A Celebrity Endorsement For New York Grocery Chain Wegmans That's as Good as Mom's Apple Pie

Late last week actor Alec Baldwin appeared on David Letterman's late night talk program, "The Late Show."

During Baldwin's spot on the show Letterman asked the popular actor about his mother, who recently celebrated her 80th birthday. Baldwin talked at length with Letterman about his mom, who lives in upstate New York.

In addition to detailing what he says are his mom's secrets to longevity, which are well worth hearing because they're not only funny but very politically incorrect in today's health and nutrition-conscious environment, Alec Baldwin told Letterman why, despite his encouragement, his 80-year old mom just won't leave the cold winters of upstate New York for sunny California, where two of his actor-brothers live.

Hint: Her reason for not leaving involves the upstate New York-based Wegmans grocery chain. It's a money can't buy celebrity endorsement for Wegmans.

Sweet Tweets: Popular laist.com Web Site Picks Up Fresh & Easy Buzz's Buzz On Tesco's Fresh & Easy and Twitter.com; Adds A Little Buzz of its Own

Yesterday Fresh & Easy Buzz wrote and published this story [The UK Telegraph Reports on Tesco Fresh & Easy's Use of Twitter.Com; Since Fresh & Easy Buzz Was First to Report it, We Offer Some Added Value] about Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's use of the social media and networking site Twitter. We mentioned in yesterday's story that we were the first publication to report this development back in in September, 2008.

The popular laist.com (as in Los Angeles) Web site today picked up our piece from yesterday. (Who says folks don't read Blog pieces posted on a Sunday?) The laist.com piece is written and posted by one of the Web site's most trend-savvy and top writers, Lindsay William-Ross.

Below is the post in today's laist.com by Lindsay William-Ross:

Does Your Favorite Grocery Store Use Twitter? Should They?
laist.com
By Lindsay William-Ross

An article in today's Telegraph.co.uk touts the recent adoption of Twitter by British-based Tesco's Fresh & Easy grocery stores. Although the article focuses on the rarity of a Brit business using what's more popular with American businesses, F&E's web-watchers Fresh & Easy Buzz point out that the Tweets are coming from California, not England:

"Fresh & Easy's presence on Twitter.com isn't being maintained by a Tesco Fresh & Easy company employee based out of its Southern California headquarters or by a Tesco PLC employee in the UK. Rather, the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Twitter site is maintained on a regular basis by SallieB, who is a social marketing expert with Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's public relation's firm, ABCO International."

Regardless of where the Tweets originate, the fact is, businesses using Twitter to reach out to consumers is becoming a popular trend:

Though perhaps not gripping correspondence, Twitter does help to establish loyalty by giving customers an active way of communicating with the company's management. [...]

This may be because the technology is in its infancy - the site only opened in 2006 - or because it started life with a different aim in mind - to enable friends to tell each other what they were doing by answering quick, simple questions.

Nevertheless, a recent survey - the Cone Business in Social Media Study - found that 93pc of those questioned expected to see companies online. What's the point, though, of grocery stores using Twitter? What do they talk about?

An article from August 2008 on What Makes U Click? posed the same question, and took a look at what people said on Twitter in conversation with Whole Foods Market. Mostly it's just shop talk--product talk, really--about what flavor of tea a Tweeter likes, or how great the salad bar was on a given day. From a business perspective, mining Tweets for corporate feedback is a wise thing to do; service reps can intervene and solve problems and answer questions and gauge how well a product is being received. And producing Tweets can alert customers to sales, recalls, events, or store openings.

So what local grocers use Twitter? Not Vons or Ralphs, and Albertsons' gets a big FAIL for their one-Tweet wonder. And Tesco--parent to Fresh & Easy? Nope. Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and Fresh & Easy (and the unaffiliated Fresh & Easy Buzz), yes.

Do you follow any grocery stores on Twitter? Or should the whole idea just head for the checkout line?

[Here's a link to the original post at laist.com.]

The UK Telegraph Reports on Tesco Fresh & Easy's Use of Twitter.Com; Since Fresh & Easy Buzz Was First to Report it, We Offer Some Added Value

James Quinn, Wall Street Correspondent for the United Kingdom's Telegraph newspaper, has a story in today's edition of the paper's Web site about Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market "becoming one of the first British retailers to use the Twitter.com social networking site to communicate with consumers." [You can read the UK Telegraph story here.]

Fresh & Easy Buzz was the first publication to report in September, 2008 in this piece about Tesco's Fresh & Easy using Twitter. [Click here to view Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's Twitter.com site.]

Fresh & Easy Buzz also has a Twitter site, so we hang out a bit in the neighborhood. [Click here to view Fresh & Easy Buzz's Twitter.com site.]

We received links to the UK Telegraph story today from a couple of the followers of our Twitter.com feed. Therefore, since Fresh & Easy Buzz was the first publication to report on the development five months ago, we thought we would add some information to the Telegraph's report.

First, Fresh & Easy's presence on Twitter.com isn't being maintained by a Tesco Fresh & Easy company employee based out of its Southern California headquarters or by a Tesco PLC employee in the UK. Rather, the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Twitter site is maintained on a regular basis by SallieB, who is a social marketing expert with Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's public relation's firm, ABCO Worldwide. She works out of the firm's Sacramento, California office. SallieB also has her own Twitter site here, where she describes herself as a "Social Media-ette, PR/PA, West Coaster, and self professed nerd."

Additionally, there's a bit of a "Tesco" corporate mystery regarding Twitter.com. The mystery has nothing to do with the Fresh & Easy twitter site and feed.

The mystery: Either United Kingdom-based Tesco, which owns and operates Fresh & Easy neighborhood Market USA, or someone using the "Tesco" name has had a site on Twitter.com for a much longer period of time than its Fresh & Easy USA division has maintained a Twitter site for. However the "Tesco" feed has never been active. No updates have ever been given. "Updates" is Twitter.com lingo for the brief posts (called "Tweets" by users) users make on their Twitter sites.

The "Tesco" site does currently have two followers though, the UK-based supermarket industry trade publication Retail Week and yours truly, Fresh & Easy Buzz. [Click here to view the "Tesco" Twitter site.]

We have no idea if it's the "real" Tesco or not that put up the Twitter.com site. It could be though because some companies will "lock-up" their company names on social media sites either for future use or to make sure others don't use the name. We first discovered the "Tesco" feed about mid-2008. But to date nothing has been posted on it.

Twitter and food-grocery retailers

A few U.S. food and grocery retailers are currently using Twitter. But far fewer are using it than should be. The site is free, other than the cost of whatever amount of time an employee spends each day maintaining it, which need not be more than an hour in total on any given day.

Some of the food and grocery retailers using Twitter.com include Whole Foods Market, Inc., which has 19,119 followers. A couple regional Whole Foods' divisions, such as the one in Los Angeles, California, also maintain their own individual Twitter feeds as well.

Mega-convenience store chain 7-Eleven also has a Twitter.com site.

A group of fans of the specialty grocery chain Trader Joe's also have set up a site on Twitter. This type of Twitter site can be much more powerful than a retailer-maintained site because it offers the potential of positive third-party (consumer) endorsement for Trader Joe's, something the grocer gets a significant amount of on the Twitter feed. Of course, a group of people could set up a similar feed about a retailer and offer mostly negative comments in general or on a particular aspect of that retailer's business practices, as well. So goes the double-edged power potential of social media and marketing.

A number of other retailers, including E-commerce retailers, also maintain sites on Twitter.

Growing power of social media and marketing

Nearly 60% of U.S. consumers say they interact with companies on a social media Web site, and one in four interact more than once per week, according to the results of the 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study, according to an October, 2008 story in the Natural~Specialty Foods Memo Blog.

The results come form the 2008 Cone Business in Social Media study.

The Cone survey also found that a whopping 93% of Americans believe a company should have a presence in social media, while 85% believe a company should not only be present, but should also interact with consumers via social media.

Those are rather impressive percentages -- the kind of percentages that should convince those food and grocery retailers currently not using social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and others to do so.

Twitter user numbers growing fast, uses evolving

The number of people, businesses and organizations using Twitter is fast-growing. Additionally, the types of uses people, businesses and organizations are adopting Twitter for are becoming more varied as well. For example, the New York City-based U.S. Embassy of the government of Israel recently staged what it termed a "citizens" press conference regarding its invasion of the Gaza Strip using Twitter. This was the first time the government of a nation has done something like this. [You can learn more about the "citizens" press conference here.]

Meanwhile, we suggest if the "Tesco" site on Twitter.com belongs to the "real" Tesco, UK-based Tesco PLC, that perhaps the company hire SallieB to maintain the Twitter feed, along with her doing so for the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Twitter site. After all, your two lonely followers -- if it's the "real" Tesco -- Retail Week and Fresh & Easy Buzz -- have been waiting many months for the first update.

Breaking Buzz: Fresh & Easy Hires Hispanic Market PR Firm to Say 'Si, Se Puede! (Yes We Can) to Latino Consumers; We Suggest it's Doubtful

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market has decided it needs to better communicate its brand, along with its small-format, combination grocery and fresh foods stores in general, to Hispanic consumers in Southern California, southern Nevada and the Metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona region -- which are three of the regions with the highest percentage of Hispanic consumers in the U.S. -- where its 100-plus stores are located.

To this end, Fresh & Easy has retained the Los Angeles-based public relations firm RLPR + Marketing, which specializes in the Hispanic or Latino market, to handle marketing related and other forms of communications and publicity outreach to Latino consumers via the Hispanic media in these three Western U.S. markets, Fresh & Easy Buzz has learned.

The Los Angeles-based Latino market-focused public relations firm was retained by Fresh & Easy in late 2008. The firm's major focus for Fresh & Easy begins this month though.

RLPR does not replace Fresh & Easy's public relations firm of record, APCO Worldwide. APCO Worldwide employee Brendan Wonnacott serves as the corporate spokesperson for Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA and the firm handles general PR and marketing communications for the grocery chain.

Rather, RLPR's mission for Tesco is to better position and communicate the Fresh & Easy grocery and fresh foods chain among Hispanic consumers through media relations efforts targeting the Hispanic media, as well as through special events and others forms of marketing communications.

PLPR, which also has an office in New York, bills itself as an 100% Hispanic and woman-owned firm.

The firm's focus is on the fast-growing Latino consumer market. It was started in 1996 by then 25-year old Roxana Lissa, who began with one employee, herself, and an office in her Southern California home. Since then, RLPR has grown to become one of the largest independent Hispanic PR firms in the U.S.

Among the clients RLPR currently does work for include consumer package goods company General Mills, Dutch beer giant Heineken, the national honey board, and others.

Fresh & Easy Buzz is aware of the work of RLPR. In terms of choosing a PR firm focused on the Latino market, it's a good choice for Fresh & Easy, or for any other company for that matter. The firm is creative and has a strong track record.

Merchandising-Operations: 'Si, se puede! for Fresh & Easy doubtful

The problem with Tesco's Fresh & Easy vis-a-vis the Hispanic consumer base, which comprises about 30-40% of the total population in Southern California and Arizona, isn't a PR or marketing issue. Instead it's a merchandising issue.

The Fresh & Easy grocery and fresh foods markets just aren't very Latino-consumer friendly. And in Southern California and Arizona in particular, there are numerous grocery retailers that specialize in Hispanic consumers specifically. And even chains such as Safeway and Ralph's have neighborhood marketing programs in which they focus stores in neighborhoods with high Latino populations on the Hispanic consumer.

Fresh & Easy has miles to go before it can compete with these retailers for the Hispanic food and grocery dollar. It's all about merchandising and very little about marketing or PR.

For example, nearly 100% of the fresh produce in Tesco's Fresh & Easy stores is pre-packaged. Study-after-study conducted in the Western U.S. market over the last 15 years has shown that Hispanic consumers prefer bulk produce far and away over pre-packaged. Can you recall the last Hispanic-focused supermarket you've been in that had even 25% of its fresh produce pre-packaged in bags and plastic tubs like Fresh & Easy stores do, for example?

In surveys Latino shoppers site and abundance of fresh, bulk produce and an extensive selection of fresh meats and fresh fish as the two most important categories they consider when choosing a supermarket. Tesco's Fresh & Easy has neither.

Additionally, Fresh & Easy stores don't cash payroll checks. A significant number of Hispanic consumers in California, Nevada and Arizona essentially use supermarkets, such as Safeway, Ralphs, Frys and Bashas in Southern California and Arizona, or mass merchandisers like Wal-Mart, as their retail banks. They cash their weekly or bi-weekly payroll checks at the store (or in the case of those on government assistance, their government checks), then do their grocery shopping at that store. Another strike against Fresh & Easy vis-vis the Latino consumer.

Studies demonstrate Latino consumers are far more brand and store-loyal than other ethnic groups in the U.S. are Therefore, Hispanic shoppers will stick with a supermarket that cashes their payroll checks, spending nearly 100% of their food and grocery dollars with that retailer. Since Fresh & Easy stores don't cash payroll checks, they aren't even in the ballgame for this significant segment of Latino consumers.

Further, Fresh & Easy stores do not accept WIC (Woman's, Infants and Children's Program) Vouchers, which are given to poor mothers by the U.S. government so they can purchase specific, nutritious items such as infant formula, low-fat whole milk, fruit juice, whole grain cereals and fresh produce for their babies and toddlers. Many poor Hispanic mothers receive these vouchers from the U.S. government. These mothers do the primary grocery shopping for their families. Since Fresh & Easy doesn't accept the WIC Vouchers, they are automatically excluding these poor Latino mothers (and poor mothers from all ethnic backgrounds) from using them (and therefore from shopping in) the grocer's stores.

Back to merchandising: Hispanic consumers cook at home far more than Anglo consumers do. Therefore, they are ingredient food and grocery buyers primarily rather than fresh, prepared(ready-to-heat and ready-to-eat) foods shoppers. Since a significant percentage of the products in Fresh & Easy stores are prepared foods, this aspect (and thus potential for sales) of the chain's merchandising is mainly lost among Hispanic consumers, who of course buy some prepared foods, but do so overall in far lower numbers than Anglo consumers do.

When it comes to fresh meat, which along with fresh produce Latino (and Asian) consumers purchase in far higher numbers than Anglo shoppers do, Fresh & Easy stores have few of the types of cuts of beef, for example, that Hispanic consumers generally purchase. These include thin cuts of round and flank steak and the like. The same is true regarding types of pork roasts and cuts. The case is the same when it comes to the stores' fresh fish and seafood selections.

Moving to the core of the store, to the dry grocery category, Hispanic consumers tend to be much more brand loyal than Anglo consumers are, particularly when it comes to first generation immigrants from Mexico and Central America. The 15 years of research on Hispanic consumers in the Western U.S. mentioned earlier bears this out.

Latino shoppers look for trusted, category-specific authentic brands -- Herdez (salsa), Embassa (peppers), Pagasa (pasta and cookies), El Tapitio (hot sauce), Juanita's (hominy), Nestles's
various Hispanic brands (canned milk, ect.), and numerous others -- across all grocery categories rather than store or private label versions, and are willing to pay a premium for these trusted brands in their respective categories.

However, since about 65% of the grocery category items in Fresh & Easy stores are under the retailer's fresh & easy store brand, there just isn't enough room to carry the numerous Hispanic brand products most Latino consumers require a supermarket carry in order for it to be their primary food shopping venue. And, Fresh & Easy stores don't currently carry anywhere near the number, or proper variety, of such skus to make them very attractive to most Hispanic consumers.

We have no doubt a creative PR firm such as RLPR will be able to raise Fresh & Easy's profile among Hispanic consumers in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona. That's what they do -- and they do it well overall.

But no marketing communications campaign can take a current format, Tesco's Fresh & Easy, that's not particularly appealing to Latino shoppers, and make it so. Doing that is a merchandising-operations issue.

You can put organic arugula and purple heirloom tomatoes in a burrito after all -- but it's still a burrito. In a similar vein, you can drive Latino consumers into a grocery store with a marketing communications campaign but if that store doesn't suit their shopping needs they aren't likely to return, especially with all the alternatives that do fit their shopping needs in the respective market regions.

As the Fresh & Easy format is today -- majority pre-packaged produce rather than majority bulk, lack of abundance, meager fresh meats that appeal to Latino's, a dearth of key authentic Hispanic brands and skus, policy of not cashing payroll checks, and other aspects we haven't mentioned -- Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market isn't a format that in our analysis offers much appeal to Hispanic consumers as either their primary or even secondary shopping venue for food and groceries.

If Tesco wants to gain a greater share of the Latino consumer dollar -- which with an about 30-40% population percentage range in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona (and much higher in parts of Southern California and Arizona), isn't a bad idea -- it needs to focus first on merchandising, on creating an attractive format for Hispanic shoppers, then communicate that reality to them. As it is now, the grocery chain's Latino marketing program will be all sizzle (marketing) and very little steak (Hispanic consumer merchandising).

But this has been the norm for Tesco's Fresh & Easy since before the first stores even opened in the fall of 2007 -- putting PR over merchandising; the sizzle over the steak. This has surprised us since we know Tesco corporately to generally put merchandising (being a merchant) over being a promoter.

Thus far though that isn't the case with Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA -- which is why in our analysis the business is struggling. Success in food and grocery retailing always puts merchandising, operations and execution over marketing and PR.

In the case of Fresh & Easy's Latino consumer outreach program, we suggest the retailer needs to look at its policies and merchandising, and if it wants to attract more Hispanic shoppers focus on those keys aspects much more seriously before expecting a marketing campaign will win it very many Latino customers.

[For some of the best and most comprehensive research conducted on Hispanic or Latino consumers we suggest the work of Dr. David Hayes-Bautista, who is currently the director of The Center For The Study of Latino Health and Culture at the University of California (UCLA) Medical School in Los Angeles, California. Much of the research we site in our piece comes from Dr. Hayes-Baustista and his staff's work over the years.

Another good source of research information on Latino consumers, particularly with a focus on the Western USA, is the Southern California-based Mexican American Grocers Association (MAGA). You can view the trade group's Web site here. MAGA holds a conference and convention each year, focusing on the Hispanic consumer. This year's conference is March 10-12 in Palm Springs, California.]

Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's Politically-Connected Public Relations Firm APCO Worldwide

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA appears to be increasing the use of its Washington, D.C.-based politically-connected international public relations, public affairs, lobbying and strategic communications firm APCO Worldwide.

APCO Worldwide, which is headquartered in Washington D.C., along with having numerous offices and affiliates located in North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa, was founded in 1984 by Margery Kraus in affiliation with the Washington D.C. Law Firm Arnold & Porter, which is one of the leading politically-oriented Washington law and lobbying firms. Ms. Kraus currently is the firm's president and CEO. APCO Worldwide today is an independently-owned firm, along with being designated as a "woman-owned" firm by the U.S. federal government.

The firm's U.S. offices are in Sacramento, California; Chicago, Illinois; New York City; Seattle, Washington; Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina; and Lexington, Kentucky, in addition to the headquarters office in Washington, D.C. The Sacramento office does the bulk of the firm's work for Fresh & Easy, including having one of its staffers Brendon Wonocott act as the retailer's corporate spokesperson, since the grocery chain's headquarters is in Southern California and its stores are located only in the Western U.S. states of California, Nevada and Arizona.

APCO Worldwide also has an office in Ottawa, Canada's capital city.

The firm also has affiliates throughout Latin America, in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru and Panama.

APCO Worldwide also has an office in the United Kingdom, where Tesco, parent company of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is based. That office, founded in 1995, is considered one of the top public relations and public affairs consulting firms in the UK, having on its staff numerous politically-connected advisers from both the Labour (Liberal) and Conservative parties.

Additional Western European offices or affiliates are located in France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Belguim. Other international offices or affiliates include: Russia and Poland in Eastern Europe; and Israel and the United Arab Emirates in the Middle East. In Asia APCO Worldwide has offices or affiliates in: China, India, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

APCO Worldwide describes itself as: "A global communication consultancy specializing in building relationships with an organization's key stakeholders."

From its website: "These relationships are critical to the full range of challenges our clients (APCO Worldwide) face. We believe an organization's reputation is the culmination of how such challenges are managed. In the end, this work builds and protects an organization's value and the value of its products and services. It is our goal to be your trusted partner of choice and help you create this value – by pushing the boundaries of communication and providing global service, culture by culture." Click here to read a further description of how the firm says it approaches public relations and public affairs consulting.

APCO Worldwide's client- base includes foreign governments, U.S. and state government agencies, trade associations, Fortune 500 corporations, non-profit organizations and others. You can view a listing of some of the firm's current clients here.

The Washington D.C.-based consultancy also includes among its past and present employees and advisers a "who's who" of former political figures.

Among some of the bigger names include: former George W. Bush White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan; former U.S. Senator from Kansas and Republican candidate for President Robert Dole; former Republican Senator Mike Oxley, co-author with former Democratic Senator Paul Sarbanes of the famous Sarbanes-Oxley financial industry reform legislation; Darren Murphy (in the UK), a former key advisor to ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair; and numerous other big names in the U.S. and international political world.

Among APCO Worldwide's many areas of expertise include governmental relations and political lobbying, areas Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA can tap into as the efforts by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union's campaign in the United States (and in the United Kingdom) to unionize Fresh & Easy's store-level workers intensifies, which it is doing.

Like most politically connected Washington D.C.-based public affairs firm's, APCO Worldwide makes sure to hire an equal amount of politically connected Democrats and Republicans, which allows it to deal with either a Republican or Democratic Presidential Administration and a Congress comprised of a majority of either party.

APCO Worldwide also has experienced public relations specialists, including many former journalists, who aren't politically connected but have extensive experience in corporate communications, media relations, publicity generation and other specialties. These are the executives who do the everyday PR work.

In fact, it isn't just governmental relations, media relations and related expertise Tesco is using APCO Worldwide for. The firm's Sacramento, California office is bringing Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market into the social marketing world, having set up a site on the website Twitter.com which it is using to publicize the Fresh & Easy stores and the grocery chain with stores in Southern California, Metropolitan Las Vegas, Nevada and the Phoenix, Arizona Metro region. [Fresh & Easy Buzz has had a site on Twitter for a couple of months. You can view it here.]

APCO's Sacramento office set up the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market site on Twitter on August 27. It's been using it to publicize the stores in various ways, along with linking to posts made by Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market director of marketing Simon Uwins in the Fresh & Easy corporate blog.

In 2007, the Sacramento Business Journal, a key business publication in the California capital city, ranked APCO-Sacramento as the region's number one independent public relations firm.

According to 'O Dwyer's PR List, a major PR industry trade publication, APCO International earned $81,844,117 in net fees in 2006. It noted the firm had a total of 470 employees at the end of 2006.

Another major public relations industry trade publication, PR Week, ranked APCO Worldwide as the fourth-largest public relations/public affairs agency in the United States as of 2008, with total revenue in 2007 of $57,386, 800, which according to the publication was a 16% increase over 2006 revenue of $49,454,766. PR Week says the firm has 243 employees as of 2008, and noted its estimate for 2006 was a total of 229 employees worldwide, rather than the 470 stated by 'O Dwyer's for that same year.

Tesco's Fresh & Easy to Launch A Marketing-Oriented, Brand-Building Consumer Public Relations Campaign For its Store Brand Products and its Wines

Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA's small-format, convenience-oriented grocery store chain plans to launch a brand marketing-oriented public relations campaign designed to position and get publicity for its Fresh & Easy store brand fresh, prepared foods and grocery products and it's 60 varieties of specialty-blended wines, Fresh & Easy Buzz has learned.

The campaign will target the food and lifestyle sections of print and online newspapers and magazines, as well as other food-oriented consumer publications and blogs.

As we reported on March 17 (at the bottom of the linked page), Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market interviewed a number of public relations firms to assist the retailer with its marketing and corporate communications efforts for its 61 stores in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada.

One of the charges to these firms in terms of preparing their pitches to Fresh & Easy for its public relations business was to develop a plan to gain publicity for its Fresh & Easy store brand fresh food and grocery products and proprietary specialty-blended wines in consumer food and lifestyle-oriented sections and publications.

The goal of the brand marketing public relations campaign is to position the Fresh & Easy brand and the wines as quality yet affordable products for consumers, as well as to make the brands famous as a brand exercise. The buzz words or message Fresh & Easy hopes to convey for its store brand food and grocery products and wines in its consumer brand marketing public relations campaign are essentially: fresh, high quality, low price.

As we reported on April 13, Fresh & Easy has chosen a new public relations firm of record from those it interviewed in March.

That PR firm will launch the brand building public relations campaign along with Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's in-house marketing and PR team.

Fresh & Easy is generally pleased with the amount of press it's obtained in the business sections of U.S. newspapers and in specialty business publications, we've learned. However, the retailer hasn't been able to get much if any press in the consumer food and lifestyle sections or publications, which is why in part it launched its search for an outside public relations firm with media connections in the Western U.S. to assist in these efforts.

Fresh & Easy stores offer an extensive selection of fresh, prepared ready-to-eat and ready-to-heat foods in its 10,000 square foot combined basic grocery, fresh and specialty foods format grocery markets. The prepared foods were created by a professional chef and are produced in a large commercial kitchen at the grocery chain's 88-acre distribution center in Riverside, California and then delivered to the stores.

The grocery chain also merchandises a wide-variety of Fresh & Easy brand grocery products across all categories, ranging from eggs and pasta sauces, to packaged dry grocery items and more. In fact, about 65% of all the products in the Fresh & Easy grocery stores are under the Fresh & Easy store brand.

Fresh & Easy stores also carry about 60 varieties of the chain's own specialty-blended wines, in addition to other brands and varieties. In addition, Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market employs a Master of Wine, of which there are only 250 in the world, and only 20 -to- 25 currently working in the U.S.

Fresh & Easy has already won awards for its proprietary specialty-blended wines, including a couple of Silver and a number of Bronze medals at the California State Fair Wine Judging Competition and the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, last year and this year.

It appears Fresh & Easy is taking a page out of specialty grocer Trader Joe's product marketing playbook for its store brand food and grocery products and wine selection. Trader Joe's has built its various store brand food and grocery products and its extensive wine selection--including its famous "Two Buck Chuck" Charles Shaw proprietary wine brand--through brand-building public relations or "free media" campaigns rather than through advertising.

Trader Joe's has numerous store or private label grocery product brands. Much of the success of these brands, in addition to their quality, is based on the humorous and quirky-sounding names ( the specialty grocer gives to them. Not only do such quirky names draw consumer attention, but the attention of the consumer food and lifestyle press as well.

Additionally, Trader Joe's has become famous for its extensive selection of affordably-priced domestic and imported wines (and craft beers). In fact, its $1.99 per-bottle Charles Shaw brand ("Two Buck Chuck") won the top honors (a Double Gold medal), beating out wines priced more than ten-times as much, in that very same California State Fair Wine Judging mentioned above.

Since Tesco has positioned its Fresh & Easy stores as a combination discount, basic grocery store and fresh and specialty foods' market, it should be interesting to see if the retailer can build brand using the marketing-oriented public relations campaign.

Generally speaking, such brand-building efforts usually work best for specialty retailers like Trader Joe's, Whole Foods Market, Bristol Farms and others.

From a positioning standpoint, Fresh & Easy has to be careful such a campaign doesn't negate its positioning as a discount, neighborhood grocery store for the masses.

For example, if the consumer food pages publicize the Fresh & Easy brand food and grocery products as upscale or too premium, that could seriously damage the stores everyday low price basic grocery shopping positioning.

On the other hand, the Fresh & Easy brand has absolutely zero brand equity in the marketplace, since it was just introduced when the first stores opened in November, 2007. The only consumer awareness the brand has received to date basically is from shoppers going into the stores and seeing it on the shelves.

As such, the brand is in need of publicity and consumer awareness. A well-planned and executed consumer brand marketing public relations campaign can pay major dividends as well as create awareness among consumers who haven't yet been into a Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market small-format, convenience-oriented grocery store.

Remember, if and when you start seeing stories about Fresh & Easy brand food and grocery products and the grocer's proprietary specialty-blended wines begin to appear in the food and lifestyle sections of print and online newspapers, and in other consumer food-oriented publications, you read it hear on Fresh & Easy Buzz first.

Perhaps Tesco's Fresh & Easy Did 'Listen' To Natural~Specialty Foods Memo's Analysis and Suggestions in it's Retail Marketing and PR Memo

Last Wednesday, April 2, we wrote this brief piece with a link to a "Retail Marketing & Public Relations Memo" the publication Natural~Specialty Foods Memo wrote that day regarding Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's corporate blog announcement by marketing chief Simon Uwins that the retailer was taking a three month new store opening pause or hiatus.

Below is what we wrote on April 2, 2008 as an intro to the Natural~Specialty Foods Memo Retail Marketing and PR Memo story link (the original story from the food and grocery industry publication is linked in our April 2 post as well below):

A Retail Marketing and Public Relations Memo to Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Management From Natural~Specialty Foods Memo

by Fresh & Easy Buzz: April 2, 2008

The food and grocery industry publication Natural~Specialty Foods Memo has a 'Retail Marketing and Public Relations Memo' to Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market senior management in today's issue.

The "memo," titled: "Retail Marketing and Public Relations Memo: What Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Should Be Doing Now," talks about the current new store opening "pause" which we reported here on Saturday.

In the piece, the publication discusses the marketing, public relations and overall implications of the announcement as part of an total retail strategy. The piece also suggests Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market should have prepared for the mostly negative press reports which started coming out yesterday and today in numerous U.S. newspaper business sections, such as the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press news service and others.

Natural~Specialty Foods Memo offers Fresh & Easy a strategic blueprint of how it could have prepared a strategic operations and media marketing strategy before posting the "pause" announcement in its corporate blog, including suggestions for how to not only deal with but also get on top of the news cycle. The piece also says any marketing and public relations strategy must be real and integrated with overall operations.

In fact, the marketing and public relations strategies would be good for Fresh & Easy anytime.

But they are especially important now, as it appears to us the retailer wasn't prepared for the mostly negative media coverage it's getting over the new store opening moratorium, along with the reports from analysts like us and others about the small-format, convenience-oriented grocery stores' sales underperformance to date, which these newspaper business section reporters and editors are including in their stories.

Lastly, the piece says "it's not too late" for Tesco to employ these strategies, if "Fresh & Easy senior management can be a fast-moving and nimble team."

Read the 'Retail Marketing and Public Relations Memo' to Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market from Natural~Specialty Foods Memo here.

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Fresh & Easy Buzz: Yesterday (April 8, 2008), we received the Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market corporate press release reproduced below from the PRNewswire news release service, as did many other publications of all types:

Fresh & Easy to Give Away Free 'Bag For Life' For Earth Day

Grocer offers free reusable bags on April 22nd

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., April 8, 2008 /PRNewswire/ -- In celebration of Earth Day, Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market today announced its 61 stores will bag groceries with free reusable "bags for life" for customers on April 22nd. The company encourages customers to reuse these bags and lessen their impact on the environment.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080408/AQTU198.)

Fresh & Easy offers its customers two different types of reusable bags, including a $2.50 canvas bag and a plastic reusable "bag for life," which retails for $.20. The "bag for life" is larger and more durable than standard grocery bag and, if damaged, Fresh & Easy will replace the bag for free, forever. These bags are made with recycled material and are 100% recyclable.

"We want to make it easier for our customers to make more environmentally friendly decisions," said Tim Mason, Fresh & Easy CEO. "If everyone in the neighborhood shops with reusable bags, we can really make a difference."

Fresh & Easy has made a considerable effort to be a good neighbor and steward of the environment. For example, the company only sells energy efficient light bulbs, uses LED lighting in external signs and freezer cases, offers plastic, aluminum and glass recycling, and provides preferred parking for hybrid vehicles.

More broadly, Fresh & Easy has committed to build LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified buildings and voluntarily joined the California Climate Action Registry to disclose its greenhouse gas emissions. At its distribution center in Riverside the company invested $13 million in a solar roof installation, which is one of California's largest at 500,000 sq. ft.

More information regarding Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market can be found at http://www.freshandeasy.com/.

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Fresh & Easy Buzz: Finally, here is a link to a piece Natural~Specialty Foods Memo published yesterday (April 8, 2008) titled: "Retail Marketing & Public Relations Memo: Was Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Listening to Our April 2 Memo?"

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Below are the key paragraphs in the Natural~Specialty Foods Memo piece linked above. However, we suggest you click on this link and read the entire piece from the food and grocery industry publication so you can understand the complete context, as well as get the full flavor of the key paragraphs reproduced below:

But, if we were in charge we wouldn't have stopped there in our pre-publishing of the "pause" strategy, for the post-pause news cycle period.

April 22, just two weeks away, is Earth Day.

Numerous grocery retailers, manufacturers and marketers are planning major Earth Day green marketing or green retailing promotions and activities for the day which celebrates the earth, conservation and environmental stewardship. We haven't heard of any plans for Earth Day from Tesco's Fresh & Easy.

Our second, "locked-and-loaded" post-pause corporate blog post news peg would have been tied to Earth Day. For example, why not an announcement from Fresh & Easy that it plans to give away thousands of free, reusable, canvass grocery tote bags at its 59 stores on Earth Day.

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Fresh & Easy Buzz: Our Observation: Well, to answer the question Natural~Specialty Foods Memo poses in the title of its piece yesterday---yes, it does seem that somebody at Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market was 'listening' to the April 2, 2008 memo. Of course, we don't know that for sure.

Further, as we write on Fresh & Easy Buzz regularly, it's our analysis that Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market needs to get out in front of a whole host of issues which are appearing daily in the press.

These include: the Fresh & Easy grocery stores sales underperformance, comments from fresh foods' industry suppliers and others that they are being cut out of the loop (and business) because Tesco imported three United Kingdom-based fresh foods companies to handle its business in the U.S. rather than using local companies, the press report we've reported on from the San Jose Mercury News about Tesco' selling of out-of-code and/or spoiled foods in a few UK stores (which happened some time ago), and a number of other issues.

By getting "out in front" of these issues, we don't just mean writing and sending press releases and statements (although that's not even being done strategically or often) to media outlets, or making comments when reporters call.

Rather, we mean developing and implementing a strategic plan--like Natural~Specialty Foods Memo outlined in its April 2, 2008 piece--and really addressing each one of these issues, which in some cases will mean admitting mistakes and changing policy. As we all know, strategy, policy and tactics aren't the same thing.

Personally, Fresh & Easy Buzz doesn't care if Tesco does this or not. We have no dog in it in any way shape or form; except that we cover, analyze and write about Tesco, Fresh & Easy and related grocery industry issues and developments here on the blog.

However, as close observers of Tesco and its Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market USA retail grocery venture, and having many years experience in the industry and related areas, we can't have helped wondering what's been going on in many ways at the USA branch of one of the world's foremost retailers in the areas of operations, marketing, merchandising, public relations, and a couple other areas.

As a result, we offer analysis, research-based insight, the analysis and opinions of others, consumer comments (positive and negative), and our commentary tied-in to all of the above as we see fit.

That's all for now...but the story continues.

UK Blogger Offers a British Independent Retailer's Opinion on Our Monday, April 7 Analysis of the Mercury News' Tesco UK Spoiled Foods Story of Old

Not too long ago we posted a piece written by West Sussex, United Kingdom-based local Postmaster and independent retailer Steve, who publishes the Village Counter Talk blog out of his retail store in that English village.

The Village Counter Talk writer, blogger, Postmaster and independent retailer read our piece published Monday about the San Jose, California Mercury News' running a story in that days edition of the publication about concerns local residents in a San Jose neighborhood are having about two Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market small-format grocery stores coming to the area early next year.

That concern reported in the Mercury News involves a past situation in the UK in which Tesco sold some food products which were either out-of-code, spoiled or both. At the time Tesco dealt with the matter, which generated lots of press in the UK, and announced it had solved the problem.

Additionally, a spokesperson for Tesco's USA Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets told the Mercury News reporter, and she quoted him in her story, that Fresh & Easy has no such problems in the U.S. and is following U.S. food safety guidelines to the letter.

In our piece here, we commented that the Tesco selling of out-of-code and/or spoiled food story was rather old, although the reports at the time didn't appear in U.S. newspapers.

Further, we mentioned in our piece that to our knowledge, there has not been one consumer report--or one suggestion by any of the health departments in the western U.S. regions where Tesco is currently operating its 61 Fresh & Easy stores--that the grocery chain has or has had any out-of-code or spoiled food problems in any of its stores.

However, in our analysis we said the important aspect of the story is that the story ran at all. In other words, it's all about perception. Once something is perceieved to be the case, it becomes reality to people, even if not objectively true.

Since the Tesco UK story is brand new to probably 99.9% of the people who will read the Mercury News piece, and since the story obviously relates Fresh & Easy to its parent Tesco, we believe many readers will perceive that there just might be a food safety issue at the USA Fresh & Easy stores after reading it.

Consumer concerns about the safety of the food they purchase from grocery stores is a serious issue in the U.S. For example, a 2007 national survey (see the graphic at top of this piece) conducted by the Food Safety Policy Center at Michigan State University, found 33% of 1,200 consumers surveyed (a scientific random sample), are "very concerned" about food safety issues.

Additionally, another 30% said they are "fairly concerned" about the safety of the food they purchase. That adds up to 63% of the survey respondents expressing food safety concerns about the food products they buy in America's supermarkets and other retail venues. Only 34% of those surveyed in the study said they are "not at all concerned" about the safety of they food they buy, with just 3% saying they "aren't too concerned."

Most retailers are aware of this level of food safety concern among American consumers, and in recent years have created new and better programs and operational procedures to better ensure food safety from the supply chain to the store.

In our piece Monday, we strongly suggested that if we were running Fresh & Easy, we would get out in front of this story fast. [We haven't found or read any response from Tesco or Fresh & Easy to Monday's Mercury News thus far.]

Lastly, in our analysis of the Mercury News story, we talked about a practice Tesco is currently doing in many of its Fresh & Easy stores in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada that we believe is "rolling the dice" in terms of creating potential (and even perceptual) food safety concerns and issues.

This practice is the marking-down of fresh foods as they start to reach their package-printed expiration dates. Fresh & Easy is marking these near-out-of-code fresh foods items down on a regular basis by as much as 50% in many of its small-format, convenience-oriented grocery stores. [Read our analysis of that practice here.]

Independent retailer and blogger Steve, who writes the Village Counter Talk blog from his base in the UK and has observed Tesco there for years, read our Monday piece and decided to offer some commentary on it, and the issue, in a blog post earlier today.

Read what Village Counter Talk has to say from the UK on the issue, coverage and our analysis here.

San Jose Mercury News Reports on Tesco's Past Spoiled Food Problem in the UK; Relates it to Fresh & Easy: F&E Better Get in Front of This Story Fast

It's far from "fresh" news that Tesco had a problem in the past with the health authorities in the United Kingdom (UK) because some of its stores there were selling out-of-code and spoiled food products. We've mentioned it recently in Fresh & Easy Buzz in relation to some organizing the United Food & Commercial Workers (retail clerks) union has been doing in Southern California.

A couple weeks ago the UFCW union mass-mailed fliers to residents in a number of Southern California neighborhoods where Tesco has its Fresh & Easy grocery stores. The fliers quoted union retail meat specialists who work at various union shop supermarkets in Southern California as saying they are very concerned about Fresh & Easy's fresh foods handling policies.

Along with these "first-person" quotes, the UFCW fliers had information from UK publications about the stores in the UK that sold the out-of-date or spoiled fresh foods. Tesco settled the matter and says it has solved that problem in those UK stores where it occurred.

There have been no reported incidents by consumers or county health departments in the western U.S. states and counties--California (Southern), the Phoenix Metro region in Arizona and Metro Las Vegas, Nevada--where Tesco has its 61 Fresh & Easy grocery markets that we are aware of.

The News is really that a major U.S. paper is running the story.

Despite the fact there have been no reports to our knowledge about the selling of any spoiled or out-of-code fresh (or any other) food products at the Fresh & Easy stores, the fact that the San Jose Mercury News--which has the second-largest circulation after the San Francisco Chronicle in Northern California's Bay Area, along with having a somewhat national (and even international) readership because of the world-wide web--ran the story is news in itself (or should be) vis-a-vis Tesco and its Fresh & Easy retail operation.

Tesco should have a press release, with a statement from CEO Tim Mason, on the news wires by midnight tonight. That gives them three hours (their west coast time) as we write this.

The Mercury News story has a statement from Fresh & Easy's spokesman, which is good for the retailer. However, it isn't enough. A smart and savvy grocery retailer--especially being a start-up in the USA even though its the world's third-largest international retailer--needs to respond to such a story fast--and with authority.

That authority can only come from the CEO. If this story were written about Safeway Stores, Inc. for example, they also would have their vice president for food safety, something every major grocery chain should have, respond in a statement as well as the company's CEO. They did this rather effectively years ago when there was a spate of food safety scares in the U.S. supermarket industry.

Fresh & Easy is rolling the dice with its fresh foods markdowns

Tesco also should be very careful with a practice it started (and continues today) in its Fresh & Easy grocery stores some time back. That practice, which we've written about before, is the marking-down of fresh foods' items like prepared foods, meats and produce by up to 50% shortly before the items are set to go out-of-code. The Fresh & Easy stores are doing this daily, some more than others obviously. It's a lack of sales problem, as well as a fresh foods logistical one, as we've previously written.

There is a reason major U.S. supermarket chains don't do markdowns like Fresh & Easy is doing on a scale any larger than with a few fresh meat items, and that's on a store-by-store basis. Further, since the vast majority (about 99.7%) of U.S. supermarkets sell produce in bulk, rather than packaged with code dates on it like Fresh & Easy does, it isn't even a issue in terms of markdowns for the industry.

You never see a major U.S. supermarket chain of any significance do such markdowns for quick sales of perishable products like prepared foods entrees, ready-to-consume foods, dairy products and the like. As we said, the behavior is limited primarily to fresh meat items; and done well-before the code dates on the packages expire. Many major U.S. chains don't even allow store-level meat managers to markdown fresh meat items. Rather, they have a chainwide policy against any markdowns.

Why don't major U.S. supermarkets do this perishable and fresh foods markdown behavior rather than "eat" the loss? It's simple: they don't even want to come close to taking a risk of having a food safety problem or issue.

The amount of money saved by marking a fresh foods product down and selling it for 50% off, even for a chain like Safeway which has 1,700 stores in the U.S. (compared to Fresh & Easy's 61), pales compared to the potential sales losses (not to mention the potential long-term reputation and retail brand damage) that comes from a food safety issue, such as a consumer getting sick from one of the 50% off fresh foods items they purchased at a store marking such items down for quick sale. [Read the March 23 piece we wrote here about Fresh & Easy's fresh foods markdown program. Just scroll down a bit on the linked page to read it.]

Revolutionary operations and merchandising programs implemented by supermarket chains of any kind which are doing business for the first time in the U.S. should in our opinion be focused on the sales-increase side of the ledger--great formats, exciting promotions, award-winning consumer marketing campaigns, for example--rather than in finding ways to squeeze out a little less dollar loss by doing things long-established grocery chains don't do in the U.S., like marking down fresh foods' products on a regular basis as a matter of policy.

As you can see from our brief explanation, there's a good reason why these U.S. chains don't do it.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood market hasn't had one reported incident of a consumer's complaining about or getting sick from purchasing out-of-date or spoiled foods in its stores to our knowledge, as we've said. Further, no government entity has suggested the chain has done this to our knowledge.

In fact, the story in the Mercury News merely says some people are worried about stores Fresh & Easy will open in San Jose at the end of this year or early next year because of the spoiled foods' issue Tesco had in the UK. There is absolutely no assertion that Fresh & Easy sells spoiled fresh foods that we can discern from the story.

However, perception is reality. And consumers reading the paper's story will draw their own conclusions as people do. (We aren't suggesting the Mercury News shouldn't have ran the piece, by the way. That's there editorial call completely.)

Were we running Tesco, we would be having our PR department, with input from F&E CEO Mason and others, at their computers right now, crafting a statement with assurances from the CEO that Fresh & Easy's food safety standards are impeccable, if that is the case. That statement would be in the email boxes of every newspaper in America, and on the PR news release wires, by 7am tomorrow morning. Perception is reality.

Stories involving any aspect of food safety--even when nothing material exists as is the case with the Fresh & Easy stores--need to be got in front of, especially when they appear in a major metropolitan daily newspaper in a state where a retailer not only has based its corporate headquarters but has the greatest number of its grocery stores as well. That is the case on both counts for Tesco's Fresh & Easy in California.

A Retail Marketing and Public Relations Memo to Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Management from Natural~Specialty Foods Memo

The food and grocery industry publication Natural~Specialty Foods Memo has a 'Retail Marketing and Public Relations Memo' to Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market senior management in today's issue.

The "memo," titled: "Retail Marketing and Public Relations Memo: What Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Should Be Doing Now," talks about the current new store opening "pause" which we reported here on Saturday.

In the piece, the publication discusses the marketing, public relations and overall implications of the announcement as part of an total retail strategy. The piece also suggests Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market should have prepared for the mostly negative press reports which started coming out yesterday and today in numerous U.S. newspaper business sections, such as the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press news service and others.

Natural~Specialty Foods Memo offers Fresh & Easy a strategic blueprint of how it could have prepared a strategic operations and media marketing strategy before posting the "pause" announcement in its corporate blog, including suggestions for how to not only deal with but also get on top of the news cycle. The piece also says any marketing and public relations strategy must be real and integrated with overall operations.

In fact, the marketing and public relations strategies would be good for Fresh & Easy anytime. But they are especially important now, as it appears to us the retailer wasn't prepared for the mostly negative media coverage it's getting over the new store opening moratorium, along with the reports from analysts like us and others about the small-format, convenience-oriented grocery stores' sales underperformance to date, which these newspaper business section reporters and editors are including in their stories.

Lastly, the piece says "it's not too late" for Tesco to employ these strategies, if "Fresh & Easy senior management can be a fast-moving and nimble team."

Read the 'Retail Marketing and Public Relations Memo' to Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market from Natural~Specialty Foods Memo here.