New Pick n Pay ad campaigns launch Sunday

While readers furiously debate the merits of the new Pick n Pay logo on Bizcommunity.com, weighing in with their own suggestions – and this being the marketing and branding industry, our readers who all consider themselves experts in their field, do tend to call a spade a pick axe – but the overall brand essence of the new Pick n Pay brand is a massive exercise in rebranding and a risky business for such an iconic brand. [Poll: What do you think of the new Pick n Pay logo?]

In setting context, Pick n Pay CEO Nick Badminton, a far more media-friendly fellow than his predecessor Sean Summers, gave the following stats:

• Pick n Pay has 452 stores.
  
• 50 000 employees under the brand Pick n Pay, not including Boxer and Score retail brands.
  
• 350 000 transactions per annum at 6722 tills.
  
• 1.4 m trading space (equal to 250 rugby pitches).

The current rebranding entailed customer research on what its customers wanted from it, in particular LSMs 8 – 10, which is its core strength. The rebranding exercise was then measured against the following criteria:

1. What its customers wanted – hence the new brand promise “Inspired by you”.
   
2. Operations – distribution, supply chain, brand lines and product.
   
3. People – customer service, staffing.
   
4. Sustainability of the business in the future in the global retailing environment.
   

Pick n Pay knows that it has a strong brand personality attached to strong family values and it spent a lot of time trying to get it right – the rebranding was a full two years with Landor, the international branding agency. And it's not the new logo that is key here, but the total new brand essence. The new advertising and branding in store is colourful – and an additional bright and appetizing colour palette has been embraced. The new advertising that was shown to the media yesterday is eye-catching and engaging.

What's changing?

1. The look, feel and logo: Pick n Pay's new logo is contemporary, cleanly designed and friendly, according to the group. The logo will be widely used for consistency and brand recognition. In addition to the full logo, a short “nickname” version using just ‘PnP' has been developed for use where space is limited, such as on till slips or packaging. Images used in stores and in advertising will be informal and relaxed, with a touch of humour.
   
2. The tagline: Pick n Pay's customers themselves chose the company's new tagline: “Inspired by you”. These three words articulate the consumer sovereignty legacy of the company. Customer focus groups across a broad spectrum were shown four different taglines, and “Inspired by you” was the one they liked the most.
   
3. New work wear: Pick n Pay is currently testing a new range of staff work wear in six of its stores, including relaxed tops, trousers, skirts and aprons in an array of styles and colours. Once it is established which ones both employees and customers prefer, the range will be finalised and introduced to all stores by next summer.
   
4. New magazine: Fresh Living, a new monthly magazine for customers, will soon be available in-store. Edited by award-winning TV cook and writer Justine Drake, each full colour issue will contain ideas, tips and recipes for customers to make the most of their food purchases. Fresh Living will also showcase Pick ‘n Pay's wide range of products, and champion healthy, seasonal food.
   
5. Catalogue: Pick n Pay will also, for the first time, produce a free, 64-page product catalogue. Divided into three sections – outdoor, home and fashion – the catalogue will feature the full range of Pick n Pay products, using photography reflecting the new, fresh branding.
   
6. Advertising: the new advertising campaigns – there are 12 new TV commercials; billboards, truck advertising, in store branding and print ads, start breaking on TV and in the print media this coming weekend, Sunday 18 November. It will take a total of 24 months to rebrand all the Pick n Pay stores with the new signage, at a cost of R110 million.
   
7. Understanding food: qualified chefs and food technologists have been employed to develop new products and young chefs will demo the new ranges in store.
   
8. No compromise on supplier quality: “Our quality will be fixed. The aspiration is to lead the market in terms of fresh and convenience foods going forward,” said CEO Badminton. In fact, its new promise is that if you find an expired product on shelf, you will get another (with the right date) for free.
   
9. Refreshed packaging: creative and allows Pick n Pay to stand out in all sectors and promote fresh.
   
10. Suppliers: new lines across categories, including 60 new organic lines, as well as a range of kiddies meals.
    

GM of marketing, Lyndsay Webster-Rozon, emphasised that it had a new mantra, which was a customer-led approach to the market. She described the new logo as contemporary, with an abbreviated PnP to use on packaging and in store as well, where required. ““We have a new mantra, inspired by you… new identity… new ranges of product… new colours and clothes… and above all, a new customer led approach to a changing market… “

Then a secondary vibrant colour palate has been introduced for various applications inside the store, across signage, trolleys, labels, packaging, bags, etc. The Pick n Pay with the P's in colour blocks will be used in store on uniforms and in store signage and packaging will use the abbreviated shorthand version: PnP.

But this is about more than just a new logo and new visual language: “It is about brand essence and new customer focus,” she emphasised. Even the photography was chosen to define and reflect the soul of the brand: bright, transparent with “Pick me” on some product advertising.

One of the questions being debated is why Pick n Pay went with an international branding agency, Landor, and not someone local. Badminton's short answer at the press conference in Cape Town yesterday, Tuesday 13 November, was due to the connection between its ad agency in South Africa, Y&R and Landor and the WPP group.

New brand campaigns

Yossi Schwartz, CEO Young & Rubicam SA, Pick n Pay's advertising agency explained: “The new symbols, new brand line ‘Inspired by you', had to manifest itself into advertising, including the Pick n Pay values which are very very strong with consumers. The challenge was to compile all of it into one comprehensive advertising strategy.”

He said that the new Pick n Pay advertising campaigns break on 18 November to differentiate the Pick n Pay brand from competitors with the new advertising and new media. “The advertising is new, new tonality, new look and feel, new typefaces, new photography.” A single minded message unifies the brand: ‘Inspired by you', and the advertising is all about Pick n Pay's consumers, including, on billboards and in store: ‘Inspired to deliver…, Inspired to provide…' etc.

Media will include the Pick n Pay distribution trucks, catalogues, a new magazine and a strong focus on digital. “We have rebalanced the media investment with consumer media consumption.”

And then on Monday 19 November, a million new Pick n Pay glossy catalogues will be distributed through knock-and-drop and stores – it will be available four times a year and is similar to what retailers are doing globally. The new customer magazine will number 150 000 copies, distributed through stores. The website has been streamlined, bringing seven different websites onto one site.

“It was a hellava challenge!” Schwartz quipped.

As editor of a retailing publication for Primedia, I remember hosting the editor of the influential grocery retailing magazine in the UK, Clive Bedall from The Grocer, in the mid-1990s. One of his requests was to visit the Pick n Pay Benmore store which was the first to launch Pick n Pay's new fresh/deli strategy then, as it was revolutionary retailing even then. So it is inevitable that there will be huge debate around such a massive brand change for a brand that has been part of most of our lives as South Africans – people feel an ownership. Isn't that exactly why Pick n Pay is such a successful brand, even with its previous old outdated logo?

For more:

• What do you think of the new Pick n Pay logo [poll]
  
• Perfectly pragmatic Pick n Pay [article]
  
• Fresh new look for iconic Pick n Pay brand [article]
  
• [Breaking news] Walmart director joins Pick n Pay [blog]
  
• New logo and brand identity for Pick n Pay [breaking news article]
  
• Pick n Pay revamping brand [breaking news article]
  
• [Breaking news] Pick ‘n Pay major announcement [blog]