Woolworths (supermarket)

Infobox_Company
name = Woolworths Supermarkets

type = Subsidiary
slogan = The Fresh Food People
foundation = 1924
location_city = Bella Vista, New South Wales
location_country = AUS
key_people = Michael Luscombe, CEO
num_employees = 175,000
industry = Retail
revenue = profit A$42.3 Billion (2007)
parent = Woolworths Limited
homepage = [http://www.woolworths.com.au/ www.woolworths.com.au]

Woolworths is the largest supermarket chain in Australia, owned by Woolworths Limited. It is colloquially known as "Woolies" and in Victoria trades as Safeway.

Advertising

Woolworths advertises through television, radio, newspapers, catalogues, their website and in-store. Since the 1980s Woolworths, Safeway, Purity and Roelf Vos used the tag-line "The Fresh Food People". This was accompanied by a jingle launched in the 1990s in the early 1990s that continues today. Woolworths introduced a second slogan "Bringing food to life", with accompanying jingle, but was eventually dropped and Woolworths reverted back to the original jingle.Fact|date=August 2008

In late 2005, a new second slogan "Low prices you can count on everyday" was launched. As of 2007, that second slogan has changed to "Low prices you can count on".

In mid-2008 Woolworths (and Safeway in Victoria) started a new campaign, "Australia's Fresh Food People." The advertisements and POS depicted Australians from different cultural backgrounds engaging in activity relating to "Fresh Food", such as a boy trying to grow an avocado from a seed, an older man getting his watermelon home from the supermarket, and a couple protecting their vegetable patch from cockatoos. This campaign introduced a new theme song, replacing "We're Woolworths the Fresh Food People, Woolworths the Fresh Food People, Woolworths the Fresh Food People..." with "We Are, We Are, Fresh Food People, Australians are Fresh Food People, and we are the Fresh Food People".

2008 Rebranding

On 22 August 2008, Woolworths announced it was launching a new identity for all its supermarkets and plans to replace the Safeway brand in Victoria, in order to unite all of its supermarkets under one common brand 'Woolworths'. [cite web|Publisher=The Age, Melbourne|date=2008-08-21|accessdate=2008-08-21| title=Woolies shelves Safeway brand|url=http://www.theage.com.au/national/woolies-shelves-safeway-brand-20080820-3ywj.html]

The logo, which had been in use for 21 years, was replaced with a new brand image with a new green tinted icon representing the 'W' in Woolworths with the addition of a stylised leaf to suggest fresh produce. It is also reminiscent of a 1970s Woolworths logo. However, the company's slogan, "The Fresh Food People", which is known throughout Australia, remains as a key part of the new logo. The company introduced these changes in order to further distance itself from its major rival Coles supermarkets, and to make its branding more modern, 'softer' and more likeable. [cite web|publisher=Woolworths Limited|title=Woolworths launches new look after 21 years|date=2008-08-22| accessdate=2008-08-23|url=http://www.woolworths.com.au/resources/woolworths+launches+new+look+after+21+years.pdf]

Loyalty schemes

Discount Fuel Offers

Since 1996 Woolworths has offered its customers a number of incentives for purchasing at their stores by subsidising petrol prices at Caltex Woolworths petrol stations and the now defunct Woolworths Plus Petrol. Discounts included 2-cent, 4-cent, 6-cent and in some regional areas 10-cent discounts on fuel when purchases over certain amounts were conducted. The current offer is a 4 cent discount when transactions of over $30 are conducted in-store, with a further 4 cent discount available if customers spend another $5 or more on other items at the petrol site.

Everyday rewards and credit card

In September 2007, a trial began in central west New South Wales of Everyday Rewards, a Woolworths shopping card that automatically tracks supermarket purchases and stores fuel discount entitlements, thus eliminating the need for shoppers to retain paper coupons previously used for this purpose. [citation|publisher=Australian Financial Review|title=Fuel change on the cards|page=20|date=6 September 2007] In addition it allows Woolworths to record purchases made by customers to offer them relevant promotions and for studies in demographics and marketing, [cite web|publisher=Woolworths Everyday Rewards|title=Everyday Rewards Customer Charter|accessdate=2008-08-23|url=http://www.everydayrewards.com.au/CLCS-Web/faces/pages/fixed/customerCharter.jsp] hence incentives for customers who register their details. This followed Woolworths announcement that is was planning to launch a general purpose credit card in 2008. [cite web|title= Now it's Woolworths the credit card people|date=27 August 2007|accessdate=2007-09-06|publisher=Sydney Morning Herald|url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/now-its-woolworths-the-credit-card-people/2007/08/27/1188067034518.html] Woolworths is expected to offer these credit cardholders reward vouchers redeemable throughout its store network. [citation| publisher=Australian Financial Review |title=Retailers take on the banks…again| date=30 January 2008|pages=1, 61] Woolworths subsequently announced that the "Woolworths Everyday Money MasterCard" would be launched on 26th August 2008 and allows customers to earn shopping cards redeemable at Woolworths group retailers. [cite web|publisher=news.com.au|title=Woolworths launches new credit card|url=http://www.news.com.au/business/story/0,,24199187-462,00.html|date=2008-08-18|accessdate=2008-08-18] [cite web|publisher=The Sheet|title=Woolies MasterCard debuts in two weeks|date=2008-08-15|accessdate=2008-08-18|url=http://www.thesheet.com/nl05_news_selected.php?act=2&stream=1&selkey=7022&hlc=2&hlw=]

In February 2008, Woolworths announced that following the NSW trial, its Everyday Rewards card would be rolled out nationally, beginning with South Australia and Northern Territory in mid-February, and to other states by the end of May 2008. During the NSW trial, 50,000 cards were issued to customers. [citation|title=Woolies revs up discount petrol war|publisher=Australian Financial Review|date=11 February 2008|pages=1,15]

Woolworths stated in June 2008 that "well over a million" shoppers had taken a card and registered their details. [cite web|publisher=Sydney Morning Herald|date=5 June 2008|url=http://business.smh.com.au/fuels-gold-as-a-million-people-play-cards-with-woolworths-20080604-2lxs.html|title=Fuel's gold as a million people play cards with Woolworths|accessdate=2008-06-05] In August 2008, Woolworths stated that there were 3.8 million cards "on issue", with 2.4 million cards "registered". [cite web|publisher=Woolworths Limited|title=Full Year Results Presentation|accessdate=2008-08-29|url=http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/14/144044/asx/08presentation.pdf]

Frequent Shopper Club

The Frequent Shopper Club, or F$C, is a reward program for shopping in Woolworths stores in Tasmania. It was started by Purity Supermarkets in the early 1990s before it was sold to Woolworths in the 1990s. It is still in use today.

Private Label brands

* Woolworths Fresh
* Woolworths Bakehouse
* Woolworths Select
* Woolworths Home Brand
* Woolworths Organics
* Woolworths Naytura
* Woolworths Freefrom
* Woolworths Essentials

Other Woolworths Limited supermarkets

* Woolworths trades as Safeway in Victoria, and some towns on the Victorian border (e.g. Moama, NSW).
* In Tasmania, Woolworths traded as Roelf Vos and Purity prior to being rebranded as Woolworths in 2000
* Food For Less is a discount supermarket chain located in Queensland and New South Wales
* Flemings is a group of four supermarkets located in Sydney and the Central Coast
* Woolworths launched Thomas Dux Grocer in two New South Wales locations in 2008. Thomas Dux Grocer stores have a larger fresh food offering than traditional Woolworths stores, along with a larger delicatessen section. [cite web|publisher=Inside Retailing|title=Woolworths to launch new grocery chain|date=13 December 2007|accessdate=2007-12-19|url=http://www.insideretailing.com.au/articles-page.aspx?articleType=ArticleView&articleId=1912]

References

External links

* [http://www.woolworths.com.au Woolworths]