How to Market a Supermarket

Once upon a time, supermarkets like ShopRite and Foodtown would run local commercials reminding viewers at home that they, too, could “can-can” down the canned food aisle for a good deal. But with the shift to digital marketing (and the popularity of chains like Trader Joe’s), how do local grocers remind their communities that they exist?

Well, they advertise. And in a very novel medium: print.

Enter: Harvesting Media, a digital marketing agency catering to independent, often family-owned grocery stores. It started in 2017 and now helps about 20 different clients, like Key Food, navigate this brave new world.

Old school

While print is still dying, in the grocery game, it’s dying at a slower pace. The industry still relies on the print circular (newspapers that emphasize deals on spiral hams and buy-one-get-one Jell-O) to get the word out, according to Harvesting Media CEO Eli Langer.

The hardest part of the job? “Honestly, educating an industry that's hundreds of years old on a new advertising medium.”

Harvesting’s job involves transitioning those advertising budgets—which range from about $250,000 to $500,000 a year, if a client owns two or three stores—into the digital world. Supermarkets' profit margins are notoriously razor thin, so those dollars need to stretch.

“They’re in the business of buying apples and selling apples,” Langer said. “They're not thinking, ‘How can we run a targeted ad campaign?’”

Where are they putting those dollars? Mostly Facebook and Instagram. People aren’t too hungry on Twitter, apparently.

• Langer said Frank’s Market, a single-store client in New York City, saw online orders jump 166% over the course of a weekend when Harvesting ran a free delivery promo last summer on Facebook, Instagram and over email.
• Maywood’s Marketplace in New Jersey saw weekly sales jump 31% from the prior week after a similar promotion.

Digital delivery

The pandemic sped up digital transformation for grocers, as home delivery and curbside pickup became more popular. Almost every digital campaign run by Harvesting directs customers to a store’s e-commerce site or an Instacart landing page.

While Instacart is simpler for retailers, the delivery company takes a cut—and grocery stores aren’t privy to the customer data that comes free with every purchase. So many of Harvesting’s customers are advertising their own delivery services.

“I didn’t think we’d be where we are until 2023, 2024,” Langer said. “It went from a shiny object to a thing retailers needed yesterday.” — RB