Ahold NV introduced a new logo for its two East Coast grocery chains as part of a revamping of the stores. The new, colorful logo unifies the look among Stop & Shop's 355 stores and Giant's 181 stores, and is designed to broadcast both chains' ongoing upgrades.
Although they'll share similar logos resembling a yellow bowl with three fruit-like shapes in different colors over it, the two chains will maintain their names and identities. Shop & Stop's trademark red and green traffic lights had been its symbol since 1914. Giant's big blue G with the red Giant in block letters has been in use since 1963.
"We are giving it a new, refreshed face to get consumers to notice that things inside the store have changed," Jim Dwyer, executive vice president for strategy and business development at Giant and Stop & Shop, told The Washington Post.
In addition to refreshing the store signs and decor, Ahold is also adding new prepared foods, expanding its private label products line-up and adding shopping technology. Specific changes include new Delivision digital kiosks, designed to cut down deli lines; a hand-held device called Easy Shop that allows customers to scan and bag groceries as they shop; a new station for weighing produce; and a family-friendly checkout lane without tabloid magazines and candy.
Also planned is an extensive remodeling program, Project Refresh, that will focus on upgrading perishable-food departments and improving the look of stores with new floors and lighting over the next two-and-half years. The new look is also designed to highlight both chains' Value Improvement Program. Under the program, 85 percent of products in categories such as paper products and health and beauty items were reduced over the past two years.
Caley Cantrell, a communications strategy professor at Virginia Commonwealth University Brandcenter, told The Washington Post that logos have become more important symbols in speaking for consumers.
"A logo is a design embodiment of a company's point of a view, what a company's belief system is and its place in the market," Prof. Cantrell said. "As the market evolves, a company has to determine, 'Do our outward symbols...have to evolve as well?'"
Greg Johnston, executive creative director for at Ogilvy, told the Post that Giant's old logo seemed "cold and impersonal" and the new one looked "refreshing" and "friendlier," but a logo alone cannot change consumers' perceptions.
"A logo doesn't just appear by itself. There's always something that's surrounded by it," he said. "You have to have more than a logo for consumers to react positively or negatively to your brand."
Discussion Questions: What do you think of Ahold's decision to modernize the logos for Shop & Stop and Giant? What are the pros and cons of changing well-known logos? Do you think the chains should have waited until more of the store redesigns had been accomplished?