Queen of the Natural Glow, Suzanne Paul, lamented today on National Radio that she misses the days when you could go and buy milk. There are so many varieties nowadays, and in her household, they have to have three milk bottles—one for each member of the family—because of the different dietary requirements.
   Her choice was to support her dairy—to our non-Kiwi readers a small convenience store which used to do a roaring trade in the pre-supermarket days. The local dairy, on the corner, was where you’d pick up your chewing gum, milk, newspaper and a copy of the Listener. At least that’s all I remember us getting from the local dairy on Adelaide Road 25 years ago. But you could buy Three Diamonds-branded sardines from Mitsubishi and Whittaker’s Peanut Slabs (a favourite of my maternal grandmother): that much was at my eye’s height. Size-wise, the stores are pretty small, usually helmed by a single person.
   Simplicity, as everyone from Real Simple to Martha Stewart might tell you, is quite an attractive trait. People are, such as Ms Paul (no relation to Ru), willing to pay a premium. And some dairies do charge an awful premium, one reason that drove my mother to start shopping at Wardell’s when that opened in our ’hood when I was a kid.
   So how about this for an idea: the dairy as a premium shopping venue? It would sell based on simplicity being something you would pay more for. One kind of milk, vetted by the retailer, as being the best—Sun Latte, which I spotted last week, claims as much (though I could only be enticed on being given a 30¢ coupon). The surroundings would be comfortable, but simple, too. While supermarkets’ variety is designed to keep shoppers in, the premium charged by the Simplicity Dairy would be saving shoppers’ time. Make your grocery list, like Mum used to. Then head over to the dairy, and pay around 15 per cent more—it’s in your ’hood, probably on your street corner, and not get stuck with useless goods that you would never use. An overall saving of money and time.
   Of course, the little dairy will never have the marketing muscle of the supermarket, nor the buying power. We are conditioned to hunt for the lowest price and the 10¢ saving. But it only needs to market itself in one area. That means hitting the community newspaper and being visible in the area with eye-catching livery. It means using the visual cues of branding and turning its assets into pluses, especially as consumer tastes begin balking at the Wal-marts and foreign ownership of supermarkets.

Del.icio.us tags: repositioning simplicity branding marketing dairy supermarket retail FMCG New Zealand Posted by Jack Yan, 06:04  permalink

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