Woolworths marketer: Coles tactics are infantile, but they work
The marketing boss of Coles’ biggest rival Woolworths has credited the Ted Horton created ad campaign and the marketing strategy behind it as a major factor in the brand’s resurgence.
Despite a slating from creatives, the Coles campaign, which has included cheesy reworkings of Petula Clarke’s Down Town as Down Down and Normie Rowe’s Shakin’ All Over as No Added Hormones, along with celebrity appearances from the likes of The Wiggles, has led to record sales for Coles.
Woolies marketing boss Luke Dunkerley was speaking at a marketing outlook breakfast organized by the AFR and Nine Entertainment Co.
How soon we forget. It’s Normie Rowe, not Normy.
My bad – apologies to Normie…
For me, your POV on Coles sorts those stuck in the Adland bubble from those who actually know, get and understand everyday Australians.
“We Are the Fresh Food People and you can’t get fresher than that”……….ahhhhh, remember when Woolworths had the best ads on television?
Stavro, Stavro…….the ad featuring the Greek Australians was one of them…….
Woolies use to own the “fresh”.
What happened?
All Coles does is copy ads and private lable from the uk.
This campaign is a direct take-off of Asda.
The feed your family campaign is from Sainsburys.
As is their tagline.
While their private label is from Tesco.
Nothing original here. I guess that’s what you get when the Brots are running the show.
Oops. Foreign predictive text for spelling typos
Effective advertising. What’s that got to do the industry nowadays?
Do not forget Master Chef and MKR. Woolworths knocked back offers from MC – how dumb! Coles is reaping all the rewards from TV exposure.
Come to think of it, Curtis Stone is a popular face behind Coles. I bet he is responsible for some extra sales.
Ted Horton is a genius. Coles was smart to chose to work with him & to run with what he recommended.
No-one in advertising for the last 25 years has been as successful in tapping into what moves middle Australia than Ted. While he has won more awards than most creatives combined he has always stood apart from the accepted adland mileau.
There’s a lesson there.
Oh Tim, not Petula Clarke, Status Quo (Down down, deeper and down) – much more Ted Horton’s speed…
Do you mean to say clients don’t make ads just to give creatives a chance to prove how darn clever they are? Who’d of thunk?
Whilst the Coles organisation has rebounded from a sales point of view, their brand is all over the place. Woolworths would be quietly thrilled by this.
Coles’ core brand message of quality food costing less could have been far more effectively delivered in retail advertising messages, with the ‘entertainment value’ of cringe-worthy songs and overacting reducing the impact of their messages.
Coles’ strategy is good, but their execution is weak. It always seems to me that the people making the Coles ads have not actually had a conversation with anyone from middle Australia in a very long time.
Couldn’t agree with you more Jeremy. Everytime I see a Coles marketeer on the TV they always have a British accent.
Everything they do has been done by TESCO, Sainsburies and Asda in the UK, like the TV ads, the $5 off promotions in the tabloids.
I am still waiting for Coles to introduce BOGOFs – Buy One Get One Free – which is massive in the UK. When is that happening?
Next thing they will be copying John Lewis style PR tricks and sending out press releases to say they sold more forks than knives last month sparking a new trend in the way we eat meals. That angle works too btw.
This is why you should avoid working in this category like the plague. They still believe in the silver bullet.
I often wondered about the choice of music for these Coles ads. Status Quo’s “Down, Down” and Normie Rowe’s “Shakin All Over” are sooo old but I guess they work. More baby boomer though than Gen X or Y.
It often amazes me why some advertisers choose the songs they use for jingles. Perfect examples are Big W’s “Live big for less” which is derived from Ian Dury’s “I Wanna Be Straight”…which by the way has the line “I’m sick and tired of takin drugs & staying up late”.
And of course the recent XXXX Summer beer TVC using Foster the People’s “Pumped Up Kicks” which is all about a psycho kid wanting to shoot people!
Go figure!
The ads may be working sensationally, but for this long-term Coles Online customer, the reality is sadly deficient. Frequent out of stock problems with basics like bread & milk, dumb substitutions & tired fresh food have finally got to me. For the last couple of weeks Woollies has got my shopping dollar. So far they’ve been just OK. But retailing at scale in this country, online or off, is a sorry business. I’ve had fresher food & much better service from Tesco & others in Europe. They’re expensive, due to the artificial value of the fraudulent Euro, but we’ll be waiting a long time for their reliability, variety & freshness. We have great food in Australia, but the big players manage to ruin it. Take the raspberry test. Go to Coles & pick a punnet of raspberries at random. Do the same at your local fruiterer. It’s guaranteed the Coles punnet will have at least one manky fruit & probably more: much less likely with the fruit shop one. Perhaps it’s time to overcome hatred of shopping & patronise the small shops for quality.
“Despite a slating from creatives, the Coles campaign, which has included cheesy reworkings of Petula Clarke’s Down Town as Down Down and Normie Rowe’s Shakin’ All Over as No Added Hormones, along with celebrity appearances from the likes of The Wiggles, has led to record sales for Coles”.
But really, is that why Coles sales are up?, Or is it as much to do with the fact they have slashed prices on Fruit & Veg, refitted many tired looking stores and also opened many new ones in key and affluent locations.
I agree with many of the parallels above… Cole’s have taken the business model from Tesco lock stock, and then added in some other shrewd elements from other UK retailers, but they have also positioned themselves in a very clever way, pulling in budget shoppers at one end using TV advertising, and the more affluent customer at the other with new stores in posher suburbs & much better looking stores.
Customers with money tend to not be as influenced by advertising as they are location and convenience. Quality in Australia is less of an issue where Supermarkets are concerned, mostly due to there not really any supermarket brand considered to be ‘Upmarket’. Woolworths & Coles pretty much level peg in the eyes of the Aussie consumer. The perception is you have low end stores (Bi-Low, Franklins, Foodworks, ALDI) and you have the middle (Woolworths, Coles and some emerging operators like Supabarn).
No one is really at the top, there is no Waitrose or M&S. Some IGA’s are quite boutique but some look like shit. Harris Farm attract more of the professional A and B classes, but they are not a ‘Supermarket’.
What I think will be interesting is if, when, and who will start to focus on the gap in the market… The upper class Aussie supermarket!
If you can pull in the punters that don’t know this price of Bread and Milk, surely as a supermarket you have the winning ticket?
With so much of Supermarket advertising here being focused on ‘Cheap’ I think it will be interesting to see how whoever targets their advertising towards the more Upmarket demographic?
If anyone knows, I’d be interested to know who has the highest percentage of professional A and B classes and how big the difference is in-between the main players. I’d of thought it’s quite an even playing feld?
The problem with the Coles & Woolwoth battle is non of these campaigns will create any real brand loyalty, the people looking for a cheap shop will just flutter back and forth for the cheap deals and the people with the money will just continue shopping wherever is easiest for them and that they prefer the vibe of.
All that said, I still think the current Coles ads stink!
Wow, I’m impressed Catherine … “I’ve had fresher food & much better service from Tesco & others in Europe”. How long did it take for it to arrive here … and it was still fresh!
Perhaps people should just stop viewing advertising as high art? It isn’t. It’s designed to get sales, and it has, yet there are still people here saying their strategy is poor? I’m sure Coles are devastated. It’s distinctive advertising, using high reach media, that is immediately recognisable as Coles.
Coles flat out suck. Their prices are down because they’re screwing suppliers and making the companies pay the loss. They’re half the reason our economy is sinking.
Prices aren’t down either; they’ve just taken the remaining cost from an item they’ve reduced and put it onto another more ‘speciality’ type item. EG. $1 coles bread = a Burgen bread increase from $4.39 to $5.00. This is one example but it applies to their entire range of products.
They’ve also cut back their range of everything so you have even less choice.
Their staff are tossers too, especially the managers and they’re ‘Coles Group’ card crap you have to use to sign into their stores to do simple mundane tasks for a company you work for is just a joke.
Beneath the shine of the AD’s is a greedy company rotten to it’s core and i’m relieved Woolworths hasn’t followed their lead.
John Grono: Ha ha ha. Most amusing. But the fact remains that large scale food retailing in Australia is poorly planned and sloppily executed compared to the offerings of the big European players.