Food Lion’s Brand Strategy Comes Home
Food Lion has launched its brand strategy, which is based on consumer feedback, in 269 North Carolina and South Carolina stores, including its hometown of Salisbury, N.C. The strategy originally launched in the Raleigh and Fayetteville, N.C., markets, as well as Chattanooga, Tenn., in May 2011.
“[The] launch is a pivotal turning point for our company, as we have implemented our new strategy in more than 700 stores,” noted Food Lion president Cathy Green Burns. “We invite customers to visit their local Food Lion, where they will experience firsthand the enhancements we have made in our stores. We are committed to being recognized as a price leader, making our stores easier to shop, offering the greatest value in store brands and providing the freshest produce.”
To mark the launch, Food Lion is holding grand reopening festivities at all 269 stores, which will include such shopper perks as providing the first 50 customers at each location a bag of free groceries through Saturday, July 21. The company also plans to donate $30,000 in store-brand food products to local charities.
Food Lion’s brand strategy offers customers lower prices on 6,000 items throughout the store and access to quality store-brand products at lower prices, including the company’s my essentials value tier, along with enhanced produce and an easy and convenient shopping experience, such as quicker checkout. In support of the brand strategy, the company has created about 800 new jobs.
The brand strategy rolled out July 18 at locations in Salisbury, Charlotte, Greensboro, High Point, Winston-Salem, Hickory, Asheville, N.C., and Rock Hill, Greenville and Spartanburg, S.C. Additionally, Food Lion has remodeled 28 North Carolina stores.
“We are very pleased with the reaction from our customers since we introduced our new brand strategy,” continued Burns. “During the past year, we have continued to refine the strategy based on additional customer feedback and have made new enhancements for our customers.”
Currently, more than 60 percent of Food Lion’s store base is operating under the brand strategy. Back in March 2012, the company rebranded another 268 stores in Virginia, West Virginia and the outer banks of North Carolina.
Food Lion, a company of Delhaize America, the U.S. division of Brussels-based Delhaize Group, operates more than 1,100 supermarkets in 10 Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic states, and employs about 57,000 associates.