Retailing makeover

EVERY BRAND NEEDS to be freshened and updated at intervals if it's to avoid becoming old-fashioned and boring. For Pick n Pay - labouring behind tired-looking stores and a faded image - that time has clearly come. Its response has been massive. At a cost of R110m, South Africa's leading retailer is undergoing a complete makeover: new logo, store design, signage, strategic positioning, products, customer magazine, packaging and advertising.

Its new pay-off line - "Inspired by you" - signals a renewed commitment to service. So if you have more than one person in front of you in a queue, they'll open additional till points. Another promise is to replace, for free, any product found on the shelves past its expiry date.

More than 4 000 customers were interviewed by researchers, resulting, for example, in complaints that shoppers with little money were treated with disdain by staff. "That's resulted in a renewed focus on improving the shopping experience at Pick n Pay," says CEO Nick Badminton.

Pick n Pay executives clearly are challenged by the two-tier approach many shoppers adopt: shopping at Checkers for branded groceries and at a nearby Woolworths for fresh, perishable and convenience food. With its new range of 300 ready-to-eat convenience meals, fresh product lines and new meat products Woolworths is clearly in its sights.

An interesting experiment will be a shift into 40% more TV advertising, while print is held at existing levels. Nielsen Media Research puts Pick n Pay advertising at R420m/year, handled by Young & Rubicam.

Local community papers have long been a mainstay of supermarket advertising because they target narrowly defined areas and the results show immediately in feet through doors of supermarkets in the area.

As an all-embracing medium, TV advertising is less measurable, but Pick n Pay apparently will test new approaches, such as focusing on specific products and watching the resulting sales.