Retailer Realizes Growth By Helping Customers AND Producers

In 2005, Hannaford Brothers , an independently owned grocer in Maine, decided to act instead of react. Lead instead of be led. To accomplish this mission, they had to change and create growth beyond what their manufacturers and producers were providing. They had to make a real difference in the life of their shoppers. And, they did.

One of the more than 130 choices for growth we created was an idea that would help consumers more easily find healthy choices in the store. The inspiration came as we were thinking about how many stores (Hannaford included) offer a "shop with a nurse" service for people who have newly diagnosed health conditions...how there are foods known as Super Foods that pack a real nutritional punch, but few people know what they are...and how overwhelming it is for shoppers to deal with all the choices they have in each aisle. Eureka! Guiding Stars was born.

In all fairness, it wasn't pretty at first. The name was wrong and we had a five star system, not the three star system that's working so well today...but we knew the ideas was a diamond in the rough. After going through numerous test and learn cycles, the Hannaford team did an amazing job defining and bringing the winning proposition to market.

Once launched, the 'buzz' around the program was immediate and overwhelming. Newspapers, TV stations – and most importantly – shoppers were a glo with excitement. Friends and neighbors were spreading the word and soon, Hannaford found themselves in the national spotlight. CNN, ABC, the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Boston Globe were but a few who helped share the news – finally there's an easy way to find the truly good-for-you food you should be eating. [Want to see all the stories? Click here.] Here's how Guiding Stars works to make healthy shopping easier:

Guiding Stars. Only at Hannaford.
Guiding Stars is the first-ever storewide nutrition navigation system. Hannaford created Guiding Stars to give you a quick, at-a-glance tool to help find the most nutritious foods in our stores.

Star ratings.
Guiding Stars uses a proprietary rating formula (patent pending) that credits a food’s score for the presence of vitamins, minerals, fiber and/or whole grains and debits a food’s score for the presence of trans and/or saturated fats, cholesterol, added sugars, and added sodium.

 

The resulting score determines whether the item receives 1, 2, 3 or no Stars. Just check the shelf tag. The more positive attributes the product has, the more Guiding Stars it will receive.

Best of all, in creating this win for their customers, Hannaford also created a win for the producers of the good-for-you-food as they saw their sales increase 2.5%. Net: their customers were WOW!ed, their producers realized net extra sales without doing anything differently, and they grew withouth a huge investment – now that's truly an idea worthy of being called Eureka!