Safeway Puts its Brand on Ice in San Francisco For the Holidays

Branding on ice: The Safeway logo covers the middle of the ice rink above.


Private Brand Showcase

Pleasanton, California-based Safeway Stores, Inc. is extending its brand to an outdoor venue that defines fun, excitement and entertainment during the November -to- January holiday season.

That outdoor venue is the Safeway Holiday Ice Rink in San Francisco's Union Square.

The popular ice rink in Union Square, a shopping area in the heart of the city that's packed with huge department stores like Macy's, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale's and Saks Fifth Avenue, along with scores of other retail shops, boutiques, restaurants and cafes, opened November 9, and runs until January 16, 2001.

Safeway, which has a long history of business - it has 14 supermarkets in the city of nearly 900,000 which is located about 30 miles from the Pleasanton corporate headquarters - civic and public involvement in San Francisco, has sponsored the Union Square Ice Rink since 2007.

In addition to the supermarket chain's lead and named sponsorship, a number of other businesses, such as department store retailer Macy's and Ghirardelli Chocolate Company, which was founded in the city-by-the-bay, along with a number of radio and television stations, have signed on as co-sponsors of the Safeway Ice Rink in Union Square.

As part of its sponsorship, Safeway Stores, Inc. is helping to keep the cost of using the ice rink low - tickets cost just $10 for adults and $6 for kids eight years-old or younger. Ice skate and hockey skate rentals, for those who don't have their own, which is probably a fairly high number of people in San Francisco where it's know to get chilly - but not that chilly - are $5 pair

There are also specialty group rates, starting for parties of 15 or more persons.

A portion of ticket proceeds are being donated to the Boys and Girls Clubs of San Francisco and the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department.

And to make the day or night on the ice last a bit longer, there's even a photo booth at the union square ice rink, which is open from 10 a.m-11:30 p.m daily, where skaters can have their photographs taken for $2 a pop. The photos are printed out on the spot. The photo machine will also send a digital version to your e-mail address.


The logo above is used in various places around the ice rink to reinforce the Safeway brand and the grocer's sponsorship.

The Safeway sponsored and branded Union Square Ice Rink is also holding a number of special events for the public this month and in December.

The first event was the opening of the ice rink last week. The opening ceremonies, which were held from 9 a.m-10 .a.m on November 9, was hosted by "The Ghost of Christmas Past," a member of the cast of San Francisco's internationally renown American Conservatory Theater's annual A Christmas Carol production.

Among other opening morning festivities on the ice was a performance by the popular Irish tenor Michael Londra, who is currently staring in Celtic Yuletide at the Marines’ Memorial Theatre in the city. Londra performed his hit song "Beyond A Star."

Skaters enjoy the Safeway Holiday Ice Rink over the weekend.

On November 25 the Safeway Ice Rink will be a part of San Francisco's annual Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony at Union Square, which is held each year the day after Thanksgiving.

But in typical San Francisco style - and flair - the two other events planned for the Safeway Ice Rink are a bit less traditional.

On December 1, the rink is hosting Speed Dating Skating, which is an on-the-ice version of speed dating. The singles, which there are many of in San Francisco, are being invited to wear their most unusual holiday-inspired sweater as a way to "break the ice" and get conversations started, which in-turn might lead to a future date - or even one later that night.

There's also an interesting freebie included as part of the event: The first 100 singles to arrive get a mistletoe headband, which should spark a little more than just conversation while on the ice.

The "singles night" event happens to share a "branding" angle with one of Safeway's stores in San Francisco - although we're not sure the ice rink's producers were aware of it or had it top-of-mind when planning the event.

Safeway's store in the city's Marina District - where former chairman and CEO Peter McGowan, who also led the ownership group that kept the San Francisco Giants from moving out of the city over a decade ago, has lived for many years - is known as the "Singles Safeway" because of the number of single people who first met in the aisles of the supermarket. Many of those meetings led to a first date - and often two, three or more and, in some cases, even marriage.

In June Safeway Stores, Inc. held this event - Safeway Has A Picnic in San Francisco Featuring the 'World's Longest Picnic Table' to Showcase its 'Open Nature' Natural Foods' Brand - on the Marina Green, which is across the street from the Marina Safeway store in San Francisco.

But the city's unique style and flair really comes out in full bloom on 8 (8-9:30 p.m) when the ice rinks promoter is presenting Drag Queens on Ice.

Willy Bietak Productions, the producer for the Safeway Ice Rink in Union Square, tells us it's giving Santa a break for the night and instead it's invited a number of the San Francisco Bay Area's most colorful professional drag performers to skate and perform at the rink.

The promoter says its also inviting the public to don their own wigs and outfits and skate alongside the Drag Queens during the evening.

Prediction: Not only will it be a colorful evening but you can also bet the photo booth at the ice rink will be getting a lot of use and bringing in plenty of cash during the event.

Sponsoring the holiday ice rink is smart marketing and provides a major branding-plus for Safeway Stores in the San Francisco Bay Area and corporately, in our analysis.

Why? It's the holidays, a time of joy and family, it's an ice rink in San Francisco, a once-a year-event (although this year the city has two such outdoor rinks for the holidays) and its fun.

Therefore as the sponsor of the ice rink in Union Square, Safeway gets its eponymous brand, which it also uses in various versions as a product brand - Safeway, Safeway Select, Safeway Kitchens, Safeway Farms - on food, grocery and general merchandise products in its stores, associated with holiday joy, individual and family fun, a unique, once-a-year experience, and fun and happiness.

All the characteristics noted above pretty much sum up a marketer's dream list when it comes to branding.

Many Bay Area television and radio stations are co-sponsors of the Safeway Holiday Ice Rink in Union Square. Each year since 2007 these and other local broadcast and print media outlets provide millions of dollars worth (if it were paid advertising) of free publicity for the event - and thus to Safeway Stores' as the sponsor.

It's all third-party endorsement publicity as well - television coverage of the skaters and special events at the rink, radio stations producing and airing live remotes from the venue, photographs and stories in the local papers -which is much more powerful from a marketing perspective than paid advertising is.

Putting its Safeway brand on ice in San Francisco, which is the "go to" city for residents of Northern California, where Safeway is the market share leader with about 250 supermarkets (the second highest U.S. division in gross sales after Vons' in Southern California), is not only a "cool" thing for Safeway Stores, Inc., to do, it's also good business - and smart branding.

Related Stories

October 26, 2011: Farms ... at Safeway? Grocer Launches its Newest Private Brand ... 'Safeway Farms'

June 19, 2011: Safeway Has A Picnic in San Francisco Featuring the 'World's Longest Picnic Table' to Showcase its 'Open Nature' Natural Foods' Brand

May 28, 2011: At The 'Brand Factory': Safeway Stores' Launches Newest Private Brand - 'Safeway Kitchens'

February 7, 2011: Getting There First...Plus, Are Tesco's Fresh & Easy and Safeway Traveling Down A Similar Private Brand Aisle?

January 5, 2011: Safeway Adds 'Open Nature' to its Natural-Organic-Healthy Foods' Private Brand Portfolio

April 8, 2011: The Branded 'Signature Cafe' in Safeway Stores' Soon to Open 'Social Safeway' in Washington D.C. Should Turn A Few Heads

July 21, 2010: 'Sipsational' & 'Quenchtastic': Safeway Introduces New 21-Flavor Line of Soft Drinks Under 'refreshe' Private Brand

Click on this link - Safeway Stores Inc. - to read additional stories about Safeway.

Click on this link - private brand showcase - to read past stories in our 'Private Brand Showcase' feature.

Send in the Clowns: Did You Hear the One About Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Launching A Customer Loyalty Program?

Don't you love farce? My fault, I fear
I thought that you'd want what I want, sorry, my dear
But where are the clowns, send in the clowns
Don't bother, they're here..."

- From the song "Send in the Clowns," by Stephen Sondheim

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. group in the United Kingdom has been in the media spotlight for the past week as the result of the recent discovery, once again, that members of its newspapers' editorial staff, particularly at the now-shuttered News of the World tabloid, hacked the mobile phone and voice mail accounts of various people as a way to "scoop" the competition.

The latest news finds Murdoch's top executive, Rebekah Brooks, being arrested and interrogated by British police after resigning her position the other day, despite her Sergeant Schultz-like claims she knows nothing of the phone-hacking behavior.

To Ms. Brooke's and the News of the World phone hackers we say: Why did you bother?

Instead, it's much easier and less risky to write and publish a story as "news," even though the particular news had already been broken by a blog, Fresh & Easy Buzz, nearly three weeks earlier, and in the process just fail to discover, or if you did discover it, fail to note or attribute where the news first appeared. After all ... In the case of Fresh & Easy Buzz we're just a little old blog that's read by about 100,000 people a week and has 3,400 followers on Twitter, including scores of UK and U.S. supermarket industry folks and a whole lot of journalists and writers from both sides of the pond.

Such is the case with a story in today's Financial Times, titled: "Tesco to trial loyalty card operation at US operation," which you can read here.

On June 20, 2011 we broke the news that Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is developing and plans to launch a loyalty card program for its chain of 176 stores, which are located in California (127 units), southern Nevada (21 stores) and metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona (28 stores), in this detailed story: June 30, 2011: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Developing Loyalty Card Program it's Planning to Launch This Year.

We invite you to read our June 30 story linked above, then read the July 17, 2011 Financial Times' piece published today (linked above and at the end of this story), nearly three weeks later.

The Financial Times' piece offers little added information from our story of nearly three weeks ago, and has far less detail, despite its source, who's very familiar with Fresh & Easy Buzz.

The publication's source of information is Tesco group deputy CEO/Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market CEO Tim Mason.

Either Mr. Mason's public relations people at Tesco and at Fresh & Easy's headquarters office in El Segundo, California pitched the Financial Times' on doing the loyalty card story - perhaps in part because they read our June 30 report and have been getting tired of the calls from writers from mainstream publications who also read it and have asked if it's true - or the Financial Times' "heard about" Fresh & Easy's plans to launch a loyalty card scheme in its Western U.S. stores and the writer of the piece was thus granted an interview with Tim Mason, who is attributed as the sole source in today's story.

Either way, Fresh & Easy Buzz broke the story on June 30, 2011. And based on a search of all three major search engines, no other publication has written about it since, until today's Financial Times' piece.

If you search using the search terms "Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market," "Fresh & Easy" or "Tesco's Fresh & Easy" on Google, the most popular search engine by an English countryside mile, you will see Fresh & Easy Buzz almost always comes up as the first listing in the categories. If not, it's almost aways in the top five. Not hard to spot, in other words.

And if you google "Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market loyalty program or card," which is something a writer of a story on the topic might do before starting work on such a piece and should be the first thing any editor of a major or minor publication does before going to press with a story, you'll see here (as of 6 p.m today) that our June 30, 2011 story not only comes up at the very top - although it might move down once the Financial Times' piece starts getting reprinted by the numerous publications that if they don't check might assume the British-based business publication broke the Fresh & Easy loyalty card story - it's also the only report about Fresh & Easy's plans, until today of course, to launch a loyalty card.

Perhaps the writer of the story and the editors at the Financial Times aren't aware Fresh & Easy Buzz broke the loyalty card story on June 30, 2011? That certainly is possible if the writer or editors didn't do an Internet search and notice the top and most recent item under Fresh & Easy and loyalty cards, which is our June 30, 2011 story.

But now that they're aware of it, the Financial Times' editors can add a sentence to the story published today that goes something like this: "As first reported in the Fresh & Easy Buzz blog on June 30, 2011. A link to the story in the blog would be appreciated as well.

Not long after we published our June 30 story on Tesco-owned Fresh & Easy's loyalty card plans, we sent a direct message and a link to the story to a follower on Twitter, who also happens to be a senior executive at a major food and grocery industry research firm in the UK.

Our tweet: Let's see which major UK-based publication writes about Fresh & Easy's loyalty card scheme first but doesn't mention it was first reported by Fresh & Easy Buzz. The follower's reply: I will keep an eye out. The exchange was related to a discussion of a similar topic. We both have that answer today.

The Financial Times has this notice at the bottom of its story today: "Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web."

Sondheim's lyrics noted at the top of this story seem to us to fit that irony well.

And the Financial Times has nothing to worry about from Fresh & Easy Buzz when it comes to its end-of-story notice. After all, we've been there, done that on the Fresh & Easy loyalty program story, on June 30, 2011, in case you forget where you read about it first.

Read the two stories at the links below and feel free to let us know what you think.

~Fresh & Easy Buzz - June 30, 2011: Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Developing Loyalty Card Program it's Planning to Launch This Year.

~Financial Times - July 17, 2011: Tesco to trial loyalty card at US operation.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Developing Loyalty Card Program it's Planning to Launch This Year

Breaking News & Analysis

Tesco's El-Segundo, California-based Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is working on a loyalty card program it currently plans to implement in its stores later this year, Fresh & Easy Buzz has learned.

The loyalty program is still being worked on at Fresh & Easy. But it's in its mid-to-final stages of development, according to our sources.

Neither Tesco or its Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market have publicly mentioned or announced anything about the loyalty program or planned implementation this year. We're the first publication to break the news about the plans.

Those plans currently call for Fresh & Easy's loyalty program to be handled in house, where it's being developed with some outside help, rather than being developed, implemented and administrated by Dunnhumby, the UK firm now fully-owned by Tesco, which developed and administrates Tesco's Clubcard in the UK.

Dunnhumby's U.S. office, which is in Cincinnati, Ohio, can't develop, implement and administrate the loyalty card program for Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market because of its long-term partnership agreement and contract with Kroger Co., who's loyalty card program was developed by Dunnhumby, which is why the firm's U.S. office is in Ohio where Kroger is headquartered

Dunnhumby works closely with Kroger Co. in implementing and administrating its loyalty program, along with creating new marketing programs featuring Kroger's loyalty cards. Kroger Co. is the second-largest  retailer of food and groceries in the U.S. Walmart Stores, Inc. is number one.

The Fresh & Easy loyalty program isn't a direct version of Tesco's popular UK Clubcard. This is the case for a couple reasons, according to our sources.

First, the Dunnhumby partnership and contract poses a problem in terms of using resources from the Tesco program for Fresh & Easy's loyalty card program. But of course Tesco owns Fresh & Easy, so it would be hard to fathom it's not borrowing from Clubcard to a certain degree for Fresh & Easy's loyalty program.

Second, Fresh & Easy has an information technology (IT) system of its own that isn't directly compatible with Tesco's in the UK. Therefore, the software for the loyalty program at Fresh & Easy has to be made to be compatible with its legacy IT system, which has been since day one and continues to be a source of numerous problems for Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market.

Not being able to use Dunnhumby - although that doesn't mean Tesco CEO Philip Clarke, Tesco group deputy CEO and chief marketing officer Tim Mason, who's also CEO of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, aren't asking questions of or getting informal assistance from certain people at Tesco-owned Dunnhumby - to develop, implement and administrate the loyalty program is a major drawback for Tesco and its Fresh & Easy chain because the firm founded by Anita Dunn and Clyde Humby, who sold out their shares in the company to Tesco and retired, is one of the best around at customer response marketing and loyalty programs.

In fact, one of our sources who's familiar with Fresh & Easy's loyalty program tells us, from the source's perspective, the program lacks expertise from a marketing, information technology and software delivery standpoint. And when it comes to loyalty programs, IT, software performance and marketing are about all that matters. Therefore, in the source's view, Fresh & Easy's loyalty program is far from ready for prime time.

Tesco considered developing and introducing a loyalty program at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market last year. But it decided against it for a variety of reasons.

Two key reasons it decided against it last year were because CEO Mason decided sales and sales growth at Fresh & Easy was not at a point where doing so was feasible, and because one of Fresh & Easy's key marketing propositions since 2008 has been its low prices without having to use a loyalty card positioning and slogan.

The latter of the two remains a problem from a marketing positioning and communications for Fresh & Easy in introducing a loyalty program, even though the chain has been down-playing that particular positioning element for the last year or so.

But the issue doesn't even have to come up publicly to be a problem. Rather, the inherent problem is that using the low prices without a loyalty card theme and then introducing a loyalty card has the potential to create confusion in the minds of consumers about Fresh & East, despite whatever marketing and public relations spin the chain puts on the 180-degree change.

Read what we wrote about a loyalty card at Tesco's Fresh & Easy in this 2010 piece - February 2, 2010: Dunnhumby; Trial Balloons By Media; and Fresh & Easy's Loyalty Card Marketing Trap. We also offered this analysis in 2009 - December 8, 2009: Analysis: Why A Loyalty Club Card Program Makes Zero-Sense For Tesco's Fresh & Easy USA.

Depending on the nature and quality of the loyalty program Tesco's Fresh & Easy implements this year, if it doesn't change its mind about doing so which it's done before, it might not pose a problem from a sales standpoint to do so now - particularly to the extent it would have in 2009 or even last year - although based on what we've learned from our sources it doesn't appear the loyalty program is ready for prime time.

But the devil is in the details. For example, we wouldn't suggest the loyalty card be required to get promotional deals on items offered in the grocer's weekly advertising circular or for in-store specials, as commonly is the case with grocer loyalty programs.

Why: Because at Fresh & Easy's limited stage of development, along with its struggles to grow sales, limiting such promotions to loyalty card members only is a prescription for reduced sales, in our analysis, which is something the grocery chain can hardly afford to do. Using the card in this way also has the potential to serve as a barrier to new shoppers trying Fresh& Easy, in our analysis.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market CEO Mason and Tesco CEO Clarke at present intend the loyalty card program to be a replacement for the grocery chain's chronic use of its deep discount (20%-25% off) store coupons - the $5 of $20/$25, $6 of $30 and $10 off $50 versions particularly - which as we've written extensively about are a major contributor to Fresh & Easy's negative-38% margin, which it reported for its 2010/11 fiscal year, ended February 26, 2011.

That margin metric hasn't improved over the last four months. In order for Tesco to break-even with Fresh & Easy by the end of its 2012/13 fiscal year, which is just 20 months away, it must increase the El Segundo, California-based chain's margin significantly - and fast.

Tesco currently has 176 Fresh & Easy stores - which average about 10,000-12,000 square-feet and offer a limited assortment (about 5,000 SKUs) of fresh foods including: produce, meats, perishables, frozen and ready-to-eat and heat fresh-prepared foods, along with beer, wine (liquor in some stores) and packaged food, grocery and general merchandise items - in California (127 units), Arizona (28) and Nevada (21)

Replacing the discount coupons, which are also a major contributor to the 11% comparable-store-sales growth Tesco reported for Fresh & Easy in April for the 2010/11 fiscal year, is far easier thought about and said than actually done though.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has been using the coupons chronically since 2008. It tried eliminating them in 2009, as we've reported, but after a couple months sales dropped so significantly without the vouchers it started issuing them again at the same regular pace, something Fresh & Easy has continued to do right on up to today. Take them away, in our analysis, and that double-digit comparable-sales-growth drops significantly.

So far this year, for example, the grocer has had one or more of the 20%-25% off coupons in distribution at virtually all times, issuing a new coupon online about every three weeks (with dates good for about three weeks), along with including paper coupons in its direct mailed advertising circulars nearly every week, plus issuing special coupon books regularly, which contain one month's worth (usually four) of coupons.

Fresh & Easy includes the online coupon in its quasi-loyalty "friends of fresh&easy" e-mail-based promotional program. Theoretically at least, the coupons are therefore only supposed to go to consumers who are signed up for the program.

But that's not the case because every time Fresh & Easy distributes a new coupon via "friends of fresh&easy," numerous Coupon Maven and Mommy Bloggers post the vouchers on their sites, where the discount coupons are available for download by anyone. Google "Fresh & Easy Coupon" and you will see what we're talking about. People also post the coupons on Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites. All that's required to obtain them is knowledge of how to use Internet, or knowing someone who does.

The store coupons serve a "pull" function for Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market though, in which in addition to encouraging people to return to the stores and shop (by getting more coupons), they also are designed (at least in theory) to draw or "pull" new customer into the stores, which is something that's essential for Fresh & Easy a this stage in the game.

The coupons are designed to do this in an immediate - nothing to join; just clip a coupon and come on in and shop - and regular way; and to do it fast. In contrast loyalty programs take a long time to develop and aren't the best vehicle for "pulling" shoppers into grocery stores until hundreds of thousands of consumers join the retailer's loyalty program.

This is a factor Tesco and Fresh & Easy better think deeply about as they go forward with the loyalty program. They have to eliminate or only use the deep discount coupons promotionally, say once per quarter instead of all the time, in order to improve margins.

But we doubt if a loyalty card program will address or solve the coupon issue directly for Fresh & Easy. And its hard to believe the program we've learned about from our sources is something Tesco wants to unleash on the Fresh & Easy stores soon.

New Fresh & Easy Clock Logo-Shaped Candies Are A Pretty Sweet Idea

Private Brands Showcase: Confections Category

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is introducing a new line of fresh & easy store brand fruit candies (pictured above) in the shape of its clock logo, which it features as part of its corporate logo on all of the "Fresh & Easy" signs on its 159 stores in California, Nevada and Arizona.

The fresh & easy clock-shaped candies are set to be in the stores on July 7.

We don't yet know how the candies taste since they haven't hit store shelves yet - but we like the product concept, in large part because in addition to serving the primary role as a product in the confections category, the line has the potential, at least in concept since it's obviously too early to tell, to serve a secondary function as an incremental branding element for the Fresh & Easy brand, which the clock plays a central role, and should play a greater role, in.

We like dual elements in product design, when they make sense, here at Fresh & Easy Buzz. This one makes sense.

The clock has the potential to be a strong branding element for Fresh & Easy if marketed well, in our analysis.

Regarding the clock as branding element, here's a suggestion: Have a bunch of those temporary tatoos kids love so much made up in the F&E clock design. Give them out to children in the stores as premiums for various occasions like grand openings, special events, or just semi-regularly for fun. It's simple. But we think it would serve as a part (elements of that incrementalism) of a whole in terms of various and multiple tactics as part of an overall strategy to build the brand, using the clock as a key element.

And besides, who've been told that at least one, and perhaps more than one, member of the Tesco Fresh & Easy corporate family has an actual, not temporary, tattoo of the F&E clock on their body. That's what we call real "branding."

[Private Brands' showcase is a semi-regular feature of Fresh & Easy Buzz. In it we highlight various Fresh & Easy private brand - and private brands from other grocers - products: the good, the bad and the ugly, offering analysis and commentary on the brands, items and related aspects.]