Founded in 1934 as a supermarket chain, Meijer operates 242 stores in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Ranked No. 19 on Forbes' 2015 list of "America's Largest Private Companies," Meijer is the 26th-largest retailer in the United States. The company is headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
We worked with their social media team to develop the 2016 Thanksgiving Turkey Promo, with the goal of more fully engaging their customers and, obviously, generating world turkey domination.
We began by tapping into existing market research, and conducted our own social media listening research.
With more than 1 million turkeys sold annually in Meijer stores—the majority of those purchases occurring during Thanksgiving week—research clearly showed that the store in which customers buy their turkey was where they tended to buy the rest of the items for their Thanksgiving meal. Another finding: more and more customers were updating and twisting traditional preparation methods to create a more personalized holiday meal.
Our strategic approach centered on using the personalized holiday meal as an opportunity to highlight the uniqueness of each family that gathers to enjoy it. Although turkey remains the Thanksgiving hero, Meijer wanted to extend flavor and cooking personalities to cross merchandising opportunities—from tablescapes and centerpieces to beverages and holiday decor—to help each customer make Thanksgiving a more personal family celebration.
The communication objective was to create distinct “personalities” that would promote a variety of flavor profiling—from traditional to gourmet, sweet to savory, and from sophisticated to most definitely kid-friendly. The resulting series of videos that capture a range of distinct family personalities were rolled out at key moments, helping drive traffic to Meijer’s on-line weekly circular and generating increased in-store sales.