Are you serious? (Safeway)
Seriously now. "Ingredients for Life"
Safeway! What were you thinking? Or more precisely, how could you let your ad agency get away with that?
Imagine that breakthrough meeting. The "creatives" struggling deep into the night. Wringing their brains over Chineese food and Red Bull. In the absence any "Big Idea", it comes in a flash: "Safeway has ingredients for sandwiches, or a barbecue, or a tasty pie... all things you use in your LIFE!"
Exactly what part of that would sway a person's opinion?
"Honey, make sure to stop by Safeway. We're all out of ingredients for life."
And, by the way, why does the design look almost identical to a Life Cereal box?
Safeway! What were you thinking? Or more precisely, how could you let your ad agency get away with that?
Imagine that breakthrough meeting. The "creatives" struggling deep into the night. Wringing their brains over Chineese food and Red Bull. In the absence any "Big Idea", it comes in a flash: "Safeway has ingredients for sandwiches, or a barbecue, or a tasty pie... all things you use in your LIFE!"
Exactly what part of that would sway a person's opinion?
"Honey, make sure to stop by Safeway. We're all out of ingredients for life."
And, by the way, why does the design look almost identical to a Life Cereal box?
posted by Cascadia Collaborative Law Group at 7:37 PM
2 Comments:
Hey, Dom, it's easy to be a critic!
Not to puff Safeway up, but I'll just drop-in two comments here:
1) A few years ago I was in my neighborhood Safeway and I was standing there in the aisle pondering something - probably trying to get a grasp on a dish I was shaping-up in my mental kitchen, and boingo- up walked a Safeway store employee and asked me if I needed any help. This amazed me, and though I probably just smiled and asked "Well, I'm trying to find the extra-large Pace Picante Sauce, thank you." what I was wondering was "WHO TRAINED THE PEOPLE AT THIS STORE TO DO THAT?" Then a week later I was in the little Safeway store in Lake View Oregon - tiny little town hard by the California border - and the same thing happened. Much to my surprise the thing I was thinking was "WHO TRAINED ALL THE SAFEWAY PEOPLE TO DO THAT?" They're all helpful all of a sudden! Whoa!
2) Safeway does actually have all the food things for life and a lot of other things - aspirin, inflatable pool toys, sunburn lotion, paper plates and forks, soft drinks, chicken - Got Picnic? So I'm thinking they're setting up a campaign for a bunch of package-solution ads: "Got office celebration?" "Got road trip?" "Got Superbowl Party?" etc. Just my guess. The Safeway folks may not be all that helpful in organizing your food and supplies for a road trip - but they sure are full of helpful attitude!!!
You have, perhaps unwittingly, tapped into an excellent marketing lesson. For most ocmpanies there is a disconnect between marketing and the actual product/service. What the high-priced marketing consultants seemingly failed to realize was the nature of what people find meaningful. It's not that they have a lot of "ingredients" and a clever line to highlight that. It's the little things, like a helpful and nice staff.
It's also interesting to note that your anecdote did more to sway my opnion of Safeway than the hundreds (if not thousands) of advertising impressions I've been exposed to in my life. And THAT'S where real marketing power lies -- good ol' fashoined word-of-mouth.
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