In-Store Promotion, Direct Mail, Corporate Communications: bringing the future to the floor of an emerging titan
For the 1999 launch of WholeFoods.com I spent several months in Austin working with the in-house marketing team. While they built out the online shopping, community and educational portions of the site, I worked on an in-store marketing campaign with a direct mail contest entry traffic-driver and several corporate communications pieces.
Want the Whole Story?
To drive in-store awareness of WholeFoods’ new online store, we of course created a poster design pack that local stores could use, which was standard for WholeFoods promos. But we went a lot farther, creating hundreds of item-specific shelf flags with a factoid on one side and a slogan on the other directing the shopper to ask an associate about WholeFoods.com. Associates at each store had a training session on the three core activities available on the site: Shop, Learn and Talk.
WholeFact: Quinoa isn’t actually a grain, but it is a complete protein – and quinoa was served in ceremonial meals at Machu Picchu.
Want the whole story? Ask us about WholeFoods.com!
All the associates were issued WholeFoods.com T-shirts with the slogan printed on the back – pretty hard to miss.
Shop. Learn. Talk. Register To Win $5000!
We drove registrations on the site through direct mail. These postcards were sent to a combo of WholeFoods’ pre-existing customer list and targeted additional address lists. The draw was $5000 in Whole Foods Market gift certificates.
Expeller-Pressed
For the press push we sent out a media invitation inviting journalists to take a ‘sneak peek at the site’ and shop with a $25 smart card that was sent in a follow-up media packet.
From the Desk Of John Mackey
Shareholders received a corporate communications letter from CEO John Mackey, written by yours truly. Mackey and his team approved it, of course.
(We had a little fun with a prototype T-shirt too, me and Mike Monteiro…)
