President/CEO Touts A&P Shopping Experience
The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. Inc. (A&P) has launched an integrated marketing campaign starring president and CEO Sam Martin, the main architect of the company’s comprehensive turnaround effort, as its primary spokesman. The campaign highlights A&P’s vision to be the best neighborhood food and drug store by offering high-quality local products, enhanced services and better value.
“We’ve made a promise to our shoppers to be the best food and drug store in their neighborhoods,” noted Martin. “We’re excited to debut our marketing campaign and show customers how we have fulfilled that promise by offering them the relevant products and services that meet their needs in clean, well-stocked stores that provide friendly and knowledgeable service.”
The campaign’s theme -- “shopping just got a whole lot better” – is an invitation to consumers to visit the Northeast grocer’s stores for a more enjoyable and rewarding shopping experience. The effort also marks the first time that Montvale, N.J.-based A&P will run a single marketing initiative across all of its A&P, The Food Emporium, Pathmark, Superfresh and Waldbaum’s grocery banners.
“The key to our success lies in providing food and drug stores that meet the needs of our customers in every neighborhood we serve,” explained A&P EVP of merchandising, marketing and supply & logistics Tom O’Boyle. “That’s why, for the very first time in our history, we’ve launched one integrated marketing campaign that encompasses all of our stores. We chose Sam to be featured in our ads so that he could share his passion of a better shopping experience with our customers and help them see why coming to our stores is better than ever before.”
New products and programs highlighted in the campaign include the “Live Better Wellness” total-store health-and-wellness solution, the Woodson & James premium-quality Angus beef line, the Mid-Atlantic Country Farms line of local chicken, turkey and beef products raised by family-owned farms using humane and sustainable farming methods, and The Two Forks Bakery line of desserts and other baked goods.
A&P has additionally upgraded several locations in the past year, including two Pathmark stores in New Jersey and two The Food Emporium stores in Manhattan, and has plans to remodel more stores in the future. At the same time, the company is retraining associates, rolling out faster replenishment methods, and developing more tailored offerings at all of its stores.
The campaign encompasses in-store signage, direct mail and digital search components, as well as television commercials featuring Martin. The 30-second spots begin airing May 10 in the New York and Philadelphia metropolitan areas on such network and cable stations as HGTV, E!, The Food Network, Lifetime and TNT.
Further campaign elements include display advertisements, online video commercials and social media components, and the company’s corporate website has been redesigned to align with the new marketing push.