Wegmans Marketing Approach for Frederick

Weg­mans is a very pop­u­lar gro­cery store chain. It is actu­al­ly more than a gro­cery store, but I’ve yet to expe­ri­ence how good Weg­mans real­ly is based on folks around me. Weg­mans is known for being one of the best food stores in North­ern Vir­ginia. I’ve heard noth­ing but rav­ing reviews about it. If you are famil­iar with Whole Foods, Weg­mans can be labeled as a mix­ture of Whole Foods for qual­i­ty food prod­ucts and Nord­strom for cus­tomer care. I also hear that their prices are rea­son­able too! I final­ly get a chance in June to see Weg­mans in action. They are open­ing a store in Fred­er­ick Mary­land, about 20 mins from my home.

I’ll have more to report on this fine gro­cery sto­ry once I vis­it, but in the mean time, a few thoughts on what I know. First, it is amaz­ing to see how Weg­mans has dived into Social Media and made their web­site inter­ac­tive and use­ful to their audi­ence. They are engag­ing with new, exist­ing and soon to be cus­tomers. Weg­mans isn’t as big as CVS or Safe­way, but it is pop­u­lar and grow­ing. By engag­ing in Social Media, they are plant­i­ng seeds for when they open up a new loca­tion. Peo­ple eager­ly await not only the new stores but all the mar­ket­ing pieces they receive from them. They’ve got­ten the per­mis­sion of their prop­sects because of their excel­lent rep­u­ta­tion. Folks, this is a food place. They sell food! They pre­pare food. They serve food! Yet they’ve made the expe­ri­ence some­thing to remember.

So take­away #1 for ser­vice busi­ness­es, No mat­ter what busi­ness you are in, make your cus­tomer expe­ri­ence the best it can be.

Weg­mans not only has excel­lent cus­tomer care, they have employ­ees who love their jobs. When employ­ees love their job, the cus­tomer expe­ri­ence will be amaz­ing. When employ­ees hate their job…well…I don’t have to explain what that expe­ri­ence is like. Take­away #2, to build a qual­i­ty busi­ness, spend as much time nur­tur­ing, encour­ag­ing and reward­ing your employ­ees as you do your customers. 

Final­ly, Weg­man’s mar­ket­ing is awe­some. They are com­ing to one of the biggest cities in Mary­land, Fred­er­ick, yet they are mak­ing the mar­ket­ing per­son­al. How are they doing it? They are using their store man­ag­er, Phil, to start things off. They mailed out an attrac­tive fly­er to the sur­round­ing com­mu­ni­ties in Fred­er­ick Coun­ty. The mail­er was telling home­own­ers when the Fred­er­ick store would open, what to expect and was all writ­ten by the store man­ag­er (at least we are to believe it was from him). Then on the local radio sta­tions, Phil, had the spot­light, encour­ag­ing peo­ple to come to Weg­mans on June 5^th and he and his staff will be there to serve them. Their tagline is sim­ple, ​“food shop­ping will nev­er be the same.” Does­n’t that trig­ger you to want to take a peak in a Weg­man’s store? Take­away #3, Make your mar­ket­ing unique, con­sis­tent and tar­get­ed. Final­ly, the tim­ing of your mar­ket­ing is key. Weg­man’s hit the radio, Inter­net and the mail­box all at the same time.

What’s your expe­ri­ence with Weg­mans? I’m all ears and would love to hear about it. Leave a com­ment below or shoot me an email. I’ll report back after June 5^th on my oth­er takeaways.