Competitive Expansion in the Supermarket Sector with Yellow Tokens
Scenario
A large supermarket chain, with a strong presence in various regions of the country, planned to expand its operations to a new city. The target city had a highly competitive retail market, with several well-established local supermarkets and a loyal customer base. To ensure the success of the new store, the chain needed to understand how local competitors were perceived by customers and identify opportunities to differentiate itself. The company’s expansion team recognized the need for detailed insights into competitor customer satisfaction to create an effective entry strategy.
Problem
Before implementing Yellow Tokens, the supermarket's market research team relied on traditional methods such as competitor visits, consumer interviews, and market analyses that often provided only a limited and superficial view of the local competitive landscape. These traditional methods were costly, time-consuming, and often failed to capture the essence of customer perceptions in real-time. The team needed a more robust and dynamic approach to better understand what local consumers valued and how competitors were meeting or failing to meet those expectations.
How Yellow Tokens Helped Through Understanding Customer Feedback
The solution came with the implementation of Yellow Tokens. The tool was set up to automatically collect customer feedback from major digital platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X, TikTok, and Google My Business, specifically focusing on reviews and comments about competing supermarkets in the target city.
With Yellow Tokens, the market research team was able to:
- Collect and analyze customer feedback from local competitors: the tool consolidated real-time feedback from all relevant platforms, providing a comprehensive view of how competing supermarkets were perceived by customers in terms of price, product quality, service, store profile, and shopping experience.
- Identify competitors' strengths and weaknesses: the sentiment and theme analysis from Yellow Tokens highlighted specific areas where competitors were meeting customer expectations well, such as variety of fresh products or good promotional offers, as well as areas where they were failing, such as long lines at checkout, lack of cleanliness, or store profiles that did not attract certain types of consumers.
- Develop competitive differentiators: based on the insights collected, the expansion team was able to identify opportunities to differentiate the new store, such as offering a faster checkout experience, expanding the fresh and organic product section, and ensuring a cleaner, more organized store environment that appealed to a wide range of customers.
- Create a targeted marketing strategy: Yellow Tokens allowed the marketing team to understand the main pain points of customers regarding competitors, enabling the creation of marketing campaigns that highlighted the new store's strengths in addressing these specific issues.
How Yellow Tokens Elevated the Role of the Market Research Team
The implementation of Yellow Tokens transformed the role of the market research team in the expansion strategy:
- Greater accuracy in defining the entry strategy: with detailed and specific insights into customer perceptions of competitors, the market research team was able to provide much more precise and targeted recommendations for the new store’s entry strategy.
- Positioning as a strategic partner in expansion planning: the ability to generate valuable insights about the local market and competition increased the importance of the market research team in strategic expansion discussions, promoting greater involvement in high-level decisions.
- Direct support for operations and marketing teams: Yellow Tokens enabled the market research team to provide relevant and actionable data to the operations and marketing teams, facilitating a more effective execution of the new store's entry strategy.
Results Achieved After Using Yellow Tokens
After implementing Yellow Tokens, the new store was launched with a well-defined and differentiated entry strategy, directly aligned with the needs and expectations of local consumers. The new store focused on providing a superior shopping experience, with highlighted areas such as quick service, quality fresh products, a clean and organized store environment, and a store profile that appealed to a wide range of customers. Marketing campaigns emphasized these differentiators, positioning the new store as a superior choice compared to local competitors.
As a result, the new store quickly gained traction in the local market, achieving a 30% increase in customer base in the first quarter of operation compared to the average of other stores. Customer satisfaction also increased, with the new store receiving positive feedback on digital platforms for its superior shopping experience. The company recognized the strategic importance of the market research area and the ongoing use of Yellow Tokens as an essential tool for future expansions and strategic adjustments.
