Make the Story Relevant: The Use of Narratives in Food Retailing

The recession, which took hold of our collective consumer psyche somewhere in mid-to late 2008, is impacting the way people live, shop and make purchase decisions. Narratives function to tell consumers what a product, manufacturer or retailer is all about and fulfills the critical role of conveying important quality messages or cues. An example of a powerful brand narrative is Southwest Airlines: “free to roam about the country.” In that short concise phrase, Southwest captures and conveys everything about the personality of the company and the experiences consumers have with the airline.

To refine what we mean when we talk about narrative, we are not referring to an overtly contrived narrative. Rather, we mean those accounts, anecdotes or stories that food manufacturers and food retailers use to connect with shoppers. The key to success lies in believability and relevance of the narrative.

Today, bargains may be in vogue, but shoppers are not abandoning their desire for quality, real, authentic food. The conundrum for food retailers is how do you market “value” without coming off as cheap? Solutions may lie in the use of narratives.

By presenting the right pieces of the right story in the right ways, you can sometimes get close to being able to script that narrative. Unfortunately, we’ve all experienced blatantly manufactured narratives that we simply do not believe. To be sure, there’s a fine line between having an interesting and credible narrative and one that is a transparent caricature.

Food retailers also craft and leverage narratives, though much of the heavy lifting in this regard is done by the brands/products they stock. New and trendy products, after all, make for a more engaging retail experience. Like their manufacturer partners, food retailers have numerous opportunities within their space to use compelling narratives to great advantage.

With products, there are attributes that can be effectively woven into a story about the product, but retailers, beyond the charms of various products, have many experiential levers that they can pull. In fact, an engaging retail experience often very effectively props up product narratives. Let’s face it, food products seem more interesting and somehow better at stores like Trader Joe’s or Wegmans. Nearly every facet of in-store experience presents an opportunity to use narrative. A well-crafted narrative weaves its way through nearly the entire store in one way or another—there are far more parts of the store that are touched by a relevant narrative than those that aren’t.

Constructing the Narrative

How does narrative play out through various store features inside a food retailer? One of the most important things to consider here is the culture of food that exists in the US, right here and now. That culture is far more important to the retail experience that any POS displays, weekly specials, or other more traditional promotional tactics, which will often show immediate short-term lift but by themselves ultimately do not do much to help stores build relevant, solid and long-term brand images and narratives. A good price is nice, but it doesn’t relate directly to ideas about food (and retailer) quality. Accordingly, in a grand sense food retailers should endeavor to build a narrative about food experience that is in line with recent cultural trends toward higher levels of quality, rather than the more utilitarian, bland, uniform and predictable American food experience that defined much of the postwar era.

Narrative is not something that is scripted by a “brand team” but plays out through many real, concrete features and practices directly on the selling floor itself; for consumers, the narrative is an accumulation of impressions gathered from real, objects and experiences occurring at ground level.

A retail experience is not a bunch of lopped-off, disconnected variables to be manipulated. It’s not a clever formula that you can deploy and walk away from. While there are plenty of good technical tools and practices for running the back end of a store, the front end is, well, a little bit different. Gone are the days of simply focusing on efficient shelf-stocking and running the sales floor as a slightly cleaner and smaller-proportioned version of a warehouse. You’re not selling “stuff.” You’re selling food.

Store Emphasis

Narrative begins with the overall emphasis of the store. At this stage, the narrative is essentially the same as what is put across as retailer brand identity. It is the grand message about what the store is, and who it is for. It is what every subsequent, narrative-relevant aspect of the store works toward.

Retailers should convey a “high quality food experience” message, but take the Missouri approach: “Show me” as opposed to “Tell me.” This type of visual communication can be done through in-store features and practices that provide concrete evidence of knowledge and passion for food.

Department Placement

Departmental placement may be a very effective tool in forwarding a quality message to shopper. However, done without thoughtful and thorough emphasis on food, it of course can at best distract the shopper from a quality food experience, and, at worst, destroy any possibility of that experience.

Sensory Elements

Sensory elements, when used properly, can go a long way in establishing a positive retail narrative. Maintaining visual consistency is important. Pick a color palette, for instance, and stick to it. Choose consistent materials for fixtures and displays and avoid the “flea market” appearance associated with many dollar stores. Random stuff on random tables is the enemy.

Transition away from materials associated with a fading era. Shoppers do not linger long in stores that evoke feelings of being “dated” as in “out-of-date.” Out-of-date translates to ‘out-of-touch.” Use more contemporary materials consistent with the message you are trying to convey. Wood flooring, for example, is consistent with a quality message.

Interactive Elements

Interactions with staff represent one of the strongest opportunities for retailers to drive home a positive brand image that attests to your passion for quality food. The fundamental distinction is how your staff comes across to shoppers. In addition to being friendly and courteous, are they engaged, knowledgeable and passionate food specialists? Do they get shoppers excited about food? You get the point.

Moving Forward

We’ve described many ways in which food retailers can create and drive home a focused narrative. Of course, what we’ve described here is only fractional. There are many more opportunities to be found in food retail spaces, from product-based opportunities, interactive and experiential elements, sensory elements, layout and space planning, and so on. One key takeaway, though, is to remember that all of those opportunities flow largely from contemporary food culture. Understanding food culture is utterly critical in discerning where there is opportunity to fascinate and wow shoppers, and how to deploy those opportunities most fruitfully. Food culture is determinative of both substance and form.