Sprouts Integrates Local Influencer Marketing
02/17/2017
In the competitive world of grocery stores most people living in urban areas have many choices. Organic foods, once a competitive advantage, are now available in more than “specialty” grocery stores.
The question many in the grocery industry struggles with is… “What’s a company to do to cut through the clutter and entice shoppers to “please choose me?” In metro Atlanta, where I call home, a relatively new player to area’s grocery store world, is doing things a little differently to gain community awareness and acceptance.
Sprouts is positioned as “… a healthy grocery store offering fresh, natural and organic foods at great prices…” Its management seems to understand; along with healthy food that supports its positioning, building relationships with its customers might be the key that unlocks a competitive advantage.
Sprouts is building community at the local level.
The community-based tactics Sprouts is putting into play build on each other. The first is an on-going series of demos and tastings.
Integrated into these fun and informative demos Sprouts is tapping into local food influencers. Recently members of the Atlanta Food Bloggers’ Society (I am a member of the society through my Food Site Diva Foodies) were invited to attend a Game Day Cooking Demo. The focus was on how to prepare healthy snack foods to nosh on while watching the Super Bowl Game.
Instead of bringing in a chef to conduct the demo, Sprouts made an interesting decision to have a licensed nutritionist, Marisa Moore, facilitate. The choice of a nutritionist supported and added credibility to the brand positioning.
Joining me at the demo were two other prominent food bloggers. Although the demo was free and open to the general public, Sprouts took care to make their staff and Marisa, the nutritionist, available to us. In addition we were given a gift card honorarium to create social content about the event.
All in all an interesting and well done influencer experience.
If you enjoy food blogs and sites about the culinary world please join me on Diva Foodies where you’ll find a slightly different approach to my experience (and a black bean brownie recipe!), interviews with TV Chefs, cookbook authors, and much more. Follow me on Twitter at @DivaFoodies.
The invitation to attend this free food demo at Sprouts in the Morningside neighborhood of Atlanta was part of a blogger influencer program affiliated with the Atlanta Food Bloggers’ Society. I was given an honorarium for social media content creation and promotion. All opinions are those of the author.
