With The Name Change we wanted to remind shoppers that SPAR is part of the local community.
In Denmark SPAR is a retail chain with 121 independent grocers. Most shoppers already know their local grocer’s name, so all we had to do was remind them of it, to activate the local connection they feel towards the stores. By replacing the SPAR logo with the local grocers name, we brought people back on first name terms with SPAR, so they could now shop at Jens, Peter and Connie.
Our creative insight was that customers had simply forgotten how important the local SPAR was to their community, and what better way to remind them, than when they were driving past the stores, on the way to the big supermarkets in the city.
Creative Execution
One night in april 2016 we closed down all 121 SPAR stores across the country. And the next morning we reopened them in the name of the local grocer. All 121 SPAR stores were re-branded and had their owners name on the storefront. Instead of passing by SPAR the local customers were passing by “Jente”, “Peter”, “Paul” and “Connie”. The Name Change made every potential customer in the area know their grocer by first name.
To support the story of The Name Change we created a content tool kit with everything from shopping bags and name tags to filmed content and social media posts for the grocers to use.
The original plan was to change the names of the stores back to SPAR after a 3-week period. But the grocers convinced the central office to keep the names for several months.
The Name Change not only got the conversation going in the local SPAR areas. It also got the attention of the national media with a total reach of 3,905.810 unique users exposed – or more than 68 % of the entire Danish population – and with over 10,5 million DKK worth of PR-value.
But more important it got sales up by 30 %.
Since The Name Change SPAR has both managed to recruit new customers, increased frequency and increased basket size for the customers in store.
And last but not least the customer loyalty has increased by 50 % from June 2014 to June 2016.
The Name Change did start a conversation about the value of the local grocer – not only locally but nationwide. But it also got more customers in to the stores, got them to spend more money and made them come back.
When you need to change the perception of a brand without hardly any budget, the most effective place to start is the physical appearance. For a retail brand it is your store. That is why we decided to change the names of all 121 SPAR stores across the country and put the names of the local grocers on the storefronts. The story of The Name Change travelled from the local storefronts through social channels to national news reaching 68 % of the Danish population. The case proves how far the creative use of a specific media can take you.
Insights, Strategy and the Idea
The Danish shoppers are notorious bargain hunters, this year hitting an all-time low on customer loyalty across retail chains. With SPAR being perceived as quite expensive and with a low media budget compared to competitors, we needed to do something different to break through the clutter. We needed to start a conversation, and preferably a conversation that would travel on its own, and attract the media as well.
But how could we start a conversation? How could we cut through the sleepy business-as-usual environment in the small towns? And how could we remind the potential customers to shop local?
We decided to use the one medium, every inhabitant in the nearby areas could not miss: The physical storefront. We decided to show the customers exactly who they were letting down when driving to the next big supermarket. We decided to make the local grocer the hero of the story.