Morrisons’ new boss must make brand purpose a top priority
Morrisons is suffering from a lack of brand clarity, with a confusing focus on quality, fresh food, price, value and promotions through its Match & More loyalty scheme failing to resonate with consumers.
By Sarah Vizard
Amid huge investments in online, convenience, loyalty and price, Morrisons has lost a sense of what it stands for. It is also the worst performing of the major supermarkets, with the latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel showing its market share falling to 11.3% in the 12 weeks to 4 January.
Some thought boss Dalton Philips might be given more time given that initiatives such as Match & More have only just launched and that many of the problems at Morrisons were legacy issues. It seems the board disagreed and is to leave at the end of March after five years as chief executive.
Morrisons now wants to position “for growth”, according to incoming chairman Andrew Higginson. In a market involved in a zero-sum game that will be difficult and to do that Morrisons will need to decide what its brand stands for and stick to it.
Morrisons has previously relied on quality and fresh food as differentiators but the increasing focus on value and price in the rest of the market has muddied its brand. According to YouGov BrandIndex perceptions of its quality have fallen by a statistically significant number over the past year.
It has been shouting about price and value through a number of different marketing messages – from “Prices nailed down” to “I’m cheaper”. However, that message doesn’t seem to be getting through either, with perceptions of value also down according to BrandIndex.
Its loyalty scheme confuses the matter still further, with the price-matching element seemingly an admission that customers can find food cheaper elsewhere. It also dilutes its most recent marketing campaign – “Everyday low prices”.
Morrisons says it wants to be seen as a value retailer with a focus on fresh food. At the moment that message is getting lost.
The new chief executive needs to make clarifying the brand and working out what makes it different in a crowded and increasingly competitive marketplace one of their top priorities.
Couldn’t agree more and, judging by the latest iterations of their stores (Weybridge and Milton Keynes) it defeats me why they persist with yesterday’s thinking when it comes to store interiors. Supermarkets are not cuddly places and no-one is disposed to decipher and interpret the often conflicting plethora of messages, offers and promotions. If they’re going to focus on value and fresh food, they don’t need to twiddle around, they just need to present it in a clean, efficient and simple way – not find new ways to sign the bakery or waft mist over the herb section, leaving produce distinctly unfresh and valueless by 2.30 in the afternoon. Why oh why is it so difficult?