The Great Atlantic & Pacific Company of Canada is launching a significant repositioning of its stores April 28 built on a major banner consolidation and revamping of all stores.
The banner consolidation was put in motion almost a year ago to eliminate duplication in markets and resulted in one casualty, Miracle Food Mart, which has disappeared.
a&p, Dominion and Superfresh, which account for 90% of A&P Company’s 224 stores in Ontario, are being relaunched under the umbrella, The Savings Stores.
Twenty-one of its stores are Basics, a franchise brand a&p introduced about six months ago.
Basics are no-frills, limited assortment stores and are not covered by this program.
The relaunch is more than an advertising campaign.
For a year, the company has been upgrading its stores, expanding departments to meet customer demand and putting in place a new pricing policy called More Savings Now.
Bill Sheine, vice-president of marketing for a&p Company, says the departments that have been changed reflect consumer desire for fresh products and concern about health, diet and nutrition.
‘Virtually all of our stores by the time this program launches will have a totally revamped produce department with much more variety,’ says Sheine.
‘We’ve also upgraded our fresh fish markets in most of our stores, but this More Savings Now program is not meant as a price cutting strategy where we’re saying we’ve lowered thousands of prices.
‘What we’re indicating is that over the last six months or so, there has been a significant change in our pricing policies.’
The repositioning has not affected the loyalty card programs at a&p and Dominion.
a&p still has its Super Saver program and Dominion keeps Priority Plus, but Superfresh, which Sheine says has more of price positioning, does not have a loyalty card.
The Savings Stores marks a&p’s return to television advertising after a break of more than two years.
The campaign consists of 30-sec. television and radio commercials. Both image spots and ‘donuts’- generic creative with a hole in the middle for item and price information – have been created, and will be ongoing.
The company has also redesigned its flyers to highlight the new positioning and feature twice as many items as in the past.
‘We’re not going out and making promises for quick sales. This is a long-term program,’ says Sheine.
‘This is a positioning for our stores and a communication to customers that the store they shopped in before is significantly different than a year ago.’
a&p Company handles its flyers in-house, but two months ago the company hired Prism Communications of Toronto as its new creative agency.
In that short time, Prism developed the new positioning for a&p Company, created the broadcast advertising, and assisted in the development of a new in-store signage program.
The in-store package was designed by The Watt Group using the colours red, yellow and black.
Media placement was handled by TN Media, a new banner of Optimedia, the media buying division of FCB Canada.
