Providing outsourced marketing support and print solutions to drive revenue and custom to 35 supermarket stores

The Heart of England Co-operative required outsourced marketing and internal communications support for its 35 Co-op stores in and around Coventry.

As part of this, it needed to launch 10 store refits by the end of 2020 that were in line with the corporate brand and wanted to gather and use customer feedback to help drive the design, look and feel.

It also wanted to build upon its social media following, as well as update the company website which was dated, lacked responsiveness, and had limited traffic to it. The aim of these channels was ultimately to encourage more customers in-store and to increase awareness of the Heart of England Co-operative food brand and stores in the local community.

The management team also identified that they needed to engage more with staff and peers and needed a channel to effectively communicate business updates and news in a streamlined way, that would maximise engagement.

In light of the recent COVID-19 pandemic, Heart of England also needed to react swiftly to the needs of its customers and staff, and required new designs of point of sale signage in its stores to reflect government guidelines and advice, particularly around social distancing, while remaining true to the company brand.

After meeting with the Heart of England Co-operative and agreeing to a plan of action, we assigned a dedicated consultant to manage the marketing plan and activity, which was a mixture of social media management, web development, design, printing and mailing.

A strategy is key. To start with, we needed to develop and create a comprehensive marketing strategy and plan, incorporating key dates in the convenience store calendar to help with messaging on social channels and design and print. As the Heart of England Co-operative used these key dates when developing product offers for customers, we knew this was the first thing that needed to be done.

We then took control over it's social media channels and ensured regular communications, including news and product offers, were published in line with the strategy calendar, as well as developing the supporting digital creatives that would be used on the posts. We blended a mixture of paid social advertising and organic posting to achieve this.

Our marketing consultant worked closely with our in-house design team and became the point of contact for all Heart of England’s design and print jobs, including door drop mailings, store refits and in-store branding, head office imagery, membership packs and also COVID-specific point of sale ‘kits’ such as posters, floor vinyls and signage.

We managed to increase the Heart of England’s social media following by 25% and increased engagement on its channels.

We also used a mixture of paid advertising and organic posting to generate customer feedback and interest in the Co-op’s products and services across the 35 stores. Some of the social campaigns we have managed include communications around new store openings and refits, a new grocery delivery service, customer surveys to drive change and also the business' reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic.

We successfully supported the Heart of England Co-operative with the launch of two new stores, along with a major store refit which we helped design and product the materials for. We promoted these launches through campaigns set out in the marketing strategy and calendar, using a mixture of printed door drop mailing campaigns in and around the Coventry area, as well as online and through social media exposure. We are working with them to launch a further 10 more stores by the end of 2020.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we quickly adapted the plan and ensured all staff and customers had a complete understanding of new store procedures, to increase safety and instil confidence. We designed and printed new, bespoke point of sale materials around the new safety procedures which were deployed to all 35 stores in super-quick time – taking us just one week to deliver and deploy.

Additionally, we adapted the messaging on the Heart of England’s social media channels to update customers about the changes in-store and welcomed feedback and discussions to ensure complete transparency throughout those uncertain times.

We are currently in the process of developing and deploying a new internal colleague intranet system so that Heart of England staff can communicate better; significantly reducing internal emails and acting as a ‘one-stop-shop’ for all colleague information. It will host training manuals (designed and managed by us!), HR information, payslips and general business news and updates.

Similarly, to keep in line with the company brand, we are developing and designing a new Heart of England website, using WordPress, which is more in line with the corporate brand and delivers a better user experience. We have assisted with the content creation for the site too, ensuring consistency and SEO to help with Google rankings.