To Waitrose, keen to see what the new “essential Waitrose” range is all about.
Billed by the Waitrose press office as “designed to make shopping for staple groceries easier for shoppers”, I found it all rather confusing.
Perhaps the problem was expectation. I had expected to find a new range, displayed alongside existing products, but with a cheaper price and an easy to understand reason about why it is cheaper. Similar to Tesco’s Value, Sainsbury’s Basic and ASDA’s Smartprice.
Not so. Much of the new range is being sold at the same price as existing products. This is true of meat, where the new range and the old were being sold side by side, and fruit. What makes it more difficult to understand is a sign above the meat and fruit shelves saying “all the quality you would expect from Waitrose at prices you wouldn’t.” Which means the price conscious shopper will probably feel put out because prices have not been reduced, and the quality conscious consumer fret that the product is not as good as it used to be.
And then there is that word “essential”. On shelf today were blackberries from Mexico, blueberries from Chile and raspberries from Morocco. Hardly essentials. Essential branding on the meat shelf is being used on rump and sirloin steak, not just on cheaper cuts like mince and braising beef. And I see from the press photo that there will be an essential farfalle. It’s a pasta apparently, but to most people probably not an essential purchase.
On a less critical note, it is easy to see an opening for a bog standard yoghurt, because at the moment all you can buy are speciality flavours and ranges like Seriously Fruity or Probiotics. Also, an offering of free range eggs that do not come from a specific breed like the currently sold Columbian Blacktail could be cheaper, and understandably so. The milk, jam, and biscuits are not yet on shelf so we do not know what sort of products they will be.
Waitrose is a great business, to be wholeheartedly admired for its commitment to quality, and its exemplary animal welfare standards and reputation for fair dealings with its farmers. Clearly it does need to tune its strategy, along with every other retail operator, to manage through the current economic challenges.
But to work, an initiative needs to have a clear and simple message easily picked up by consumers. I think the issue Waitrose faces is that they tried to combine two elements – a pack design change with the introduction of cheaper products. And its hard enough to communicate one new message to shoppers, let alone two.
I really hope it’s just me who finds the offer confusing.
Billed by the Waitrose press office as “designed to make shopping for staple groceries easier for shoppers”, I found it all rather confusing.
Perhaps the problem was expectation. I had expected to find a new range, displayed alongside existing products, but with a cheaper price and an easy to understand reason about why it is cheaper. Similar to Tesco’s Value, Sainsbury’s Basic and ASDA’s Smartprice.
Not so. Much of the new range is being sold at the same price as existing products. This is true of meat, where the new range and the old were being sold side by side, and fruit. What makes it more difficult to understand is a sign above the meat and fruit shelves saying “all the quality you would expect from Waitrose at prices you wouldn’t.” Which means the price conscious shopper will probably feel put out because prices have not been reduced, and the quality conscious consumer fret that the product is not as good as it used to be.
And then there is that word “essential”. On shelf today were blackberries from Mexico, blueberries from Chile and raspberries from Morocco. Hardly essentials. Essential branding on the meat shelf is being used on rump and sirloin steak, not just on cheaper cuts like mince and braising beef. And I see from the press photo that there will be an essential farfalle. It’s a pasta apparently, but to most people probably not an essential purchase.
On a less critical note, it is easy to see an opening for a bog standard yoghurt, because at the moment all you can buy are speciality flavours and ranges like Seriously Fruity or Probiotics. Also, an offering of free range eggs that do not come from a specific breed like the currently sold Columbian Blacktail could be cheaper, and understandably so. The milk, jam, and biscuits are not yet on shelf so we do not know what sort of products they will be.
Waitrose is a great business, to be wholeheartedly admired for its commitment to quality, and its exemplary animal welfare standards and reputation for fair dealings with its farmers. Clearly it does need to tune its strategy, along with every other retail operator, to manage through the current economic challenges.
But to work, an initiative needs to have a clear and simple message easily picked up by consumers. I think the issue Waitrose faces is that they tried to combine two elements – a pack design change with the introduction of cheaper products. And its hard enough to communicate one new message to shoppers, let alone two.
I really hope it’s just me who finds the offer confusing.
6 comments:
I totally agree with all your comments. I also had expectations of seeing a "cheaper but good value" product on the shelves next to the existing "more expensive" products.
But no .. all the milk displayed was labelled "essential Waitrose" and the same with all the other products that I had a quick look at in the limited time I spent in my local store. My initial impression is that Waitrose have let themselves down if this is actually the "con" that it appears to be at first inpection. I plan to check this out further and will contact Waitrose head office to get clarification.
... disappointed of Hampshire
Thanks Jon. It would be interesting to see what Waitrose Head Office says. Colette.
I work in a waitrose store, and I've seen the change first hand.
When the range was initially introduced prices were lowered and displayed alongside their equivalent products. However the "equivalents" were quickly replaced and the "essentials" took their place and price. It seems that the lowered prices were put there to entice customers and the presence of the older products was simply a coincidence due to product date codes and could not simply be taken off the shelf.
To the workers it has been nothing more than an ordinary packaging change (which is nothing new as it happens every 2 years or so).
I'm not sure about the quality of some products either as I have personally witnessed(in the past, not recently) some items come in with Tesco or Asda stickers, indicating that the suppliers are exactly the same, and the claim that Waitrose Quality is best is false, it also suggests that other cheaper supermarkets, that don't advertise their quality as prominently as Waitrose, does infact offer the same quality but at lower prices. I myself could not taste the difference on these mis-labeled products.
That aside We (Waitrose) have obviously seen the need to introduce such a range to meet consumer demand, but the majority of us felt that it has been done in the wrong way. Our essential range is still cheaper than the branded equivalents, but not much cheaper (if at all) than our own equivalents.
Having studied business management strategies at University I can also tell you that Waitrose is very Clever, I wont go into exact details, but we are no different to any of the other Supermarkets (especially the big 4) when it comes to getting the consumers attention. Every retailer has one or two strategies to get the business. Asda = Cheap, Tesco = Convenient(Everything you could ever need under one roof), Waitrose = Customer Service/Quality+Supplier Ethics. No one supermarket can deliver all, and thats why the majority of us with more than one supermarket on our doorstep mix our shopping experiences, me included.
...insider
some of this feeling let down is the interpreting of the adjective 'essential' , if we take it to mean 'necessary' then it falls on its @rse, if we take it to mean 'the essence or foundation of' as in essential oils then i think it makes more sense especially how waitrose are keen on promoting their values instead of prices.
I did not feel put out when the packaging on my cereal changed as the product and price were still the same. I'm surprised that this has had such a reaction, I have never associated waitrose with budget labels.
Essential is useful for shopping fresh fruit and vegetables. It makes clear that you are not buying expensive organics.
Thanks Hans. It is important to be able to distinguish easily between the different ranges that supermarkets offer, especially on a strict budget, and when shopping in a rush. Colette.
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