The year-long campaign will launch with TV, radio, outdoor, print and Web components. At the same time, the company will adopt a new icon, new logo and other changes ranging from the appearance of trucks and in-store signs top employees' lapel pins and shopping bags.
The effort will be "the most significant, fully integrated branding initiative in our history," says Brian Cornell, EVP and chief marketing officer. The new campaign will emphasize "the uniquely superior quality of the perishables and proprietary brands" at the supermarket chain, along with its new store concept and its customer service.
A key component of the campaign is the "Lifestyle" stores that Safeway has been developing and will continue to develop. The Lifestyle format features a decor designed to be more inviting, with subdued lighting, an emphasis on high-quality fresh products and in many cases a large selection of natural and organic foods. Many Lifestyle stores also feature full-service meat counters, full-service bakeries and floral design centers, as well as sushi bars and olive bars. At the end of 2004 the company had opened or remodeled 142 of its stores to the new format in the United States and Canada, with plans to open or remodel an additional other 300 in the Lifestyle format this year.
Safeway calls the brand repositioning "the culmination of more than two years of reinvention and strategic development." The chain reports that the new format stores generate significantly higher average weekly sales increases and return on investment than previously remodeled stores.
Safeway, which plans to report its first quarter 2005 earnings on May 3, credited the two-year reinvention program as a key factor in the higher quarterly sales that it reported Tuesday. Preliminary figures for the first quarter ended March 26 showed an increase of approximately 12% to $8.6 billion in total sales and a comp-store sales increase of 4.4%. The company operates 1,802 stores in the United States and Canada and had annual sales of $35.8 billion in 2004.
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