CPGmatters: Kraft Scores with Concepts To Generate Center Store Traffic
By John Karolefski
Through a special arrangement, what follows is an excerpt of a current article from CPGmatters, a monthly e-zine, presented here for discussion.
Kraft Foods is relying on shopper insights and the power of its brands to help supermarket retailers lure shoppers from the jazzy perimeter into the center store aisles.
Patrick Hare, director of the In-Store Merchandising Center of Excellence at Kraft Foods, calls this creative initiative “a collaborative effort.” The key is developing solutions that meet the objective of retailers to increase category sales, while meeting the objective of Kraft to increase sales of its brands.
Retailers are looking to make the shopping trip more experiential and “a lot of this is certainly happening on the perimeter,” he told CPGmatters in an interview. “One of our challenges has been to bring that excitement from the perimeter to the center of the store.”
One way that Kraft has done that is with Center Store Café, which aims to bring the atmosphere of a coffee café to the center of the supermarket while promoting super-premium coffees. Kraft markets the grocery store rights to Starbucks.
Center Store Café creates a destination in the coffee aisle by using eye-catching shelving and special lighting. It is deployed in nearly 400 stores operated by Meijer, Kroger, and other grocers. Some include hardware such as the Tassimo coffee machine, Kraft’s proprietary one-cup brewing system.
Kraft’s latest retail initiative is Mom’s Kitchen, which is being tested in one ShopRite in Oakland, NY, and three Buehler’s Markets in northeast Ohio. Situated in the cookie and cracker aisle, the concept simulates the look a kitchen with wooden cabinets, a kitchen island, and a bulletin board.
Mom’s Kitchen is presented in three versions: one in-aisle, one in the center of the store, and one “store-within-a-store” off the back perimeter. Among the brands taking part are Ritz, Oreo and Chips Ahoy. Mom’s Kitchen also includes some cross-category merchandising with a cooler for milk and another cooler in the aisle for Kraft cheese.
Mr. Hare calls the early test results “encouraging,” and Kraft is discussing rolling out the program to other retail partners in 2008.
“A traditional aisle is uninteresting to many consumers,” says Mr. Hare. “They want their shopping trip to be more experiential. We’re seeing this in any retail formats beyond traditional grocery. Consumers are looking for solutions. This can be accomplished through improved messaging and structure in the aisle.
“These two improvements, along with the right products, can help establish an emotional connection with consumers. The Mom’s Kitchen idea really establishes that emotional connection with Mom. It reminds her of simple usage and recipe suggestions for the category.”
Discussion Question: What do you think of the potential for Kraft’s in-store concepts to encourage consumers to shop center aisles? What advice or concerns would you have for grocers looking at similar “experiential” programs to improve center aisle traffic?
This is an interesting concept, but one that I don’t believe will work. The center of a grocery store won’t become a destination for a coffee klatch. Women budget their time. Shopping needs to be expedient, even if delightful. Consumers want to spend leisure time with the family, or with friends at Starbucks, not in the middle of the grocery store.
I don’t buy it.
There is no such thing as “driving” shoppers anywhere. This is not a herd that requires drovers. Stew Leonard pretty well showed what to do about center-of-store aisles, and HEB’s Central Market is taking it to heart and profiting from it–stop making those aisles a warehouse. I haven’t seen this Kraft initiative, but it sounds right on to me.
A concept that creates neighborhoods of products is hardly a new concept. Look at the work Marsh has done with their Lifestyle stores–they’ve created a revolutionary hub and spoke format that places Produce in the middle with the adjacent themed neighborhoods branching outward. It created a truly a new way to shop, but sadly might have been too radical of a change for shoppers to accept, and as a result has struggled. That is not to say that creating new highly sensory experiences focused on shoppers needs like the Kraft program are doing cannot work, it just needs to establish a vision model and gradually progress towards it at a rate that is appropriate for human adoption.
At the least, Kraft is doing an excellent job of disrupting the monotony of the uninspiring caverns that are the center store aisles. For a good reference just look at some of the work that more enlightened retailers like HyVee are up too.
When you look at the total equation of meal preparation, there is planning the meal, buying the ingredients, preparing the meal, serving the meal, and cleaning up after the meal. Center store will continue to lose traffic as people look to get out of the store in less time. I think the coffee shop in center store can create a refuge for customers shopping within the store.
Time will tell if customers see center store as a time-value proposition.
At the risk of sounding like I actually agree with my colleague above–I agree with my colleague above.
As long as there is an identifiable “perimeter” and a “center store” this problem will persist. How about a collection of easily accessible and clearly focused “shopping stations” instead, each with a clear need-based positioning like “baby” or “breakfast”?
It’s way too simplistic, I think, to characterize all grocery shopping trips as utilitarian in nature. Some shoppers are more open to experiential touches than others, and shoppers’ receptivity will vary from moment to moment.
Center store gondola runs do resemble, as suggested above, featureless chasms, that suffer in comparison with more interesting and inviting store perimeters.
So Kraft’s experiments with attraction stations within the center store have real merit, in my opinion. A coffee bar may not be the draw for some shoppers, but it would attract me. Free coffee samples are a nice self-serve touch at my local Sunflower Market, and let’s not overlook the permanent sample bar located inside every Trader Joe’s.
On the other hand, I don’t go for Ritz crackers that much, so maybe I’m not the target for the Mom’s Kitchen concept. Vive la difference. It may well be a winner for many other shoppers. For all of us, it serves as an in-store messaging point whose value may be considerable indeed.
I definitely think this will be a success. People like to try products. Not to mention the aroma itself will lure in people.
I feel that stores need to have reps from all different manufacturers come and demo their items more often. Usually, it’s the store employees doing the demos, and they are less likely to be excited about the items they are presenting. Perhaps, they have a kiosk that can be moved near each of the aisles where the manufacturer can come set up their item of choice to demo. They can offer recipe suggestions and coupons, all while promoting their lines. Interacting with the consumers is a sure way to sell their items and gain repeat customers.
Clearly, Kraft is trying to bring new excitement to the center sections. While these efforts are commendable, I’m not sure they will address the real issue for retailers.
Consumers have changed the way they shop the store. Retailers seem to want to “lure shoppers to the center of the store” when what they may need to do is redesign the store to meet changing shopper behavior.
As a shopper, I want to get in and out of the grocery store as quickly as possible. If I have a coupon or two for a product located in center store I would go get the product because I’m saving money. When I do that, I tend to purchase additional products that I walk by and need but forgot to put on my list or the product looks “interesting” to try.
Kraft’s goal: to gain significant market share. Kraft wants to grow faster than its competitors. Trying new merchandising concepts like Center Store Cafe and Mom’s Kitchen is exactly the kind of thing Kraft needs to do. Sometimes folks writing in to RetailWire like or dislike a concept based on their personal preferences. No concept will appeal to everyone. Best things Kraft is doing: they’re not trying to insert these concepts everywhere at once, and they’re committed to testing. And maybe they are best suited to selected locations, not all locations. Every 1% market share increase is a big win in such a mature industry.