Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Hires Social Media Manager - New Position at the Grocer

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has hired Nicole DeRuiter (pictured at top) as its corporate social media/public relations manager, a new position at the El Segundo, California-based fresh food and grocery chain.

DeRuiter will be responsible for the strategy, coordination and management of the 172-store chain's presence in social media, as well as coordinating social media use within the various departments at Fresh & Easy.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market currently uses a company blog, Facebook page, Twitter feed, YouTube channel and Flickr.com photo-sharing site as its primary corporate social media outlets.

The retailer's public relations and marketing staffs also conduct social media-based outreach campaigns to a group of foodie and mom-bloggers, regularly sending them free packages of store brand products, asking the bloggers to write about the items in their blogs and post about Fresh & Easy on their social media sites. 

Fresh & Easy also invites the bloggers to various food and wine-oriented special events, where it "wines and dines" the bloggers and social media-users, in the hope they'll help get the word out and create some word-of-mouth buzz about the grocery chain.

Prior to joining Fresh & Easy, Nicole Deruiter was an account executive a Matrixx Pictures.

Before that she was a manager of emerging media for online florist Teleflora and a senior account executive at marketing-public relations firm PCGCampbell.

In addition to her background in the public relations field, Deruiter has prior work experience in radio and television production.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's new social media maven is a graduate of the University of Southern California's Annenberg Program on Online Communities, a 12-month graduate program focused on web-based social/new media skills and program management at the university's Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, where she earned a Masters of Communications Management degree. Ms. Deruiter has a bachelor's degree in broadcast and public relations from Central Michigan University.

To date, social media duties at Tesco's Fresh & Easy have primarily been a shared effort between the grocer's in-house marketing and public relations teams and one of its outside public relations agencies, APCO Worldwide.

Sallie Boorman, an account manager who works out of APCO's Sacramento, California office, has been a key player in helping Fresh & Easy establish and maintain its social media presence, particularly on Twitter and Facebook.

In 2009, Boorman also stepped in to help bring back to life Fresh & Easy's corporate blog, which was suffering from extreme infrequent posting neglect at the hands of its creator and at the time only poster, director of marketing Simon Uwings.

Today Boorman, Wonnacott and Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market staffers Stephanie Patryla and Gary Turner each post semi-regularly on the company blog. [Read - March 29, 200: Things Are Improving Over at the Fresh & Easy Corporate Blog: Perhaps They've Been Listening to Us?; and February 17, 2009: Getting By (Much Better Now) 'With A Little Help From My Friends:' New Talent On Board the Fresh & Easy Corporate Marketing Blog One Year Hence.]

Before being hired as Fresh & Easy's public and governmental relations chief last year, Wonnacott worked for APCO Worldwide, where he was a manager. He's been Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's corporate spokesman since 2007. However, he did so as an APCO Worldwide employee, until the Tesco-owned grocer hired him last year.

Fresh & Easy began advertising for the social media/public relations manager position early this year. It's a part of the grocer's efforts to beef-up its in-house public and community relations team. That process began with the hiring of Wonnocott last year.

According to our sources, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market created the new social media-focused public relations manager position and has made the new hire, in large part because the grocer wants to better connect with customers and potential customers via cyberspace and its various online social communities.

For example, Fresh & Easy, taking a page from the marketing playbooks of popular grocers Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe's, has beginning earlier this year increased its use of storytelling - telling stories about the makers of its private brand products, for example - as a way it hopes will help it to better build the overall Fresh & Easy brand.

As an example, Fresh & Easy has increased it's use of brief videos and other forms of storytelling as part of this strategy and practice, featuring the stories in the fortnightly online promotional missives it sends to members of its e-mail-based "friends of fresh & easy" group., along with in other communications venues. 

One of the missions of the new social media manager will be to use social media in an integrated way to help communicate these stories as part of the grocer's increased efforts to build the Fresh & Easy brand.

Reader Resource

[Readers: Fresh & Easy Buzz has written extensively about social media and grocers over the last three-plus years. For a selection of those stories, including many focused on United Kingdom-based Tesco and Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, click on the following links: grocers and social media,  Grocers on Twitter, social marketing, social media, Twitter,  Fresh and Easy on Twitter, Tesco on Twitter, Fresh and Easy corporate blog, Social networking sites, Facebook, Philip Clarke.]

Getting By (Much Better Now) 'With A Little Help From My Friends:' New Talent On Board the Fresh & Easy Corporate Marketing Blog One Year Hence

In 2008, Fresh & Easy Buzz wrote and published a number of posts about Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's corporate marketing Blog, published by the retailer's marketing chief, Simon Uwins, and how the Blog would go for weeks, and even months, without being updated with new content-posts, along with the fact that seldom if ever reader-customer comments on the Blog were addressed and answered.

We likened the situation to a retail store -- of which a corporate marketing Blog is an extension of in the case of a retailer that uses one for such purposes -- that is neglected, seldom updated in content and merchandising, and where customers' (that's what the Blog's readers are, along with others being potential customers) questions are seldom answered. A corporate marketing-oriented Blog is an extension -- a digital store-front minus actually selling groceries -- of a grocery chain's brick-and-mortar stores. Plus, marketing and customer service is "everything" a retailer does, from how store employees dress to its Web sites and Blogs.

It's our analysis and opinion that when a grocery chain or any other type of retailer uses a company Blog for marketing purposes it then needs to keep the content (regular posts say at least once a week at a minimum) of that Blog fresh, just like it must keep merchandise in a brick-and-mortar grocery store fresh.

And just like store employees are required to (and want to) answer customer questions and inquiries, so to should whomever is responsible for publishing a company marketing Blog do the same. It's just basic and good customer service.

We also think retailer company Blogs should offer customers and potential customers important information about the retailer and its stores, as well as marketing-focused information. Done well, both general and marketing-oriented communications can be achieved, often times in the same post.

Whole Foods Market, Inc. does this well with its "Whole Story" Blog. Wal-Mart does it in an interesting and informative way as well with its Web site-based "Buyers Blog," as does San Francisco Bay Area (Northern California) multi-store independent Andronico's Market, with its "Buyers Blog," to offer three grocer-retailer examples we think are worth taking a look at.

Below are links to the posts we made about the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market corporate marketing Blog topic and issue in 2008:

[January 21, 2008: Click! Click!: Who's Minding the Fresh & Easy Corporate Blog?... February 14, 2008: It Looks Like Somebody is Minding the Fresh & Easy Corporate Blog A Bit Better of Late... March 29, 2008: Things Are Improving Over at the Fresh & Easy Corporate Blog: Perhaps They've Been Listening to Us?.]

As you can see by the post titles above, after publishing our January 21, 2008 piece, in which we identified and pointed out the problem, there was some improvement at the Fresh & Easy corporate marketing Blog, an improvement we attempted to reinforce in a positive manner (Fair & Balanced as one cable news network likes to say) with two posts -- one in February and another in March.

But... things went downhill over at the Fresh & Easy corporate marketing Blog once again soon after -- actually well before October, but we waited, just to be fair, as the posts linked below describe:

[October 13, 2008: 'The Promotional Pundit': Tesco Fresh & Easy Launches New $6-off Online Coupon Today; Post on Corp. Marketing Blog Remains -- Adding Insult to Injury... October 12, 2008: 'The Promotional Pundit:' More On the Online Coupon Fiasco: Tesco Fresh & Easy's Marketing Department to Launch A New Online Coupon Early Next Week... October 10, 2008: 'The Promotional Pundit': Keeping the Marketing and Promotional Eye On the Ball; Fixing A Promotional Fiasco Fresh & Easy Isn't Even Aware Of.]

Things got even worse over at the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market corporate marketing Blog in the fall of 2008, when not one single new post was made from September, 2008 -to- the end of the year. Fresh & Easy Buzz was well aware of the once again neglected digital store-front but (that Fair & Balanced mantra again) decided to hold off, thinking perhaps the busy holiday season was the reason, therefore giving benefit to the doubt.

We were considering writing another piece about the topic when not a single new sentence, nor even a single word, was posted as 2008 neared its end in December. Even worse, numerous reader-customer comments in the form of questions on the last posts went unanswered, as they do to this day from those past posts.

We then learned that Mr. Uwins was out during most of that period on paternity leave -- the proud new father of twins. Congratulations on that wonderful event to him.

We learned this fact though -- and its explanation as to why there had been zero posting activity on the company Blog -- not from the Blog -- which one could reasonably expect (or if not, just a single sentence in the Blog saying: "There won't be any new posts in the Fresh & Easy marketing Blog until January, 2009) -- but rather from a response by SallieB (who works for Fresh & Easy's public relations firm) on the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Twitter.com site she established and maintains in an excellent manner for the grocery and fresh foods chain.

Her "tweet" (Twitter-talk for a post) was in response to a question ("tweet") from a Fresh & Easy customer, Blogger and Twitter-user named Frankie, who was asking why there hadn't been a post on the Fresh & Easy company Blog since September. She had also left the same question on the company Blog but it was never responded to. There were a couple of additional consumer questions on the last (September, 2008) post on the Fresh & Easy corporate marketing Blog, in addition to hers, asking this same question, by the way -- question-comments that went unanswered.

Therefore, we decided to not write about the over three month lack of Blog activity at the Fresh & Easy corporate marketing Blog (digital store-front) for a bit, waiting to see if something might appear in 2009. (The benefit-of-the-doubt mantra again.)

And eventually it did. On January 2, 2009, Mr. Uwins wrote the post reprinted below (in italics) titled: "new year resolutions from fresh & easy." Of particular note are paragraphs number 9 and 10:

Friday, January 2, 2009
new year resolutions from fresh & easy

"Well, what an extraordinary year.

With all that's happened in the world, it's easy to forget that fresh&easy only had its first birthday in November.

From the start, it's been a business built by simply listening to what customers ideally want, and then trying to deliver it.

So in that spirit, I thought I'd share 3 resolutions for the new year.

We all know about the state of the economy. In talking to a lot of our customers, we hear about the various measures they're taking to cut down on their spending and reduce waste, in order to stretch their budgets. But we're also hearing the same concerns that we heard before, about the wholesomeness of food and the impact on the environment, though with a real sense of having to compromise to make ends meet.

So our first resolution is to find new ways to help our customers to stretch their budgets, so they don't have to compromise - from tomorrow, for example, we will always have 6 produce packs on offer at just 98¢ per pack, week in, week out, so our customers can count on it."

We've also had many, many requests to be kept informed via email of what's going on at our stores - whether offers, new products, meal ideas, etc.

So our second resolution is to do just that - you can now sign up on our website to be a friend of fresh&easy, receiving latest news and offers from us via email. It's quite basic at the moment, but we'll add features as we go (on the basis of feedback from our friends, naturally).

Finally, I've also had many requests to keep this blog going, and make it a bit more interactive - I'm very conscious that my last posting was in September (I had twin girls that month, which has kept me rather busy...).

So my third resolution, to uprate this blog. To help me, I've co-opted 2 web assistants, Gary and Sallie, who'll add things now and then, and follow up on comments. They'll always though use their own names, when they do.

It's been an amazing year to be a part of fresh&easy, as we've built a brand from nothing.Who knows what 2009 will bring. But we'll just keep listening to customers, and trying to give them what they want.And that, surely, is how it should be.

If you read our January, 2008, February, 2008 and March, 2008 posts on the topic and issue that we linked above (eighth paragraph from the top of this page), you will see we offered as one simple solution to the problem being for Mr. Uwins to merely have one or more of the Fresh & Easy Buzz marketing and/or PR firm staff personal assist him with posting and responding to reader-customer comments on the Fresh & Easy corporate marketing Blog -- assisting with the operations of the digital store-front just as team members assist one another in the Fresh & Easy brick-and-mortar grocery stores.

Such teamwork also has the added benefit of getting fresh thinking from others. It's also plain old good delegation. We also suggested -- and still do -- that some of the Fresh & Easy category managers and buyers be invited to post on the Blog. After all, too many marketers on one Blog tends to sound like...well, too many marketers. Other voices add variety. How about a store manager (or employee) or two as well?

It took a full year, but it appears marketing chief Uwins agreed with our suggestion. And since we believe course-correction to be a good thing, we applaud the decision. Better late than never, right?

SallieB and Gary, a company marketing staffer, are now posting on the Fresh & Easy marketing Blog, as well as answering some of the reader questions left via the comment box. As mentioned, SallieB does an excellent job with the Twitter site, and it appears Gary has been posting on the company's Twitter site as well. Both have added to the Fresh & Easy corporate marketing Blog, particularly the simple fact that the posting is now more frequent. It could be a little more frequent however. A minimum of at least once a week seems reasonable to us.

Having SallieB and Gary posting on the company Blog also has an added benefit for Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market: both are or very close to the age demographic (about 18-35) which we've identified to thus far be the most enthusiastic about the Fresh & Easy small-format, convenience-oriented grocery and fresh foods store and retail offering. Combining the use of the Blog with social networking tools like Twitter is something both of them seem well versed in and comfortable with.

Fresh & Easy Marketing chief Simon Uwins has often mentioned his affection for the British band Radio Head, which was born in Oxford, England, in the corporate marketing Blog. But it appears that about one year since we first suggested it, Mr. Uwins has listened to the musical advice of another British rock legend, Joe Cocker, he born and raised in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, and asked for a little help from his friends with the company Blog. As Mr. Cocker sings:

What would you think if I sang out of tune,
Would you stand up and walk out on me?
Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song
And I'll try not to sing out of key.

Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm, I get high with a little help from my friends
Mm, gonna try with a little help from my friends

[Click here for all of the lyrics, and a cell phone ringtone as well.]

We look forward to watching how the Fresh & Easy corporate marketing Blog progresses now that the two new associates have joined the team. Of course, some might suggest that now with a team of three, particularly since the two new Bloggers are extremely talented from our observations, that the bar has now automatically been set much higher. We will let Fresh & Easy Buzz readers know if we think that bar has been met -- or even exceeded -- down the road a bit. [Hint: We like that SallieB and Gary have been posting at least one a week since January. That frequency sounds familiar.]

Waiting a year to bring in some help with the Blog was about 11 months too long though. We've heard from a number of the company Blog readers who didn't ever get their post questions answered, nearly all of them were Fresh & Easy store customers. Most were not very pleased.

Those we heard from also said they stopped shopping at the stores. We only heard from about six such people -- but that's six too many for a grocer to alienate when doing so can be easily avoided. And if six did send us comments, comments we didn't ask for, we can imagine there are more than six that felt they received negative customer service by not having their questions addressed on the corporate marketing Blog. And as all marketers know, word-of-mouth can be the best -- and the worse if negative -- form of marketing. It's a powerful sword that can cut both ways.

Course correction is good among retailers and marketers. We applaud it. But waiting unnecessarily too long to course correct when there's no need to do so can cause damage to a brand, not to mention contributing to a loss of customers. We suggest it did so at Fresh & Easy.

After all, there's never anything wrong with asking for a little help from one's friends -- in real time though. And can't you almost feel the sigh of relief when reading Mr. Uwins' January 2, 2009 Blog post about getting a little help with the corporate marketing Blog from his friends-associates?

Reader Resource:

[The Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market corporate marketing Blog is here.]

[A couple past posts from Fresh & Easy Buzz about the Fresh & Easy company Blog but not directly related to the topic addressed in our post: April 6, 2008: Telegraph.uk.com: 'Tesco USA Slip Highlights the Perils of Corporate Blogging;' We Couldn't Disagree More With This Piece April 18, 2008: Fresh & Easy Marketing Director Talks About the 'Self-Service' Checkout Policy at the Stores in the F&E Company Blog.]

[Twitter.com: You can follow Fresh & Easy Buzz on Twitter here.]

'The Promotional Pundit:' Old September 25, 2008 Online Coupon Post Removed From the Fresh & Easy Company Marketing Blog; See My Past Columns

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market director of marketing Simon Uwins or one of the grocery chain's marketing staffers has removed the September 25, 2008 post about the grocer's first online coupon from the company marketing Blog as I suggested in my recent columns should be done.

Read my past columns on the topic at the links below to learn what I wrote about the issue:

>October 10, 2008: 'The Promotional Pundit': Keeping the Marketing and Promotional Eye On the Ball; Fixing A Promotional Fiasco Fresh & Easy Isn't Even Aware Of

>October12, 2008: 'The Promotional Pundit:' More On the Online Coupon Fiasco: Tesco Fresh & Easy's Marketing Department to Launch A New Online Coupon Early Next Week

>October 13, 2008: 'The Promotional Pundit': Tesco Fresh & Easy Launches New $6-off Online Coupon Today; Post on Corp. Marketing Blog Remains -- Adding Insult to Injury

The old, September 25 post remained on the Fresh & Easy corporate marketing Blog until at least late last week.

The Promotional Pundit was alerted by a regular reader of the column yesterday that it had been removed.

It's good to see somebody at Fresh & Easy agreed with the Promotional Pundit and a number of Fresh & Easy Buzz readers who emailed me about the issue. Even more so, it's good the retailer is willing to self-correct.

Their were a number of readers of the Fresh & Easy marketing Blog who made comments on the Blog's September 25 post about being disappointed about not being able to get their online coupon when they clicked the link on the post, as you can read about and view in my previous columns linked above. When the readers/consumers clicked the link to go to the page where the coupon was supposed to be located, they were greeted with a message telling them the coupon had expired -- but suggesting they should go to their nearest Fresh & Easy market for great in-store low prices. Of course, since they were invited to obtain a coupon so they could enjoy "lower" prices, that wasn't a very pleasing solution to them.

As I wrote about in this October 13 column, "'The Promotional Pundit': Tesco Fresh & Easy Launches New $6-off Online Coupon Today; Post on Corp. Marketing Blog Remains -- Adding Insult to Injury," Fresh & Easy issued a new online coupon on October 13. That online coupon is being promoted on the homepage of the freshandeasy.com Web site. It isn't being promoted at all at present on Mr. Uwins' Fresh & Easy company marketing Blog. No new post regarding the new coupon replaced the September 25 post which I suggested needed to be removed -- and now has been removed from the Fresh & Easy company marketing Blog.

Even though the seven readers of the Fresh & Easy marketing Blog won't get an answer from Mr. Uwins or anybody else at Fresh & Easy to their comments about not being able to obtain their online coupon, at least by removing the post no further damage will be done from a marketing, branding and customer relations standpoint to Fresh & Easy.

That's the best thing a marketer can do in such a situation, which is why the Promotional Pundit suggested it needed to be done.

The comments from the seven consumers should have each been answered on the September 25 Blog post first though, telling each one about the new $6-off purchases of $30 or more online coupon, and providing the link to it on the homepage of the freshandeasy.com Web site. That would have been good customer service.

If a retailer uses a Blog as a marketing tool, it automatically becomes an interactive customer service tool as well. As a result, it is incumbent on the retailer to them answer readers comments -- positive or negative -- just like that retailer expects store-level employees to respond to questions from customers in-store. The Blog is in many ways merely an electronic extension of a physical storefront after all.

However, since the September 25 post is now gone (a positive event), it's a moot point in terms of responding to the comments from the readers/consumers. At least by removing the old post Fresh & Easy's marketing department is correcting a mistake, which I congratulate them for doing.

The first rule of marketing is: "But first, do no harm." An appendix to that rule is: "If you cause harm, immediately prevent further harm."

Fresh & Easy was slow on the draw in preventing further reputational harm by talking so long to delete the September 25 post. But at least they have now done so. That's a positive thing in terms of preventing additional marketing, branding and customer relations harm to the company.

Things Are Improving Over at the Fresh & Easy Corporate Blog: Perhaps They've Been Listening to Us?

On January 21, we wrote this piece, "Click, Click!: Who's Minding the Fresh & Easy Corporate Blog?" In the piece, we noted how infrequently Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market corporate marketing director Simon Uwins and his marketing staff post in the corporate blog they created as a marketing and communications tool for the small-format grocery stores prior to the first stores' opening in November, 2007.

We likened proper maintenance (frequent posting of quality information) of a corporate blog to proper maintenance of a retail store, in that websites and corporate blogs are an electronic extension (or electronic storefront) in many ways of a retailer's brick-and-mortar stores. And, just like poorly maintained stores, infrequently updated corporate blogs can actually be a negative for a retailer rather than a positive.

Then, a couple weeks after our January 21 piece, we started to notice more frequent Fresh & Easy corporate blog posts in February. The electronic storefront seemed to be starting to be better maintained.

As a result, we wrote this piece, "It Looks Like Somebody is Minding the Fresh & Easy Corporate Blog a Bit Better of Late," on February 14, in which we noted the fact we were seeing more frequent (and better) posts on the Fresh & Easy corporate blog by Mr. Uwins and/or his marketing staffers. In this piece and in our original January 21 piece, we suggested at least one post, once a week, should be the minimum for the F&E corporate blog.

Between late February and early March we were a bit saddened to see that once again the blog posting frequency started to revert to the old ways--weeks passing without a post and poor quality posts. In fact, we even considered another "Click, Click" piece on the topic.

However, things started to improve on March 18. Between March 18 and March 28, the Fresh & Easy corporate blog has had four posts: one on March 18, another on March 21, a third post on March 28, and the most recent on March 28. That even beats our suggested minimum of at least one post per-week. It seems Spring is coming in like a lion over at the Fresh & Easy corporate blog. Congratulations.

We've also noticed a new aspect to Mr. Uwins' and staff's blog posts. They're now quoting what bloggers are saying in some cases about their experiences (only the good ones of course) at and with Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market grocery stores.

Since this is something we started doing in December, 2007 (and continue to do today), the very first month we began publishing Fresh & Easy Buzz, we obviously like it. [Just don't use our megaphone graphic please.] Most specifically, we created a feature called "Vox Populi: The People and Bloggers Speak on Fresh & Easy" many months ago, which we use to bring our readers consumer and blogger opinions on the small-format, convenience-oriented Fresh & Easy grocery stores.

If Mr. Uwins and company got the idea from Fresh & Easy Buzz, we're fine with it. [it's good to know the blog is being read.] If they didn't, it's still a good addition. After all, it isn't an uncommon practice in the blogesphere. Of course, in our "Vox Populi" we will continue to bring a balance of the positive and less-positive consumer (and blogger) opinions and posts about Fresh & Easy stores and operations.

So, we tip our organic cotton, Fair Trade hats to Mr. Uwins and company for a good mid-to-late March in terms of better maintenance of the Fresh & Easy corporate blog. As we argued in our January and February "Click, Click" pieces, a corporate blog--like a retail grocery store--is part of the whole of a retailer's operations, customer service and marketing strategies and practices. Further, just like with a store, if a company lets the electronic communications storefront of its business lie fallow, it will hurt that retailer's customer service reputation.

We've noticed more--and more positive--comments on the Fresh & Easy corporate blog since the posts have been more frequent. That's no accident. More frequent and better quality communications leads to a better perception of customer service, both at the brick and mortar store level and with a marketing and communication tool like a corporate blog.

We suggest Mr. Uwins and company not let March come in like a lion, but then allow April (in corporate blog terms) go out like a lamb (infrequent posts). After all, it's a customer service issue. And the improvements are already being noted.

It Looks Like Somebody is Minding the Fresh & Easy Corporate Blog A Bit Better of Late

On January 21, we wrote in this piece, "Click, Click: Who's Minding the Fresh & Easy Corporate Blog," that it had been over five weeks since Fresh & Easy neighborhood marketing chief Simon Uwins or one of his staffers has made a post on the corporate blog, which the retailer designed and has used as one of its "marketing and communication tools."

Further, in the January 21 piece we suggested that blogs are great extensions of a retail storefronts in terms of being used as an electronic marketing and communications device. However, just like actual retail storefronts, which become a minus rather than a plus when they are neglected, so too do corporate blogs become a negative rather than a positive tool when they are neglected. [Read our January 21, 2007 piece here.]

We are pleased today though to see, after checking the Fresh & Easy corporate blog, that the frequency of posts from either Mr. Uwins or one of his staffers has increased considerably after we wrote that piece on January 21. [We aren't saying we had anything to do with this occurance. Rather, that its just nice to see it happening since it's something we wrote about.]

Since we wrote the piece on January 21, there have been three posts, each about a week apart. The latest post was on February 8, six days ago. That means in keeping with this every seven days or so interval it looks like the corporate bloggers has now established, a new post should be coming from Uwins and company in the next few days.

If you read our January 21 piece, you will notice we suggested that in the name of good communications, the corporate blog should publish some type of new news or information at least once a week. Again, we are pleased to see that's about the frequency of updates since we wrote our piece.

Finally, in our January 21 piece we talked about the fact the corporate bloggers don't answer reader questions in the comments section of the the blog. Specifically, we noted the December 14 blog posting in which there are three questions from readers who took the time to "talk back" to the bloggers. [See the questions here.] However, the Fresh & Easy corporate bloggers haven't even taken the time to reply to the readers--and perhaps Fresh & Easy store customers'--questions.

As of today--February 14--those reader questions still haven't been responded to by Uwins or one of his staffers. This is poor customer service. It only takes a couple minutes to respond--and those couple minutes could create a store customer, not too mention word of mouth praise for the marketing team.

We would hope the Fresh & Easy corporate bloggers answer those questions and make it a policy from now on to respond--even with a single sentence--to any questions asked in the reader comments section of the blog.

Marketing is everything a retailer does. It's store-level, and cyber-level as well. Corporate blogs, like retail stores, need to be kept fresh. Regular updating, interesting selections, graphics (in-store and online) and good two-way communication are all key. We're pleased to see the post-January 21 face-lift at the Fresh & Easy corporate blog. If Mr. Uwins and company can improve the blog's customer service level by taking the time to respond to reader questions in the comments' section, we might just be able to call it a complete refurbishing. We will be watching closely.

Note: Fresh & Easy Buzz is an independent blog and has no affiliation with Tesco or Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market in any way, shape or form.

New Post (or Date) at the Fresh & Easy Corporate Blog

When we wrote our piece here (see below) yesterday about the state of the Fresh & Easy corporate blog, the post currently dated Sunday, January 20, 2008 was dated December 14, 2007, along with the piece currently under that date on the blog. (Click here to view the F&E blog

We checked the F&E corporate blog four times yesterday: just seconds before we started writing our story, once we finished writing our story, right before we posted it, and about three hours later on Monday evening. All four times the current post dated January 20 was dated December 14, 2007.

Sounds like Gremlins in the system, date changers (similar to shape shifters we're told) or something similar we suspect. A bit mysterious though.

In any event, we're just glad to see a new post on the blog. We harbor no illusions we had anything to do with the date change. Great pictures of the prepared foods items in the blog post as well!

Now, it would be nice if someone at the blog would answer those three reader questions in the comments box on the December 14, 2007 post. One reader actually has offered his answer to one of the questions. All three are good questions, and it would be nice to read F&E's answers to them.

Click! Click!: Who's Minding the Fresh & Easy Corporate Blog?

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market marketing chief Simon Uwins created a blog on the Fresh & Easy website prior to the grocer's opening its first stores in the Western U.S. The retailer used it to announce their first store openings as well, along with posting other news since then.

We thought (and still do) doing so was a great idea. Corporate blogs can in many ways not only be a great communication device for retailers to reach a wider audience They also can be sort of a digital extension of the retail storefront in terms of marketing, media relations, customer and employee communications.

However, just like retail storefronts that get neglected--which leads to all sorts of negative results--corporate blogs that get neglected can actually result in being a negative aspect of a retailer's business, rather than a positive one, which we feel they are when kept current and up to-date.

Such we feel is the current state of affairs on the Fresh & Easy corporate blog. The last posting on the blog--which we enjoyed--was on December 14, 2007, a full five weeks ago. Additionally, in the comments section of that post are four comments, three of which are questions to the blogger. None of the three questions have been answered by Mr. Uwins or members of his marketing staff.

It's not like nothing has happened since December 14, 2007. How about the Christmas and New Year's holiday's for starters: They're generally the two biggest shopping days of the year for grocery retailers. There must be at least one or two bits of news from the holiday season at the stores that Fresh & Easy could share with the world.

A few other things have happened since December 14, 2007 as well. For example: Many more Fresh & Easy stores have opened, Tesco had a ribbon-cutting ceremony at a San Francisco location that will be it's first confirmed Fresh & Easy store in Northern California, and Wal-Mart has decided to get into the small-format grocery business in Arizona and compete against Fresh & Easy. Those happenings are just for starters on the Fresh & Easy news front.

As we said in our opening paragraph, it's our belief the Fresh & Easy corporate blog is a great idea. However, when the bloggers don't respond to reader questions in the comment box, it suggests to us that the team isn't customer-service oriented. That's a bad reflection on store level associates who are striving to serve shoppers.

Additionally, when the blog goes without an update for five weeks, it makes us wonder what is up at Fresh & Easy HQ? We know the folks there must be super-busy. But how long does it take to write a little update on the blog at least once a week? Not long, is the answer to that question.

What we'd like to see happen over at the F&E blog:

>Update the blog with something new at least once a week.

>Post comments to the blog in a timely manner. We know for a fact that some comments aren't posted to the blog for weeks. The bloggers moderate the blog, which means comments don't go immediatly to it. That's fine, we do it ourselves for security reasons. We also make sure to post the comments within a day or two, three at the most. It's just common curtesy to do so; if a reader takes the time to read what you write, and to write a comment or ask a question, the least a blogger can do is post (or delete if it is offensive) those comments in a timely manner.

>Either answer comment questions or post a "no comment." This is customer service 101. Remember, your blog is an extension of your stores.

We're looking forward to seeing a brand new post on the Fresh & Easy corporate blog soon. We know there's lots of great stuff the marketing staff can share with the blog's readers. Also, we're looking forward to seeing the reader comment questions answered soon as well.

The blog is a great idea, as we said above. We support it. However, great initial ideas that aren't followed-up on and nurtured can become bad ones in no time flat.

But just like the grocery store that went neglected, and soon lost most of its customers do to its lack of attention, a corporate blog can be a positive force for a business, or a negative one.

Communication is a multi-channel phenomenon. When one of the two channels--the reader in this case--isn't being responded to, they stop reading the blog. It isn't hard to assume they also aren't likely to shop in that retail blogger's stores either--nor suggest the retailer to his or her friends and family.