Are foodies transforming grocery messaging?

By Tom Ryan

OCTOBER 3, 2014

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With the pervasiveness of foodie culture, Loblaw Cos. Ltd. is shifting its messaging from helping consumers discover new tastes to using storytelling to celebrate, engage and spark conversations around food.

That viewpoint is driving the modernization of the President's Choice private label brand in what Loblaw is calling the most comprehensive campaign in its history. Under the tagline, "Crave More," the 30-year-old brand is encouraging customers "to expect more from their food" with Canadians, according to a company news release, "caring and conversing more about the value, quality, taste, sources, ingredients and excitement of what they eat."

"Today's customer craves more distinct and exotic flavors," said Galen Weston, executive chairman and president, in the statement. "They crave more knowledge about what is healthy and what is not. They crave information about where their food comes from and how it is made. And they are engaging every day in passionate conversations about food quality, taste and trust."

"This new approach is to elevate the brand from a packaged goods food brand to a lifestyle brand," Uwe Stueckmann, Loblaw's senior vice-president of marketing, told The Globe & Mail. He said past marketing was "very much like a product [focused] brand."

The first 60-second ad celebrates food discovery — "from the first time someone harvested honey from a buzzing hive, heated corn until it popped, and more." The ad closes with Mr. Weston in the President's Choice kitchen declaring, "If you don't search for more, you'll never find it." A second spot promotes the natural colors of food, and the removal of all artificial colors and flavors from all President's Choice products.

The President's Choice website (pc.ca) is being transformed into a foodie online community now oriented to initiate and host exploration of food trends, led by video, editorial and images. The site will amplify food related social media posts and discussions to drive conversation.

Tapping Google search insights, a Food Pulse Index on the website will be the first to track food trends nationally and by province — again, to encourage engagement. Insights will be grouped by theme, search trends will be assessed against thousands of related words and terms, information will be assessed regionally and nationally, and the results will be presented visually and with editorial at pc.ca.