By Matthijs Klinkert,
Strategist & Partner, Fabrique (Brand Dialogue)
When it comes to food, the Dutch and Indians are not very different. Both countries have a rich agricultural history that translates into a wide variety of culinary delights on the dinner table. The platter gets more diverse with the arrival of the festive season. As the aroma of Snert, Stamppot and fresh Olliebollen wafts out of Dutch kitchens, Indian grandmothers get busy grinding spices and coconuts. Despite a faster pace of life and the latest kitchen appliances, one thing hasn’t changed in both countries… the reliance on authentic recipes made with only the freshest and purest ingredients. Many young Indian women juggling career and home end up calling their mothers or mothers-in-law for authentic recipes or make a bee-line for the nearest bookstore for recipe books. The next big challenge is getting proper ingredients. This is where retailers can play a role, by taking a leaf out of Dutch major Albert Heijn’s book.
Albert Heijn is the oldest and the largest grocery stores chain in the Netherlands. Thirty years ago, it started offering its customers a free magazine on food and recipes called Allerhande. The monthly magazine became a hit and ended up building a loyal fan base over the years. Customers visited the store to buy ingredients mentioned in the magazine. This worked out wonderfully well for Albert Heijn as the underlying strategy to publish and distribute the magazine was to inspire a positive brand association with the store. Shopping is a tedious activity, but cooking is fun. Allerhande brought together both concepts to make customers believe shopping at Albert Heijn was fun as they could buy a variety of ingredients here and try out new recipes at home. It encouraged customers to buy more.
In 2009, Allerhande launched a website which gave customers the opportunity to browse through more than 10,000 recipes online. Albert Heijn created great content for the website, uploaded helpful instructional videos and had dedicated photography. Allerhande understood the power of giving something of real value online to its potential customers.
In 2013, the website was rebuilt and newer benefits like ordering online were added. Today, Allerhande also has a voice-controlled cooking app that means you don’t have to touch your tablet while cooking. Today, 6 million unique visitors, that is 75% of the country’s population, visit Allerhande and use it to prepare Christmas dinner!
The web-app-magazine framework is unique as no other retailer has explored anything similar. It has become more than just a website, in fact a dependable shopping and cooking assistant. Allerhande’s seamless integration has not only been appreciated, but also rewarded by customers. The cooking app went on to win the prestigious Red Dot Award this year.
Meanwhile, Albert Heijn is rewarded by its customers with a much increased loyalty. People have really connected with the brand, and this online strategy of giving away content has also resulted in overall turnover increase.
With our long love affair with everything gastronomical, it’s time a canny retailer came up with something similar in India. While some retailers have started experimenting with online orders and home delivery, an Allerhande-like magazine-website-app model could take the brand experience to a whole new level with mutually beneficial results. While customers can enjoy the dual benefits of convenient and hassle-free shopping along with the joy of trying out new recipes without fear, the retailer could benefit by embedding a positive brand image in the minds of customers to generate loyalty and ultimately increase sales.
Feedback: matthijsk@fabrique.nl
