Waitrose launches biggest ever value campaign

The upmarket grocer says its 1000s of ways to great value campaign will highlight its value proposition, which includes a promise to price match Tesco on more than 1000 products and the Essentials range.

Waitrose also wants to raise awareness that it offers more than 1000 products on promotion every week and is the only supermarket to offer free delivery on all online orders to address consumers perception that it is more expensive than its rivals.

The initiative comes as a survey by Nunwood finds that Waitrose has fallen out of the top 10 brands for customer service.

The survey, which polled 7,300 consumers in September, asked respondents to rate brands out of 10 which companies met their needs, were easy to deal with and whether they exceeded expectations.

Waitrose fell to 14th place from 3rd last year, partly based on the perception that its premium quality positioning makes it less easy to afford.

A Waitrose spokeswoman says: “It’s obviously disappointing to see the results of this survey, but it in no way reflects our absolute and ongoing focus on customer service.

What is does show is we can do even more to highlight our great value in consumers’ minds – because in fact our position on value has never been stronger.

“This campaign has the aim of highlighting that – and for us, value goes hand-in-hand with market-leading product innovation and customer service.”

The Waitrose campaign, which launches today (6 October), includes TV, press and online activity and a mobile display ad campaign, in-store marketing and customer communications.

BBH created the Waitrose ad campaign while Manning Gottlieb OMD handled media planning and buying.

For more on Nunwood’s survey how retailers are adapting their customer service to meet the needs of consumers, pick up this week’s Marketing Week (6 October) and read our feature on the rise of smart consumers and smart retailers.