking with us because they didn’t want to be tainted with the scandals coming out of the big banks at the time.

“Some of these are younger ethical people who are also in to wine, while at the same time we are also getting more people coming in for fresh produce rather than just milk and newspapers, so it offered us increased scope to target them with our wine range.”

Wood added: “Our wine strategy is to try to have the most interesting and diverse range for the size of our stores.

“We have brought in more wines from Argentina, more Fairtrade wines, and our shoppers are a very loyal bunch. We have 3.5 million members who regularly shop with us, so it’s a great market to be selling to.”

The group’s promotions strategy is designed to introduce customers to as many new styles and origins of wine as possible to help aid their education. It is an approach that Bastard has long championed.

“We have always given a broader base to our promotions than perhaps others have,” he said. “We don’t just go down the typical route of offering all the big brands on discount, like the popular ones from Australia and California.

“We often put our own label brands on promotion and we have purposely tried to give a lot of other countries a chance, which is why over 4% of our sales are through Argentina.

“It’s not as though people are coming in and actively looking for an Argentine wine, but if it is included in your main promotion, which isn’t always the case in other stores, then they are more likely to give it a try.

“Twice a year we also put a big emphasis on our Fairtrade wines, and put the reds, whites and rosés together on the shelf, so the customer can hardly miss them when they are walking around the store.”

Alan Lodge, 07.06.2010