Revitalizing
the Food Lion brand
Simple.
Quality.
Price.
FOCUS
Food Lion is the largest brand within the Delhaize Group portfolio. It is also one of our oldest
brands. Historically, Food Lion enjoyed significant consumer awareness related to its low
prices and had strong customer loyalty. Over the last several years, the brand lost some of its
strong brand equity, especially with respect to low prices.
Price
Quality
Simple
14 DELHAIZE GROUP ANNUAL REPORT '11
In 2010, Food Lion conducted extensive research
among a large number of consumers, not just
Food Lion customers, and developed a new
strategy to reposition the Food Lion brand
based directly on consumer feedback. The com
prehensive plan focuses on several elements:
Simple, Quality and Price. When implemented,
the strategy enhances the customer satisfaction
through price, fresh produce and an easy and
convenient shopping experience, among other
areas.
In May 2011, Food Lion launched its brand repo
sitioning efforts in approximately 200 stores in
two different markets. Consumers responded
positively to the new strategy and reinforced the
conviction to accelerate the further roll-out and
implementation of the brand repositioning work
throughout the rest of the network.
Is easy to find what I am
looking for
Prices are clearly marked and
easy to read
Makes it easy to get in and out
quickly
Makes it easy to check out
Is a clean and well kept store
Cashiers are efficient and
accurate
Is the best value for my money
Offers lowest prices on the
things you buy most
Is good for a bargain shopper
Has good specials throughout
the store
Is good for people on a tight
budget
Has the lowest everyday prices
Offers high quality items at
reasonable prices
Cathy Green Burns,
President of Food Lion,
Harveys and Reid's
"Food Lion is focused
on repositioning the
business for future
growth. We are very
pleased with the
reaction from our
customers on the
implementation of our
new brand strategy
work in the Raleigh,
N.C. and Fayetteville,
N.C. markets. As we
move forward with
accelerating the Food
Lion strategy in 2012,
we are confident
the consumer will
recognize us as a
price leader, find our
stores easier to shop,
identify us as offering
the greatest value in
private brands, as well
as enjoy shopping
our fresh fruits and
vegetables section.
We look forward to
bringing the strategy
to life in an additional
600 to 700 stores by
year-end 2012."
Obviously, in these challenging times, price
plays an even greater role in attracting cus
tomers to our stores. Given that price was a
historical strength of Food Lion, we needed to
regain this price position. In the first 200 stores
where the brand repositioning was done, mar
ket prices were reduced on products throughout
the stores as we worked to be recognized as a
price leader by our customers.
Food Lion wants to be recognized for its high
quality fresh products and vegetables, and as a
result, we have significantly changed our oper
ational approach in this department to further
enhance the freshness, variety and quality of
our products for our customers. We have cre
ated a produce offering that we can be proud
of and provides customers the freshest products
possible.
As we talked to consumers to develop our new
strategy, they told us they wanted a shopping
experience that was simple and they wanted
stores that were clean, safe, and easy to shop.
We listened and made a number of changes to
simplify the shopping experience in our stores,
such as making the aisles easy to navigate and
enhancing the checkout process. Thanks to
follow-up research, customers have confirmed
that we have improved their shopping experi
ence through the changes we have made.
