Background

The weekly shop is something most of us have to do. For many of us this means the ritual visit to the local supermarket to stack up on those essentials that will sustain you and your family through the next week.

If you are one of the fortunate ones who by virtue of your working hours, understanding partner or through some sort of chores trading arrangement, are able to avoid the weekly shop there is something you need to know; it’s not cheap.

And, of course, it is a chore, albeit an expensive and essential one.

This week, despite my best efforts I found myself in Sainsbury’s, working my way up and down the aisles. Sainsbury’s is our closest supermarket but it does sit next to Tesco and Aldi. It is our supermarket of choice although we occasionally use the other two. It is an interesting relationship; we are regulars at Sainsbury but wouldn’t say we are furiously loyal. There is a quality about the products and of course we are familiar with the layout which makes the chore easier to undertake.

In truth I am not sure they are very different from the other big supermarkets and I have a sense that like the banks they would have to do something major to snap you out of a familiar routine.

So the thing that really caught my eye was the small advert in the trolley; ‘It’s our values that make us different’. This is a principle that is right at the heart of the Brand Vista philosophy. We believe that great brands have clear and differentiating values and they deliver them through everything that they do. In great brands customers recognise these values. They won’t know them explicitly of course but they will recognise them through the experience they have.

So Sainsbury was being bold enough to tell me that their values were the thing that made them different. Perhaps it was these values that kept us coming back and not apathy and routine after all.

The Experience

Alerted to the promise I continued my journey around the store to see if I could ‘sense’ those values that really made a difference. Of course they weren’t written anywhere (that rarely works) but perhaps I could work them out.

That proved to be more difficult. In truth it was hard to really determine what was different between this store and some of the other high street brands. My nearest ASDA is at the other side of town but on the occasions I have shopped there and the concept of good value really comes through. They have a sense of focus but I was not sure what the Sainsbury focus was.

I was beginning to guess that quality might be a value, the fresh product was well presented, and plentiful, the store was clean and bright, but was it enough to differentiate? I don’t think so. Of course the issue is that quality is not really a differentiating value. For a start no one can define it; quality means one thing to me and something else to you. Quality is customer defined so whilst it could be an important driver for them it couldn’t really be differentiating.

I did notice an area in the cafe dedicated to local community activities, which suggested that something around community might also be a value. There was another dedicated area with letters and fund raising examples close to the exit which reinforced my thoughts.

In truth I arrived at the tills not really being any clearer so I decided to ask a couple of members of staff. Both conversations drew a blank which was not encouraging. If they didn’t know what those values were then it would be pretty difficult to live them. One response was particularly concerning: “Those things we are supposed to do but probably don’t”.

I decided to go home, see if I could find the values on the web site and then return to see if I could recognise progress in aligning to them.

Alignment

The good news is that the values were easy to find. Those values represent a promise to the customer and they were written clearly on the web site:

• Best for food and health
• Sourcing with Integrity
• Respect for our Environment
• Making a positive difference for our community
• A great place to work

Armed with these values I paid a return visit to see if I could see these in action.

The community notices at the entrance were locally managed and looked a bit like a school collage but were probably better for it. It clearly looked like a store initiative not a corporate one. This was repeated in the cafe, with evidence of working with local charities and hospices. It was a value I had sensed on my first visit and confirmed now.

At the vegetable aisles I began to notice posters about the partnerships with growers and freshness of produce. There was something about sourcing coming through, maybe not as strong as it could be but certainly a start. Beyond this good start however, signs of the values in action seemed to dwindle a bit. Whilst the fresh meat and fish area looked good there was little connection to sourcing or health, a couple of key values. Messages about the environment were few except for some near the tills.

Whether it is a great place to work only the employees can say. However, the service at the tills was good, people were friendly chatty and helpful. Not too many long faces and bearing in mind that it was 8.00pm this probably says something about working at Sainsbury.

My overall reflection was that there were signs of the values coming through in patches but there was an opportunity to do much more.

We know that aligning a set of values throughout a business as large as a national supermarket chain is no easy task, and you have to start somewhere. There is evidence that Sainsbury have started.

My biggest concern was that the staff I spoke to didn’t know the values never mind understand how to put them into action. In our experience if you immerse staff in the values and let them look at their own store through the eyes of those values they will find the opportunities to bring them to life.

Sainsbury are to be congratulated on the bold promise that their values will make a difference. The evidence of some of those values emerging is encouraging but of course brand values are delivered primarily by people. By engaging staff in the values so they understand them and are allowed to work with them they will find the thousands of small gestures that can bring those values to life for customers.

When they do that it really might make a big difference.