Interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal about Carrefour and its new CEO, Lars Olofsson, a former Nestle executive who is looking to remake the company as one that is dominant in the markets where it operates and has low prices as its calling card.
What’s very interesting is the company’s new approach to branding. An excerpt from the Journal story:
“After Mr. Olofsson took the reins at the beginning of last year he started the Carrefour Discount line with simple packaging, white and blue labels, that recalled Tesco's successful store-brand products.
“Mr. Olofsson recently installed a new marketing team to promote the chain's products, hiring managers from such consumer-goods companies as Procter & Gamble Inc. and Reckitt Benckiser PLC. He plans to advertise the larger Carrefour line of products more heavily, a strategy he so far has used only for Carrefour Discount.
‘’’We didn't have a marketing approach,’ Mr. Olofsson says over a cup of Nespresso, from the high-end coffee line that he cultivated at Nestlé. ‘We just put it on the shelf’.”
What’s very interesting is the company’s new approach to branding. An excerpt from the Journal story:
“After Mr. Olofsson took the reins at the beginning of last year he started the Carrefour Discount line with simple packaging, white and blue labels, that recalled Tesco's successful store-brand products.
“Mr. Olofsson recently installed a new marketing team to promote the chain's products, hiring managers from such consumer-goods companies as Procter & Gamble Inc. and Reckitt Benckiser PLC. He plans to advertise the larger Carrefour line of products more heavily, a strategy he so far has used only for Carrefour Discount.
‘’’We didn't have a marketing approach,’ Mr. Olofsson says over a cup of Nespresso, from the high-end coffee line that he cultivated at Nestlé. ‘We just put it on the shelf’.”
- KC's View:
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It is amazing how many retailers actually don’t see themselves as a consumer brand, or at least don;t communicate the importance of branding within their organizations. This can be seen in how many young people interested in marketing careers don’t even consider the food retail business, because they don’t perceive it as a brand-centric industry.
