IGA’s National Retailer Advisory Board Weighs in on Core Initiatives in Action

Sep 26, 2018

 

 


It’s no secret that big changes are afoot at IGA. From a new up-branding campaign designed to help IGA retailers get credit for their authentic local identity to a new social media program and national digital ad that uses the scale of the alliance to reach more shoppers than ever before, IGA is ushering in a group of core initiatives that collectively represent the largest simultaneous program development project the brand has pursued in many years.

So how do we know these initiatives are on target to help IGA retailers make their business more successful? It all comes down to testing, which began last week when the IGA USA National Retailer Advisory Board (NRAB) visited Cornell’s IGA Supercenter to see preliminary versions of key initiatives in play.

“This isn’t about pushing out what we think is right and mandating that all our retailers use it,” IGA CEO John Ross says. “It’s about creating a toolkit that gives retailers solutions they can customize and tailor to help build their local identity and their sales—regardless of community or financial profile. And that means creating an environment where we can see these initiatives in action, then getting feedback from retailers about how they see these things working in their stores.”

And Cornell’s IGA—a Laurel Grocery company-owned store in Shelby, Ohio—presented the perfect opportunity. Already the test store for the national digital ad, it was an easy decision to work with Laurel Grocery and the Cornell’s team to create a working model store to test other key initiatives.  

Members of the IGA Chicago team visited the store in advance of the meeting to help the Cornell’s management team set the store with a prototype version of merchandising and branding elements, from IGA “Local Equals Fresh” POP, deli stickers, shelf tags, and other signage, to IGA Exclusive Brand products featuring a newly designed label. On the day of the event, 18 NRAB members representing IGA stores from across the U.S. visited various stations throughout the store to get an up-close and personal look at the new merchandising, and also to hear how other key IGA initiatives—like best practices, the national digital ad, IGA’s new social media program, and other vendor programs--were being implemented to build sales in the store.

shelby-iga-map-nrab-2 (002)

Following their tour of the store, NRAB members were asked to provide written feedback on the strategy and execution of each of the initiatives; then the following day provided an opportunity for NRAB members to share their feedback with the group. “This NRAB store visit was about making sure these programs will work for everyone before we roll them out,” Ross said. “Is the strategy right? Is it credible? Can you see it working in your store? If not, what needs to change to fix it? These are the key things we needed from this exercise, and I feel confident that we got them.”

What’s Next?
Work has already begun to make changes based on NRAB feedback, then from there, testing begins again—this time with customers. “Our plan is to come back soon with the changes. We’ll use those changes to finish this store, and then we bring the shoppers through to get their opinions,” Ross says. “Because ultimately, it’s the shopper who decides. When the shopper tells us what we are doing is going to motivate them to shop the store more, that’s when we know we’ve got it right.”

Stay tuned to The IGA Minute for more updates in the coming weeks on the 2018 key initiatives—all set to rollout to retail before the year ends!   

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