Chute Gerdeman - 7-Eleven Case Study

7-Eleven Case Study

You say fresh. We say 7-Eleven.

INTRO:

Imagine being in a situation where your sales were increasing and you were meeting your customers’ needs but the gap between your competition, market trends and target customer was ever widening. It’s probably not too hard to imagine, with target audiences and market conditions in constant flux, agility and adaptability of product offerings and brand communication are essential for survival; as 7-Eleven came to find out, so is being flexible and compliant with market demands.

Convenience stores today have redefined the market, shifting from the corner store that sells Joe Schmoe a pack of cigarettes, a Slim Jim and some gas, to focusing on higher margin fresh foods that “moms” like Bree Van De Kamp, the anal-retentive mother on Desperate Housewives, would feel comfortable giving her children.

In the convenience world, 7-Eleven was fighting the health trend where competition like BP and Sheetz was beating them out. Although 7-Eleven dominated by location, they weren’t winning over in customer satisfaction. Because 7-Eleven customers were trading acceptable quality for convenience, it made them more available to the competition who offered a cleaner, fresher look with healthier products. With fresh foods as a growth category in the convenience business, Chute Gerdeman was called upon to orchestrate a P.O.P. program for 7-Eleven that upgraded the brand to present fresh food products in a clean and friendly atmosphere.

END:

When 7-Eleven came to Chute Gerdeman they weren’t seeking to market a new product line but rather to enhance what they already had by communicating a sense of freshness and cleanliness that elevated the presence and appeal of its food offerings. Our charge was to create a toolbox of visual brand elements in a communication hierarchy that simplified and unified the space consisting of multiple vendors.

We invented a customer journey by allocating each vendor its own space, creating an order among them with a monthly promotional system. By examining the consumer we found more ways for them to enter the store based on buying occasion. Through segmenting the store by day parts and providing key specialty areas such as the grill, the vault, the new fresh foods and drink bars sections, it cleaned up the look and better expressed what was already there. By calling attention to key areas in the store it made it easier and more convenient to navigate through the store and optimized the customers shopping time.

Overcoming the bias against convenience store environments was a major obstacle in gaining consumer acceptance of fresh food from 7-Eleven. A focus on the ‘Fresh food, Fresh look’ approach and better communication, helped 7-Eleven’s food offer become a believable and acceptable food choice. The program’s biggest success was its impact on the stores image and how it greatly improved 7-Elevens brand perceptions. More than 75% of consumers in test markets responded that they felt the changes enhanced 7-Eleven’s image, calling it “bright”, “welcoming”, “attention-getting”, “attractive”, “more organized”, “less cluttered”, “cleaner”, “more up-to-date” and “a store where the food is appetizing”. Customers commented that the large photos and grill menus made the store look more like a “mini-grocery store”. As one consumer points out, “The signs highlight the fact that 7-Eleven has all these great products and is more than just a gas station”. Given the mission-driven nature of 7-Eleven’s customer visits, the positive feedback after the trade dress indicates that the modifications to the store were especially significant.

The redress Chute Gerdeman implemented impacted the brand not only by improving the appearance of the store, but also by changing perceptions of 7-Eleven and making the store easier to navigate through. With the introduction of the new trade dress package, 7-Eleven needed a 1 ½ % sales increase and has since received a much higher 8% increase. The projected sales response after the brand reinvention far surpassed the client’s expectations, generating figures that are four times what they had anticipated.

7-Eleven Case Study:

Fresh Foods at 7-Eleven? Oh Thank Heaven.

There’s a lot to love about 7-Eleven: convenience, selection and, of course, the Slurpee®. Feeding hungry customers—fast—helped make 7-Eleven the largest convenience retailer in the world. In order to continue to appeal to today’s consumers, who are as interested in taste and nutrition as they are in speed and convenience, 7-Eleven had to let customers know their offer has evolved to include fresher, higher-quality products.

Chute Gerdeman knew 7-Eleven needed to get credit for their efforts in bringing customers exactly what they wanted: coffee brewed every 20 minutes, baked goods made daily in local bakeries, sandwiches prepared in local kitchens and delivered every day. To do so, Chute Gerdeman introduced a new P.O.P. program that both communicated the upgraded offer to customers and elevated the look and feel of the entire store. This “toolbox” of visual brand elements simplified and unified the communication hierarchy for multiple in-store vendors.

We emphasized the customer journey by allocating each vendor their own space, and created order among them with a monthly promotional system. The store was segmented to more closely match how customers shop—by day part—with highlights on key specialty areas: the grill, vault, fresh foods and drink bar. Calling attention to key areas in the store made it easier and more convenient to navigate and optimized customers’ shopping time.

Photo (fresh-to-go):

A large green and orange “Fresh-to-go” halo sign highlights the brands new ‘Fresh food. Fresh look’ approach and further elevates the stores appearance.

Photo (now serving):

A refrigerated sandwich case displaying sandwich illustrations communicates to the consumer that what they are eating is made fresh daily, improving customer perceptions of 7-Eleven as a food provider.

Photo (coffee):

Destinations like the coffee station are indicated by warm colors and a coffee halo that clearly communicates where fresh coffee is brewed from the moment a customer walks through the door.

Photo (Dreammm Bakery):

The Dreammm Bakery sign, also indicated by warm colors, is a part of a color coding system that helps to organize sections of the food offerings by day parts.

Photo (Vault: Reach in. Chill out.):

Suspended signs like the vaults “Reach in. Chill Out.” sign directs customers to where items are located, making shopping easier.

Solution:

By focusing on a ‘Fresh food, Fresh look’ approach, and communicating this clearly in-store, 7-Eleven’s food offer became a viable option for today’s time-starved consumers. The program’s biggest success was its impact on the store’s image and how it greatly improved how the 7-Eleven brand is perceived in the eyes of consumers.

More than 75% of consumers in test markets responded that the changes enhanced 7-Eleven’s image, bringing it more up-to-date, calling it: “bright,” “welcoming,” “attractive,” “more organized,” “cleaner,” and “a store where the food is appetizing.” One customer explained, “The signs highlight the fact that 7-Eleven has all these great products and is more than just a gas station.”

With the introduction of the new branding package, sales have increased as much as 8%. By generating figures that are four times what they had anticipated, the brand reinvention has far surpassed the client’s expectations.

7-Eleven

1-Pager

Taking a FRESH

And bold new stand.

26 words:

Focus on a ‘Fresh food, Fresh look’ approach, and communicate this clearly to make 7-Eleven’s food offer a more viable option for today’s time-starved consumers.

20 words:

· More than 75% of consumers in test markets responded that the changes enhanced 7-Eleven’s image, bringing it more up-to-date.

22 words:

· Consumers response of the new branding image: “bright,” “welcoming,” “attractive,” “more organized,” “cleaner,” and “a store where the food is appetizing.”

A proven R.O.I.

30 words:

The new branding package has increased sales as much as 8%. By generating figures that are four times what they had anticipated, the brand reinvention has far surpassed client expectations.

(Photos:*still need to be chosen from case study images:)

Photo 1 (fresh-to-go, coffee, TV shot):

14 words:

New P.O.P. program communicates the upgraded offer to customers and helps elevate the stores appearance.

Photo 2 (Thank you, cash register shot):

16 words:

Illustrations improve perceptions of 7-Eleven as food provider by clearly communicating the stores offerings.

Photo 3 (Fresh To Go, Slurpee shot):

13 words:

Everything to love about 7-Eleven in one convenient location including fresher, higher-quality products.

Intro:

· Our charge was to create a toolbox of visual elements to communicate a sense of freshness and cleanliness, clearly identify key product destinations and offers and elevate the presence and appeal of food.

· 1,485 s.f. store has (4-tier) fresh food display in center of store, (2) bakery case wall units, long wall of self-serve beverages and recessed counter holding roller grill for Big Bite hot dogs and Go Go Taquitos.

· Update convenience store from its gas and beer stop image to have more fresh, clean offering, more focus on food, place where mom’s would feel comfortable grabbing some sandwiches.

· Sophisticated convenience

· Fresh look to promote fun, lively, witty fresh offering, draw attention to freshness to extend their reach, making it more appealing to a larger group of people.

· Organize all the different vendors by inventing the customer journey and cleaning up the look, for a convenience store it wasn’t very easy and convenient to navigate thru the store to find the items you were looking for. The goal was to be convenient so we called out the main areas: the grill, the vault (frozen food in the back, people go in there and get their drinks), coffee bar, Slushie and fountain drinks, NEW: fresh foods (gourmet/upscale sandwiches), Sanden (sandwich?) case, bakery, ice cream novelty case.

· Pull everything together to create an order amongst multiple vendors, create meaning by making sense of what’s already there.

· Biggest trend 7/11 was fighting was the Health Trend, competition like BP, Sheetz was beating them out in this area and they needed a more healthy alternative—they were losing ground by only appealing to “Joe-six-pack”, market research led them to the path of their new target, “moms”.

Case Study Brainstorm:

Intro:

What’s the project:

“The branding exercise was largely of design and reallocation and creating of visual brand elements.”

What’s the big idea of the project?

· Communication Strategy/ Hierarchy:

“Communication hierarchy is the heart of the project. There’re actually more permanent signage locations than ever in their store now, but the change of their everyday messaging (which is produced monthly) is much simplified. They don’t have to guess where it goes.”

· Simplification/Unification:

The big picture was the unification. The fact that none of their managers and rep’s talked and they had too much crap from each individual market everywhere and everyone trying to over-promote the other person. So we made them stop doing it and talk through 7E and we designed it for 7E so they could control who gets space and where and how much, and when that section is promoted more – highlighted for the month. So it was simplifying the amount of advertising junk in the store.”

What were the market conditions? Why did they come to us:

· “C-stores are moving more towards food because it’s a high margin product. C-stores have a difficulty selling a lot of food because of general market bias against c-stores. Food operations are expected to be clean and friendly, and c-stores are generally [not].”

· availability. That is their strongest asset at the moment

· The c-store market right now is advancing beyond 7E’s standard, like Sheetz, like Vista, like Thornton’s, even like Delta Sonic now is moving way beyond what 7E can provide, but 7E is trying to compete in their own way. They’re enhancing the food product that they do supply or sell.

· Strangely enough, their sales were still increasing. [They were meeting their] immediate needs [for the] male. You can always do better. the customer sacrifice is what the customer is willing to put up with or willing to accept in lieu of what they want. When you’re not meeting their needs, you have less than enthusiastic customers and it makes you available to loose those customers than if you were meeting their needs totally – they’d be far more loyal. 7E needed more loyal customers and proof of that is that 40% of their fresh food sales in their stores were made on impulse, which means that almost half of their food business was not intentional. People did not come to 7E with buying their lunch or their cigarettes or their big gulp. They did not come to 7E with that in mind. So if we could change that, that would be to the benefit of the brand and the consumer.”

· They dominate by location rather than by consumer preference. That makes you open for your customers to migrate some place else, because better service, better look, cleaner [c-stores cause you not to mind going down that extra block or two]. They were not meritable for any other reason. They had [a] very weak brand. A high recognition value obviously was 7E and Big Gulp and Slurpie, two of their biggest assets, but as far as a consumer being able to identify or recall a brand personality, no…nothing.”

· Positioning: The key point about them is that while they dominate the market in locations, they are no longer leading the industry in perception of convenience stores. Convenience stores are redefining the market faster than 7E has been able to react so far. So this project was to help move them forward.”

How did we solve their problem: Need someone who knows how to transform our image to the customer, uplift it, elevate our status,

“First make our food offer believable, then we put on a new face and communicate with new vigor and purpose in new ways. We give our customers a fresh look.”

“In order to be believable as a food provider you have to do a few certain things in your environment. Part of that is to communicate, which they were not doing, and they had no appetite appeal whatsoever in their stores. We accomplished those two things with the “Fresh Look” P.O.P. Redress and more.”
They are improving their product and moving more toward acceptable quality. We had to make their more acceptable food look better.”

[From the “Fresh Look” P.O.P. Standards Manual:

There are three opportunities to meet the customer’s needs.

1. the opportunity of the customer being able to identify with 7E. “Life style can be as refreshing as Classic Selection. Especially when projected by an unexpected source. Harness the powers of reflection, and aspiration and surprise.”

2. “creating a visual personality. Building on existing identity elements language of form, color palate and stripe motif to create a visual personality as a stepping stone to a full brand personality.”

3. “adding color to the ‘recipe’ can help clarify destinations. All ingredients have to be measured which is why scale is so important.”

End:

ROI: How did our problem solving affect their business/overall vision?

7E is by far the leader in # of c-store outlets [with] 5,800 domestic units now, 20,000 units worldwide.
[From the “Fresh Look” P.O.P Standards Manual:

There were three key points to what they wanted us to do for them:

to help them “speak clearly – create a visual hierarchy and language that communicates the best of the 7E offer.
to help them manage change. Messaging needs to be paced. Total replacement of messages every 30 days is self-defeating. Create a level of semi-permanent communication and train customers to focus on what’s new.
to help them “say it right, right now”. Day parts are important to several segments of the food offer. Creating vehicles and locations to make change practical is key.”]

Describe 3 major design challenges:

· A) Create a toolbox of visual elements to communicate a sense of freshness and cleanliness, clearly identify key product destinations and offers and elevate the presence and appeal of food

· B) for a convenience store it wasn’t very easy and convenient to navigate thru the store to find the items you were looking for

· C) Biggest trend 7/11 was fighting was the Health Trend, competition like BP, Sheetz was beating them out in this area and they needed a more healthy alternative—they were losing ground by only appealing to “Joe-six-pack”, market research led them to the path of their new target, “moms”.

Describe 3 major design solutions:

· A) In accomplishing these objectives we [created] a more attractive store with unified typography, color palette and language of form that enhances the entire 7-Eleven experience. A more pleasant experience leads to loyal customers and higher sales. Loyal customers are more profitable.

· B) Organize all the different vendors by inventing the customer journey and cleaning up the look. The goal was to be convenient so we called out the main areas: the grill, the vault (frozen food in the back, people go in there and get their drinks), coffee bar, Slushie and fountain drinks, NEW: fresh foods (gourmet/upscale sandwiches), Sanden (sandwich?) case, bakery, ice cream novelty case. Pull everything together to create an order amongst multiple vendors, create meaning by making sense of what’s already there; has a hierarchy to it.

· C) Update convenience store from its gas and beer stop image to have more fresh, clean offering, more focus on food, place where mom’s would feel comfortable grabbing some sandwiches. Sophisticated convenience. Fresh look to promote fun, lively, witty fresh offering, draw attention to freshness to extend their reach, making it more appealing to a larger group of people.

Insights:

“After, I guess I would say it’s more approachable and more humanistic, [has] more of a sense of humor, a sense of life, a sense of wit. There’s an emotional connection. That was the goal, than just a dry box with day-old rolled meats. The simplification or the unification was a key point as opposed to before, which was a visual overload which makes it unapproachable, unappealing, and unappetizing to where you don’t want to look around. Before I would say was operational. It wasn’t humanistic. It was using their terms. It was not relating to the customers.”

How did our problem solving affect their business/overall vision? (R.O.I.)

What’s the rollout on this project?

Consumer Response:

Client Response:

Client Testimonials:

7-Eleven Case Study FINAL:

Fresh Foods at 7-Eleven? Oh Thank Heaven.
221 words:

Photo (fresh-to-go):

23 words:

A large green and orange “Fresh-to-go” halo sign highlights the brands new ‘Fresh food. Fresh look’ approach and further elevates the stores appearance.

Photo (now serving):

27 words:

A refrigerated sandwich case uses sandwich illustrations to improve customer perceptions of 7-Eleven as a food provider by communicating that they are eating fresh foods made daily.

Photo (coffee):

28 words:

The coffee station destination, indicated by warm colors and a coffee halo, clearly communicates where fresh coffee is brewed from the moment a customer walks through the door.

Photo (Dreammm Bakery):

29 words:

The Dreammm Bakery sign, also indicated by warm colors, is a part of a color coding system that helps to organize sections of the food offerings by day parts.

Photo (Vault: Reach in. Chill out.):

20 words:

The “Reach in. Chill Out.” vault sign directs customers to where chilled items are located, making shopping quick and easy.

Solution:

145 words:

7-Eleven Disney Bou-Tiki Thorntons M&M