SPAR billboard featuring real people polishing the depicted brass plaque, affirming Hobart SuperSPAR's excellent service delivery

Hobart's SuperSPAR billboard comes alive

FMCG SUPPLIER NEWS

Apr 18th 2012, 08:43

Hobart's SuperSPAR in Bryanston is using a billboard employing real people to draw attention to the fact that residents in the area have almost unanimously awarded it an excellent service rating across the board.  

Hobart's SuperSPAR in Bryanston is using a billboard employing real people to draw attention to the fact that residents in the area have almost unanimously awarded it an excellent service rating across the board.

SPAR advertising agency TBWA Hunt Lascaris designed the billboard that depicts a brass plaque with the five-star Retail Service Rating award and a directional arrow indicating the location of thestore in Hobart's Grove shopping centre off Grosvenor Road.

“The billboard will be displayed for three months beginning mid-March,” says Mark Hedderwick, marketing director: South Rand, at SPAR, “and celebrates the residents of Bryanston embracing a community store a year after it opened. We often conduct customer surveys and almost always learn of areas of potential improvement in our stores but in the case of Hobart's SuperSPAR Bryanston customers, some of the most discerning in the country, almost unanimously awarded excellent delivery across service, professionalism, freshness, quality and cleanliness.”

The concept captures Hobart's SuperSPAR's attention to detail, according to Nick Daley, TBWA Hunt Lascaris Durban creative director responsible for the project.

“Everyone in the area knows the standard of food that they can get from a top store like Hobart SuperSPAR,” says Daley. “Our intention was to draw peoples' attention to the other side of the equation – the extremely high standard of quality, service and all round shopping experience on offer at Hobart SuperSPAR, something that differentiates themfrom other retailers - the same kind of service one would expect from a five-star hotel. Thus the use of the brass name plaque, underlined by theirpromise of five-star retail service. To add to that and to enhance the message we have two employees polishing the billboard every day.”

He adds that Hobart's SuperSPAR was also rated by Bryanston residents as stewards of exceptional cleanliness, purveyors of quality fresh produce, world class finishes, and outstanding service, a gastronomic theatre of food, gourmet deli, continental bakery and a meat emporium.

Andy Anderson, MD of Pezulu Outdoor, says that the fact this billboard features real, live people differentiates it from other outdoor branding and draws attention to the message SPAR is communicating to residents in the area.

“Billboards create highly visual, immediate and rapid contact with local audiences and when you combine that with exceptionally eye-catching statements created for Hobart's then you have a winning formula,” he says.

Retailers are increasingly under pressure to provide value to their customers and Hedderwick says that the family whoowns Hobart's SuperSPAR, the same family who own Broadacres SuperSPAR, havegone to some lengths to ensure Bryanston residents get the same personal shopping experience as available at their other store. “They are paranoid about customer service and retail excellence” he further emphasises.
Shopping convenience and safety are of course also of paramount concern in this fast moving era of retail.

“We are competing against the very best retailers South Africa has to offer,” says Hedderwick. “Stores like Hobart SuperSPAR’s focus is on fresh foods and a discerning range of grocery and perishable products but they also bring the latest retail technologies intotheir stores. One such technology is electronic shelf labels, which build trust with customers because they are assured that the price advertised on the shelf, is the price they will pay at the till. Trust may be a soft issue but in retail it is absolutely crucial.”