WAWA, Pa. -- Regional convenience retailer Wawa Inc. is in the process of a substantial upgrade to its website that the company hopes will help convey the brand's benefits to consumers and encourage ongoing customer communication.
We've had a website for a number of years, and we've looked at various different small ways to update it, but now is the first time in many years that we're really going to step back and decide what it is supposed to do, how can we maximize the technology and what do our customers want to see that we can surprise and delight [image-nocss] them with, Lisa Wollan, Wawa's head of consumer insights and brand strategy, told CSP Daily News.
After a national search, the company hired The Archer Group, ironically located in Wilmington, Del., Wawa's own backyard. Wollan said The Archer Group came in with some really wonderful work they have done for other people, as well as some great thoughts about our own brand. They were all Wawa customers anyway, so they came in with their feeling about how they interact with the brand, and how they could interact with the brand through a redesigned website.
According to a report in The News Journal, The Archer Group's task, one that will involve daily work from multiple staffers and every department for the next few months, ultimately seeks to make the Wawa site a more significant, far-reaching and effective tool in the company's marketing efforts. To do that, Archer will focus on exploring the mindset of the Wawa customersthe desires, the hopes, even the occasional grumbles.
We need to be advocates for the user, Todd Miller, creative vice president at The Archer Group, told the newspaper. We need to understand their needs.
Wawa believes The Archer Group has the competence and creativity to not only ensure the company's web presence keeps pace technically, but also to make it a place where customers are engaged and involved, whether through chat boards or focus groups. In short, Wawa wants to engage the Web's potential like it never has, Wollan told the paper.
Appropriately, one of Archer's first pre-deal brainstorming sessions involved a thorough examination and consumption of multiple Wawa Sizzli breakfast sandwiches.
Wollan said the depth of Archer's approach was quickly apparent. The Archer Group really did their homework when they came back to talk to us, she said. Archer prevailed because it listened to what Wawa asked for, and because it took the initiative to go beyond even that, Wollan said.
They've given us a lot of creative freedom in turn, said Miller, heartened to have seen his firm roll the dice and win a big one. We took chances. We didn't just pitch the usual website or the usual Internet marketing campaign.
Wollan told CSP Daily News, The thing that Wawa really does best is to portray our brand throughout every touchpointin our stores and with our products. And in our website, we have portrayed pieces of our brand, but what we're hoping to do with our new website is to get even more of a look and a feel that people feel as if it is tying back with the Wawa brand they know and love, she said.
The current website has a number of pieces that are very functionala section advertising the chain's products, including specials and nutritional information; a section about Wawa associates; a place where people can apply online; and a section about the Wawa Visa card, among other sections.
We don't expect any of those things to go awaywe expect for them to become even bigger and better. So it's a matter of enhancing and continuing to build on the abilities that we currently have, said Wollan.
She also said the company is trying to leverage the trend toward affinity groups communicating with companies. Our stores are a good place right now for people to come in and tell our associates how they feel about us, what they like, what we might do in the future or some of the things that they want us to retain, she said. We're looking for the website to be an extension of that, so we can continue to communicate with customers in a two-way process, as well as to link customers in with things that they might opt into; for example, would you like to hear more about our new products? Would you like to be involved in some online discussions about things we might be doing in the future? A way for them to become much more integrated with Wawa from the comfort of their own desk or home or wherever.
Wollan added, We want to be able to provide an atmosphere in which customers can let us know what they're looking for and respond and react to the kinds of things that we're thinking of in the future. We want to provide an open and receptive ear to what our customers want to tell us. We're very clearly a company that wants to listen. Being able to do that technologically is wonderful.
Retailersespecially retailers with a wide geographic footprintneed to stay current with technology, she said. We can be more effective in terms of staying current with technology, particularly when we've got so many stores in a five-state area so that when people are going from one place to anotherfrom northern Pennsylvania to southern Virginiawe can make it simple for them to map out their path as to were the nearest Wawa, so they can get all the things they want to eat and drink and have rest stops and gasoline.
In upgrading its website, Wollan said Wawa asked, How can we use technology to make that simple? How can we tie in with interactive website things? How can we do focus groups so that people don't feel they have to go to a place to be heard, but can sit in the comfort of their own homes? Once we maximize the opportunities, then how do we keep abreast of these things as the technology continues to change?
The new version of www.wawa.comis expected to launch in first-quarter 2008.
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