DISCUSSION
How should grocery stores leverage unaffiliated influencers?
Written by RetailWire Staff
Sources: I Heart Publix/Facebook; costco_doesitagain/Instagram; Kroger Krazy/Facebook
Good grocery store experiences can be worth telling the world about, and some fans of major grocery chains are doing just that, bringing their enthusiasm to social media — without financial support from the retailers.
Aldi, Kroger, Trader Joe’s, Costco and Publix all have their own unaffiliated "everyday influencers" online, whether on standalone blog sites, YouTube, Facebook or Instagram, as reported by CNN.
Depending on the outlet, they report on deals happening at their local stores, promote products they like, facilitate discussion about what they like and the best way to use products and provide superfan strategies for store navigation. Followers of these influencer outlets number in the hundreds of thousands.
While some chains are merely enjoying the free viral marketing, some are launching strategies to take advantage of the earned social presence. Kroger has begun providing some influencers with early ads to run (and personal invitations to corporate events). Whole Foods has piggybacked in-store offerings onto fan reaction videos that express excitement about particular products.
Outside of grocery, online influencers not officially affiliated with brands have grown in popularity alongside this decade’s explosion in social media usage. In some spaces, like fashion, retailers have jumped on board with leveraging influencers for marketing purposes.
For instance in 2018, Nordstrom partnered with three Instagram- and YouTube-famous fashion bloggers to create and sell collections based on their personal brands. All three bloggers promoted the collections online and made in-store appearances. In the case of the Something Navy brand, created in conjunction with style blogger Arielle Charnas, the collection earned between $4 million and $5 million.
Even kids have gotten in on the influencer act, especially in the toys space. In 2018, the six-year-old boy who stars on the Ryan ToyReviews YouTube channel (which has billions of views) partnered with Walmart to create a line of branded toys under the moniker, Ryan’s World.
Studies, however, have indicated that many companies have found difficulty measuring the ROI of influencer-based campaigns, in particular due to the lack of an easily drawn connection between the influencer and any eventual customer conversion.