Part
01
of one
Part
01
What is the increase in Brand Awareness and Sales Lift from Social Media Marketing in the food category?
Efforts to find case studies and data metrics about the impact of each social media platform in brand awareness and sales of food items found in grocery stores prove that such information is largely unavailable. However, we found case studies about Sunnyway Foods, Three Bakers, Good Greens, and Whole Foods which show that social media drives brand awareness and sales of these products.
LIMITATIONS AND DELIMITATIONS
After exhaustive research, we found extremely limited key performance indicators which show the separate impact of each social media platform. This is because almost all groceries that adopt a social media marketing strategy usually aim to increase engagement in as many platforms as possible. In addition to this, results of social media marketing strategies are often consolidated into data metrics which express the effects of all platforms as a whole—such as the percentage increase in sales.
Due to the scarcity of relevant information within all public domains, we decided to increase the scope of our research to include a single source from Target published over 24 months ago.
SUNNYWAY FOODS
Cross and Crown, a digital marketing agency, recently published an article featuring the effects of the social media marketing campaign of Pennsylvania-based food grocer chain Sunnyway Foods. According to the article, Sunnyway Foods was always very successful with their traditional marketing campaigns which usually involve television and radio ads, print ads, and also in-store promotions. In addition to this, the success of these campaigns were hugely thanks to their already strong presence within the local neighborhood. Cross and Crown collaborated with Sunnyway Foods using this strategy for over 2 years until they decided that Sunnyway Foods was finally ready to expand its target market. Cross and Crown also acknowledged the fact that the company's biggest potential market is quickly transitioning toward the younger and more tech-savvy demographic.
STRATEGY
It was stated that despite already having a lot of marketing material, Sunnyway Foods' ads always made use of stock photos. Cross and Crown found that this was not a very accurate and effective representation of the quality of Sunnyway Foods' products. In light of this, Cross and Crown produced not only original and updated photos but also other digital content such as stop motion and video. The agency also overhauled the grocer's website and populated its Facebook page with a lot of digital content.
RESULTS
The success of Sunnyway Foods' updated marketing campaign manifested in the form of increased social media engagement, more in-store activity, and an increase in sales.
THREE BAKERS
Three Bakers is a producer of gluten-free bread products found in groceries throughout the US. They recently asked Get Susan, a digital marketing agency, to help them revamp their marketing strategies.
STRATEGY
Aside from updating the company's website, producing digital advertising campaigns, and creating a content-rich blog featuring the quality and benefits of their products, Get Susan completely reworked Three Bakers' Facebook and Twitter profiles. It was stated that they also created a Pinterest and an Instagram account. In addition to this, Get Susan also helped Three Bakers collaborate with influencers to further their reach into social media even more.
RESULTS
As a result, Three Bakers saw an increase in website traffic by 211 percent within 12 months, while organic search also increased by 58 percent. Aside from this, quality of traffic, page visits per visitor, and time spent within the company's website also increased.
GOOD GREENS
Good Greens is a manufacturer of health bars which are sold in a number of groceries in the US. The Balance recently featured the company in an article about successful content marketing campaigns within food and beverage industries.
STRATEGY
According to the article, Good Greens developed strong relationships with a lot of local influencers and bloggers within Cleveland. As a result, they were able to convince a lot of them to write about Good Greens. Although Good Greens' marketing strategy does not directly involve social media platforms, studies show that influencers have a great impact on the level of engagement of the brand's audience throughout all platforms of social media.
RESULTS
Because of this strategy, incoming traffic for their website increased. As a byproduct, this also caused their Google search engine optimization to improve, jumping from a Google Page rank of PR0 to PR3. It was also stated that average sales saw an increase of around 50 percent within 4 months and that sales per month grew to $50,000 from only $30,000 a few months prior.
WHOLE FOODS
Whole Foods is a US-based grocery chain that primarily focuses on selling food products without artificial preservatives and additives. According to an article published by Canva Learn, Whole Foods is among companies that have recently implemented very successful content and social media marketing strategies.
STRATEGY
Aside from creating a very engaging website filled with a lot of attractive content, Whole Foods started publishing very interesting photographs on their Pinterest profile. The article stated that Whole Foods excelled at pairing very colorful photographs with contrasting bold text which artistically summarize the message of the entire picture.
RESULTS
Sources indicate that the followers of Whole Foods' Pinterest increased from 155,000 to 190,000 within five months. According to Target, a single Pinterest post of Whole Foods that gained around 68,000 views was found to be equivalent to approximately 44,000 visits to their official website.
FURTHER READING
According to a 2017 survey by Aptaris and Dunnhumby about current marketing practices of groceries in the US, around 90 percent of the over 4,600 groceries surveyed have decided to reduce their budget for print ads. Findings show that spending on social media marketing strategies is increasing. This is indicative that social media drives brand awareness and sales for food products found in grocery stores.
CONCLUSION
Sunnyway Foods, Three Bakers, Good Greens, and Whole Foods are examples of brands that sell food products in grocery stores which have increased brand awareness and sales through the use of social media.