Are you positioning your convenience-store brand for success?
“Positioning, simply put, is how your brand is perceived in the eyes of the consumer,” said Keith Broviak, business partner at Pittsburgh-based CSD Solutions. “You differentiate from your competitors and you’re communicating a unique value-offer proposition.”
Broviak, who spoke at CSP’s Dispensed Beverages Forum in April in Lombard, Illinois, said that a convenience-store’s brand should be “sticky, memorable and emotional.”
“Those benefits will create a competitive advantage,” he said. “It will create brand awareness, improve customer perception and lead to increased sales. It’s so extremely important.”
While working as director of marketing at Anderson, Indiana-based Ricker’s convenience stores, which was later acquired by Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania-based Giant Eagle in 2018, Broviak said, “We built at Ricker’s a strong loyalty program and people still call [the fountain program] ‘Ricker Pop’ even years after we sold the business.”
A few months ago, Broviak said he and Jay Ricker, former chairman of Ricker Oil Co., were at a local restaurant in Indiana, and the bartender recognized them, came over and said, “I was one of your former customers at your Franklin store.”
And even though all the stores that Ricker sold to Giant Eagle were rebranded to GetGo, the bartender said, “I still go to the Franklin store to get my Ricker Pop.”
Broviak replied, “So you still go to GetGo to get your Ricker Pop?”
And the bartender said, “Yeah, I’ll always call it a Ricker Pop.”
Broviak told the audience, “That’s brand equity, even five years after we sold the business. That’s pretty cool. It’s what I would call brand love.”
Starting Out
To get customers to try a c-store retailer’s drinks in the first place, use loyalty programs and forecourt channels, Broviak said.
“And don’t forget dispensed beverages today could be a really good value play,” he said. “With all the costs that are increasing with single-serve beverages, this could create your fountain as your low-cost hero. And I'm not saying give it away, I’m saying it could be an advantage or an option.”
Loyalty today is no longer about just random discounts, Broviak said.
“It’s about building relationships with our customers,” he said. “Mobile apps give us direct lines to our customers, and we have forecourt POP (point of purchase), that’s your first touch point.
“And when our customers are on our forecourt, they’re halfway to our store,” he said. “And I get it. I’ve been in this business my entire life, and I know how hard it is to get customers into our store. We know 60% or more of our customers never come inside our stores, but use your forecourt advertising, make it clean, make it crisp, make sure we’re taking advantage of that stuff.”
Digital menu boards are a c-store retailer’s in-store storytellers, he added. “They’re flexible. We can get real-time updates. Make sure you’re using them adequately.”
He added that traditional ads are still very important.
“In this day and age, everybody lives on their phone, everybody lives in a social network, and people love to post about their drinks,” he said. “OK, give them something to post about.
“Ask questions, like, ‘What’s your favorite Ricker Pop flavor’ or ‘What’s your favorite Ricker store?’” Broviak said. “It might sound kind of stupid, but we had customers say, ‘My favorite Ricker store is the one on 10th Street.’ People love to talk, and people love engagement like that.”
Want to learn more about foodservice? Register for CSP’s Foodservice Forum in June here.
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