Harold Lloyd discusses how supermarkets can stand out amid growing competition for market share.
Not only is competition heating up among supermarkets, but stores now also must contend with mass merchants, warehouse club chains, specialty grocery stores and convenience stores in an effort to capture consumers’ dollars. Because cleanliness, location, price and freshness all have clear leaders, stores must reach beyond those areas and find what makes them different in order to attract new and returning customers. In an effort to unlock what it takes to become craveable–and have that “gotta have it” factor–Harold Lloyd, president of Harold Lloyd Presents, presented to IDDBA attendees three powerful magnets that offer that uniqueness or “You” factor, citing examples of best practices from his tireless travels across the country to regional and national supermarkets as well as independent and chain restaurants.
- Great, signature product
- Sub-department
- Signature service
T
o help prove the power of the signature product, he lifted up a box of signature “killer brownies” he’d ordered from Dorothy Lane Market in Dayton, Ohio, noting that the bakery’s brownies gained such a following that the chain now ships them nationwide.
“Once I’m done here, I’ll open the box and pass out samples so you can see what $87 worth of killer brownies tastes like,” he said.
As bakers and suppliers crowded around Lloyd after his presentation, he quartered the brownies and passed them out for sampling. The caramel-filled, rich brownies were topped with confectioners’ sugar and tasted like they’d been baked that day–truly a contender for the title of killer brownie. And I’m sure those of us who attended the session will all be talking about Dorothy Lane for the remainder of the show. Mission accomplished.
