Bob's on the job: Ads show boss OKs Roundy's food
01.02.2008 05:00
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- Source: JS Online
Roundy's Supermarkets Inc. Chairman Robert Mariano takes center stage in a new ad campaign that touts the quality of the chain's 2,500 private-label products. The "Meet Chairman Bob" ads, which the Kerker agency in Minneapolis created, started running Thursday on TV, radio and in print. The tongue-in-cheek spots combine a "Mission: Impossible" setting with a Donald Trump-like look for Mariano, but with a better haircut. The campaign includes a Web site and life-size, in-store graphics of Mariano and his "Bobtourage." One of the TV ads was shot in a California orange grove, where Mariano rides in a cherry-picker and passes judgment on individual oranges. In another spot, he and the entourage pay a surprise visit to a potato chip factory to test the quality of chips. In a third spot, Mariano dons a parka over his black suit and heads into a freezer to test ice cream. The point of all this is to assure customers that nothing but the best gets past "Bob," who puts his signature on every one of the items that carries the Roundy's brand name. "It's personalizing the company," said David Bishop, a partner at Willard Bishop Consulting in Barrington, Ill. "We don't see many CEOs of grocery chains endorsing the products." It's not unusual for executives of family-owned or family-controlled companies to appear in ads. William Clay Ford Jr., the late Sam Johnson and, more recently, son Fisk Johnson have appeared in ads aimed at demonstrating their personal concern for the products that their companies sell. Bob Bourgeois, executive vice president at Meyer and Wallis, a Milwaukee ad agency that had the Roundy's account for about seven years until 2003, praised the new ads. "Bob's personality is such that this can work very well. He's got a lot of swagger in the industry," Bourgeois said. Chris Preston, executive creative director for Kerker, said the agency hit upon the idea of using Mariano in the ads as staff members brainstormed to find a common denominator for the wide range of private-label items. "We were sitting around tasting the chips and ice cream, and we noticed that everything had been signed by Chairman Bob," Preston recalled. "Nobody (from Roundy's) had said anything about it." The agency wanted to create an icon for the 100-year-old private brand without turning Mariano into a pitchman, Preston said. The campaign comes as competitors also are pushing private labels and elevating their status. Target, for example, is advertising its Archer Farms brand as a premium product. This represents a change from the conventional view of store brands as cheaper, lesser-quality alternatives to name brands, Bishop said. The improved quality and premium packaging of private-label groceries has allowed supermarkets to charge a little more for them but keep prices below those of competing brand-name products, Bishop said. Prices for new premium private-label foods might be 5% to 10% below those of major brands, he said. In the past, private-label foods that were positioned as low-cost alternatives were priced 20% to 40% below brand names. Roundy's has moved its private label to the premium level, with organic foods, imported sodas and upgraded packaging, Bishop said. But even with the higher profile, Roundy's spokeswoman Vivian King said, the private-label products remain a small percentage of the total of about 60,000 products in a typical Pick 'n Save store. The "Chairman Bob" campaign will replace the Roundy's talking grocery bag spots, King said, but the grocery bag spots will return when Roundy's runs a "bag of dreams" promotion. Roundy's also continues to run vendor ads for specific brand-name products that are on sale.
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