January 2, 2007
Sweetbay Holding Its Own
Shelley Broader, president and CEO of Sweetbay, has a favorite piece of advice she likes to share. “Don’t focus on your competition. Focus on your customers. It’s only by focusing on your customers that you can make your competition irrelevant.”
Well, Ms. Broader’s advice hasn’t made competitors such as Wal-Mart or Publix irrelevant, but it has made a favorable impression on consumers in Tampa and other markets in Florida served by Sweetbay.
Last year, the St. Petersburg Times reports, the chain pulled off a feat others have not achieved. The chain became the first large grocer in Tampa to hold its market share against Wal-Mart and Publix. At the beginning of 2006, Sweetbay accounted for 15.8 percent of Tampa’s grocery market. At year’s end, the chain held steady at the same percentage.
Discussion Questions: Has Sweetbay the stuff to continue to compete effectively in Florida? What are your thoughts on the job Shelley Broader has done
since taking the helm at Kash n’ Karry/Sweetbay in 2004?
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Delhaize’s November 10th financial press release announced that more Kash n’ Karry locations will be renovated into Sweetbay units, so it appears that the profits make the conversions worthwhile. Delhaize’s regional approach to its chains’ market positioning seems to work well.
If Ms. Broader delivers on the promise of listening to the customer and then implements the changes as a result of the customer feedback; then Sweetbay will not only hold its own, but will grow. Too many retailers talk the talk, but don’t actually listen and respond. Good Luck to Ms. Broader and Sweetbay.
Focusing on customers is obviously key to success but customers do not live in a vacuum and they do not just shop one store. Clearly she is aware of her competitors and knows that to properly serve her customers she must know what is available to them elsewhere and what they are responding to in other stores.
Concentrating on the interests of your customers has a familiar ring. But if your customers believe your daily actions are sincerely focused on that goal and their interests, they will respond. So continue the “sweet sincere relations” with your customers, Sweetbay.
By focusing on the customer she has developed loyal customers and a good business. The challenge now is continuing to focus on the customers because they never stand still and can be fickle. However, her mantra still stands: focus on the customer and you can make the competition obsolete.
Having worked with the team at Sweetbay, they are well equipped from a strategic perspective to not only compete, but to grow market share with the Sweetbay banner. A real plus for the Sweetbay team is their ability to “invite” customer introspection into their process, and not to “force” their own merchandising hopes and dreams on an unreceptive audience. As a customer of their stores, I can tell you that they are “walking the walk,” not just creating talking points and marketing headlines. As they continue to refine Sweetbay and expand its footprint, I will be interested to see the more subtle micro-marketing programs and offerings they introduce to keep the format relevant and the customer responsive.
David’s right but, over time at least, relying on ineffective competition isn’t a strategy — it’s a blueprint for commercial suicide. Strong businesses get stronger when faced with good competition, not stronger because they in effect aren’t facing any competition at all.
Before we all get calluses patting everyone at Sweetbay on the back, we need to take a deeper look. How much of Sweetbay’s success has come from the collapse of Winn-Dixie and Albertsons? Right now, Sweetbay has found a nice sweet spot because I’m sure they are counting on Winn-Dixie and Albertsons making a complete exit from the Florida market over the next couple of years. I don’t see how they can go wrong — improving stores while two ineffectual competitors exit the market.
Tempting to say there was no where to go but up, but that isn’t giving her the credit she deserves. Can they compete? Haven’t they proved it? Will they be able to continue to compete? As long as she stays focused on the customer, I can’t see why not.
I see two questions here: is Sweetbay’s espoused strategy the reason for its success, and will this strategy make it successful in the future.
From our view, it appears that Sweetbay is gathering strength because it is meeting more of its customers’ expectations than its immediate competitors are, and doing so in a moderately efficient way. This means there are two sides to its success: what Sweetbay is doing, and how that fits within its business environment. If Sweetbay had a competitor or an environment that exceeded its efforts, it would not be gaining ground. Ms. Broader’s espoused strategy of focusing on consumers is partly absolutely correct, and partly not the whole picture for being successful, because it some cases, your competitors can show you how you may not be focusing on customers effectively and how they are doing a better job of it. Competitors can often also show you how NOT to do business with customers.
Notice, though, that we really may not have enough information to say exactly why Sweetbay is successful. Many successful companies we have studied do not really know why they are successful either. This is not as preposterous as it may sound — it explains why successful companies can do more of what they THINK is their reason for success and then end up weakening themselves. It is quite easy to be an “armchair” CEO and make pronouncements of why this company or that company is successful and not successful, but in the end, an accurate analysis really requires a great deal of data.
This means, I believe, that we can’t really predict the future of Sweetbay, because there are too many factors we have too little data for. We don’t really have good data to tell us why Sweetbay is successful. Remember that every company exists within a business environment that supports or doesn’t support the business. Sweetbay is supported by its business environment currently, but that could change overnight if customer demographics shift, if competitors shift strategy, if Sweetbay shifts what it thinks is good practice, if the local or global economic environment shifts. We would have to have huge amounts of data in order to address this side of the question, and in any case, predicting the future is a fruitless game.
In the tough Florida grocery and foods market, there is only one major way — with marketing support — to build consumer loyalty and the business! It is listening, interacting and constant focusing on the current consumer/shopper. And interestingly, monitoring the non shoppers for the opportunity to secure their business.
Marketing to the consumer/shopper and, most importantly, marketing the brand, bundles the advantages of Sweetbay’s consumer centric efforts.
Bravo to Sweetbay, and its truly marketing driven management team!
Just to be real clear about — and supportive of — Sweetbay’s consumer focus strategy…how do you think Publix secured its shopper loyalty, and market share…not on price!
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
I am not sure if you consider losing market share as being successful, but if you do then they are.
Shelly also said that she is OK maintaining current market share. Not sure if that strategy works. If they were so successful in their converted stores, why did they change their strategy and change their ad program, especially in certain counties where their share actually dropped?
Also consider the spending of $2.5 million per store, and how long it takes to get an ROI on that.
How about same store sales for Delhaize America, how is that doing?
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Delhaize’s November 10th financial press release announced that more Kash n’ Karry locations will be renovated into Sweetbay units, so it appears that the profits make the conversions worthwhile. Delhaize’s regional approach to its chains’ market positioning seems to work well.
If Ms. Broader delivers on the promise of listening to the customer and then implements the changes as a result of the customer feedback; then Sweetbay will not only hold its own, but will grow. Too many retailers talk the talk, but don’t actually listen and respond. Good Luck to Ms. Broader and Sweetbay.
Focusing on customers is obviously key to success but customers do not live in a vacuum and they do not just shop one store. Clearly she is aware of her competitors and knows that to properly serve her customers she must know what is available to them elsewhere and what they are responding to in other stores.
Concentrating on the interests of your customers has a familiar ring. But if your customers believe your daily actions are sincerely focused on that goal and their interests, they will respond. So continue the “sweet sincere relations” with your customers, Sweetbay.
By focusing on the customer she has developed loyal customers and a good business. The challenge now is continuing to focus on the customers because they never stand still and can be fickle. However, her mantra still stands: focus on the customer and you can make the competition obsolete.
Having worked with the team at Sweetbay, they are well equipped from a strategic perspective to not only compete, but to grow market share with the Sweetbay banner. A real plus for the Sweetbay team is their ability to “invite” customer introspection into their process, and not to “force” their own merchandising hopes and dreams on an unreceptive audience. As a customer of their stores, I can tell you that they are “walking the walk,” not just creating talking points and marketing headlines. As they continue to refine Sweetbay and expand its footprint, I will be interested to see the more subtle micro-marketing programs and offerings they introduce to keep the format relevant and the customer responsive.
David’s right but, over time at least, relying on ineffective competition isn’t a strategy — it’s a blueprint for commercial suicide. Strong businesses get stronger when faced with good competition, not stronger because they in effect aren’t facing any competition at all.
Before we all get calluses patting everyone at Sweetbay on the back, we need to take a deeper look. How much of Sweetbay’s success has come from the collapse of Winn-Dixie and Albertsons? Right now, Sweetbay has found a nice sweet spot because I’m sure they are counting on Winn-Dixie and Albertsons making a complete exit from the Florida market over the next couple of years. I don’t see how they can go wrong — improving stores while two ineffectual competitors exit the market.
Tempting to say there was no where to go but up, but that isn’t giving her the credit she deserves. Can they compete? Haven’t they proved it? Will they be able to continue to compete? As long as she stays focused on the customer, I can’t see why not.
I see two questions here: is Sweetbay’s espoused strategy the reason for its success, and will this strategy make it successful in the future.
From our view, it appears that Sweetbay is gathering strength because it is meeting more of its customers’ expectations than its immediate competitors are, and doing so in a moderately efficient way. This means there are two sides to its success: what Sweetbay is doing, and how that fits within its business environment. If Sweetbay had a competitor or an environment that exceeded its efforts, it would not be gaining ground. Ms. Broader’s espoused strategy of focusing on consumers is partly absolutely correct, and partly not the whole picture for being successful, because it some cases, your competitors can show you how you may not be focusing on customers effectively and how they are doing a better job of it. Competitors can often also show you how NOT to do business with customers.
Notice, though, that we really may not have enough information to say exactly why Sweetbay is successful. Many successful companies we have studied do not really know why they are successful either. This is not as preposterous as it may sound — it explains why successful companies can do more of what they THINK is their reason for success and then end up weakening themselves. It is quite easy to be an “armchair” CEO and make pronouncements of why this company or that company is successful and not successful, but in the end, an accurate analysis really requires a great deal of data.
This means, I believe, that we can’t really predict the future of Sweetbay, because there are too many factors we have too little data for. We don’t really have good data to tell us why Sweetbay is successful. Remember that every company exists within a business environment that supports or doesn’t support the business. Sweetbay is supported by its business environment currently, but that could change overnight if customer demographics shift, if competitors shift strategy, if Sweetbay shifts what it thinks is good practice, if the local or global economic environment shifts. We would have to have huge amounts of data in order to address this side of the question, and in any case, predicting the future is a fruitless game.
In the tough Florida grocery and foods market, there is only one major way — with marketing support — to build consumer loyalty and the business! It is listening, interacting and constant focusing on the current consumer/shopper. And interestingly, monitoring the non shoppers for the opportunity to secure their business.
Marketing to the consumer/shopper and, most importantly, marketing the brand, bundles the advantages of Sweetbay’s consumer centric efforts.
Bravo to Sweetbay, and its truly marketing driven management team!
Just to be real clear about — and supportive of — Sweetbay’s consumer focus strategy…how do you think Publix secured its shopper loyalty, and market share…not on price!
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
I am not sure if you consider losing market share as being successful, but if you do then they are.
Shelly also said that she is OK maintaining current market share. Not sure if that strategy works. If they were so successful in their converted stores, why did they change their strategy and change their ad program, especially in certain counties where their share actually dropped?
Also consider the spending of $2.5 million per store, and how long it takes to get an ROI on that.
How about same store sales for Delhaize America, how is that doing?