Retail Watchers

Kroger is unifying the design for all of its various stores weekly print ads under the slogan “Fresh for Everyone”...could this eventually mean all of the regional brands become Kroger?

I’m sorry, but Kroger’s new logo is hideous

https://www.thekrogerco.com/wp-content/ ... -fresh.png

Meanwhile Albertsons/Safeway in Arizona is bringing up their “local” image (since 1928) in their weekly ads.

1111072036 wrote: ↑November 6th, 2019, 3:43 am I’m sorry, but Kroger’s new logo is hideous

https://www.thekrogerco.com/wp-content/ ... -fresh.png

Kroger tends to not make major changes to logos, but does evolve them. Look at chains such as Smith's, Fred Meyer, and QFC. Too radical of a change will make a large fleet of stores look outdated in a hurry. It can also raise expectations, but result in disappointment, when a new logo is placed on an unremodeled or minimally remodeled store.

Courtesy The Dallas Morning News

In July, Kroger hired its first creative advertising agency, DDB New York. The ad firm has come up with emoji characters and fresh-themed signs and materials that Kroger plans to use across the company.

I guess they felt perspective outside of Kroger Media Services and their partner agencies would be good for the company?
(The stations I work for are still receiving traffic from Kroger Media Services, but I've not seen CB&S on items since 2019)

The font reminds me of JCPennery's new wordmark.

And is it just me or does "Fresh for Everyone" sound a lot like "Organics for All," which Albertsons used when it rolled out O-Organics to all of their stores?

On another note, I bought a reusable Kroger bag today. Mariano's is missing. Pick and Save and Metro market (Milwaukee's answer to Mariano's, albeit significantly scaled down) are displayed.

Hmmmmmmmm

jamcool wrote: ↑November 5th, 2019, 9:00 pm Kroger is unifying the design for all of its various stores weekly print ads under the slogan “Fresh for Everyone”...could this eventually mean all of the regional brands become Kroger?

This almost reminds me of the time right before the Federated / May merger (2003) when Macy's merged all of its various regional banners like Rich's, Lazarus, Burdines, and The Bon Marche became Rich's-Macy's, Lazarus-Macy's, Burdines-Macy's, and Bon-Macy's with the Macy's red star.

I believe that the days of regional banners are numbered at Kroger. They have already merged almost all of the banners' private label into the Kroger branding. With all of the emphasis on technology and delivery I'm sure developing one app versus dozens of apps and one brand as opposed to dozens makes sense on some level. Customers probably won't care as much now as they would have 5 or 10 years ago (especially if it's a website/app and not a physical store that they're interacting with anyways).

I'd expect that Kroger may end up with the following banners: Kroger, Food4Less/FoodsCo, Mariano's, Ruler Foods, and Harris Teeter when all is said and done.

arizonaguy wrote: ↑November 6th, 2019, 8:07 pm

jamcool wrote: ↑November 5th, 2019, 9:00 pm Kroger is unifying the design for all of its various stores weekly print ads under the slogan “Fresh for Everyone”...could this eventually mean all of the regional brands become Kroger?

This almost reminds me of the time right before the Federated / May merger (2003) when Macy's merged all of its various regional banners like Rich's, Lazarus, Burdines, and The Bon Marche became Rich's-Macy's, Lazarus-Macy's, Burdines-Macy's, and Bon-Macy's with the Macy's red star.

I believe that the days of regional banners are numbered at Kroger. They have already merged almost all of the banners' private label into the Kroger branding. With all of the emphasis on technology and delivery I'm sure developing one app versus dozens of apps and one brand as opposed to dozens makes sense on some level. Customers probably won't care as much now as they would have 5 or 10 years ago (especially if it's a website/app and not a physical store that they're interacting with anyways).

I'd expect that Kroger may end up with the following banners: Kroger, Food4Less/FoodsCo, Mariano's, Ruler Foods, and Harris Teeter when all is said and done.

They might keep Fred Meyer due to the major overlap of QFC and Fred Meyer in the Seattle market. And the huge difference in store size.

babs wrote: ↑November 6th, 2019, 9:47 pm
They might keep Fred Meyer due to the major overlap of QFC and Fred Meyer in the Seattle market. And the huge difference in store size.

Fred Meyer is a very well established name, and does exist outside of the Pacific Northwest as Fred Meyer Jewelers. Between Fred Meyer and QFC, Fred Meyer is the more well-known of the two simply because it covers a much wider area. The QFC stores could easily be rebranded into Fred Meyer.

With that said, given some of the more recent changes seen at Fred Meyer during remodels, I would not entirely rule out a banner change to Kroger Marketplace. However, that would mean a banner change might also occur at Fred Meyer Jewelers, possibly consolidating under Littman.

A lot of Fred Meyer brand products have been replaced by the Kroger brand, however, Fred Meyer still uses their own brand on milk among other items. A consolidation of brands makes sense when products occasionally have to come from other distribution centers, such as last year when milk had to be sourced from California for a time (and they briefly went back to the Mountain Dairy brand)

Super S wrote: ↑November 7th, 2019, 8:17 am

babs wrote: ↑November 6th, 2019, 9:47 pm
They might keep Fred Meyer due to the major overlap of QFC and Fred Meyer in the Seattle market. And the huge difference in store size.

Fred Meyer is a very well established name, and does exist outside of the Pacific Northwest as Fred Meyer Jewelers. Between Fred Meyer and QFC, Fred Meyer is the more well-known of the two simply because it covers a much wider area. The QFC stores could easily be rebranded into Fred Meyer.

With that said, given some of the more recent changes seen at Fred Meyer during remodels, I would not entirely rule out a banner change to Kroger Marketplace. However, that would mean a banner change might also occur at Fred Meyer Jewelers, possibly consolidating under Littman.

A lot of Fred Meyer brand products have been replaced by the Kroger brand, however, Fred Meyer still uses their own brand on milk among other items. A consolidation of brands makes sense when products occasionally have to come from other distribution centers, such as last year when milk had to be sourced from California for a time (and they briefly went back to the Mountain Dairy brand)

Albertsons seems to do well with multiple banners. As for Kroger, I don't know why they couldn't keep them? But I could see some consolidation of divisions and operations. In Portland Metro, there is a handful of QFC stores. Given the fact that Fred Meyer has remodeled some smaller stores into an upscale format, like the Burnside Street and Burlingame locations, I could see the Portland/Vancouver QFC stores becoming small upscale Fred Meyer grocery only locations.

Seattle is another matter. People in King and Snohomish counties might howl with a banner change. But they could merge the QFC division into Fred Meyer and have a joint ad. They could leave most of the Puget Sound QFC's bannered as QFC but lower the price point. There could be some conversions to Fred Meyer, like the two Tacoma stores, or at least the one in Parkland., the Olympic Peninsula ones and Thurston County.

But if there were to ever be a Kroger and Target merger, at least in the Northwest, I would see all full size Fred Meyer stores becoming Target with Fred Meyer branding for grocery and QFC adopting the Fred Meyer name at that point.