Fruitful Yield
INTEGRATED COMMUNICATIONS
A specialty retailer offering nutritional supplements
and natural foods, Fruitful Yield is a chain of
ten stores in the Chicago suburbs that remains
ahead of the curve in terms of meeting the needs
of consumers seeking to lead healthier lives through
diet. The company offers a wide range of vitamins
and herbal supplements, organic foods, wheat/gluten-free
and lactose-free foods and dairy products, as well
as natural beverages, cosmetics and toiletry selections.
The need
Fruitful Yield hoped to raise awareness of its
stores and their points of differentiation from
various competitors in the health food and supplement
market. Despite a “value pricing” program
that was successfully driving greater sales,
it wanted to be better known for the total customer
experience it offered. Management also understood
the need to better understand and respond to
current and potential customer demands if the
retailer was to going to grow its customer and
store base. Finally, Fruitful Yield also sought
to create a more national presence and improved
sales through its online store.
Our approach
Hodge Schindler’s work began with the development
of a marketing plan that identified specific strategies
and tactics that were designed to work together
to help the client better understand and respond
to customers; raise awareness of the chain’s
role in the community via promotional efforts and
media relations; and, ultimately, help drive greater
and more consistent sales. Because of financial
constraints, activities were prioritized and designed
to be phased in over time.
Our initial focus was
on positioning the Fruitful Yield brand, both its
graphic representations – addressed
through development of a new logo and tagline – and
through customer research. Plans for a focus group
were developed, and an extensive in-store customer
survey was developed (to be followed periodically
by e-surveys). Hodge Schindler also worked with
the client on ways to leverage its point-of-sale
system to better understand customer buying habits.
Ultimately, this intelligence will be used to help
Fruitful Yield refine its positioning, deepen its
relationship with customers, and better use them
as ambassadors to new customers.
To grow awareness,
we designed a program that identified local media
and specialty publications geared to the consumers
interested in healthful, natural food/living. We
also identified feature storylines, from company
profiles to its advice on natural foods and supplements
and how they are used to promote health and wellness.
We have worked on developing promotional events
(e.g. an in-store farmers market of organic produce)
to raise awareness, drive customers to the stores
and ideally offset seasonal sales slumps.
Other outreach tools (an improved e-newsletter
and store signage) have also been added to the
docket. We also performed an audit of the Fruitful
Yield Web site, including recommendations to both
improve its design and navigability and, more importantly,
to bolster its performance as an e-commerce arm.
The outcomes
While early in both the strategy and execution
process, Fruitful Yield is beginning to reap
the benefits of enhanced recognition and awareness
through media coverage (including the Chicago
Tribune and WBBM-AM, the CBS all-news affiliate
in Chicago) and improved customer outreach. The
retailer is using findings from the survey and
focus group to help refine its offers and to
provide it with service benchmarks that will
help it deepen its relationship with current
customers and better attract new ones. It believes
a more strategic approach to marketing planning
and implementation will better support its growth
path and financial performance over time.
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