As the spiralling cost of living unsettles consumers – inflation now stands at a 30-year high according to this week’s ONS data – retailers’ value propositions are coming under the spotlight in new ways, sometimes in an unflattering light, from a new type of influencer.
Once, retail influencers were primarily thought of as marketing allies who would gushingly promote products and services to a vast number of followers on social media platforms like Instagram.
Now, a different breed, also counting their followers in the hundreds of thousands, is adopting a campaigning stance that companies, as well as consumers, are taking notice of.
That was obvious in Asda’s reaction to observations made about its value range on Twitter.
Anti-poverty campaigner and low-cost cookery writer Jack Monroe, who tweets as @BootstrapCook, drew attention to rising prices and the lack of availability of the cheapest lines in her local Asda branch. Her comments quickly went viral.
Monroe is representative of changing forces shaping consumer attitudes, a trend evident more widely.
“Monroe is representative of changing forces shaping consumer attitudes”
MoneySavingExpert.com founder Martin Lewis was perhaps the first and foremost example, revolutionising personal finance information since launching his site in the early noughties.
The new dynamics could be seen too in football star Marcus Rashford’s free school meals campaign, which forced a change in government policy as public opinion swung behind him.
In Monroe’s case, while Asda was the original focus, there was an impact far beyond. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) will once again produce data that shows the effect of inflation for different income groups, while Monroe is also creating her own index.
Since hers will record “the disappearance of the budget lines and the insidiously creeping prices of the most basic versions of essential items at the supermarket”, more retailers are likely to face greater scrutiny about the extent to which they are providing value for consumers who most need it.
To its credit, Asda responded adeptly to Monroe’s concern. Last week, the grocer pledged to ensure its Smart Price and Farm Stores value ranges are available at all of its stores and online.
Chief customer officer Meg Farren said the grocer had “taken on board the comments about the availability of our Smart Price range made by Jack Monroe”.
Value foundations
While it was the right thing to do, it was also sensible from a pure business perspective.
Asda was built on value foundations and cannot afford for those credentials to be questioned, especially after competitors such as Aldi had already laid down the gauntlet in January with a pledge to “always offer the lowest prices for groceries, no matter what”, and non-traditional rivals such as Poundland make a play for a bigger share of the food market – a strategic drive encapsulated at its newly opened Nottingham branch.
Asda also benefited because its change in stance was recognised by Monroe. She said on Twitter last weekend: “I was very quick to vilify Asda for what I saw as a change of direction for their company, and a watering down of their commitment to an entire group of their customers. And to their credit, they read it all, and a lot of your comments too, reached out, and said they’d do better.
“The turnaround for this has been almost immediate – the speed at which they responded, not just with words, but with exactly what they said they would do – has been absolutely remarkable.”
Once it was more traditional groups that lobbied retailers for such change – from Friends of the Earth to Which? and MPs.
“The engagement between Asda and Monroe shows a changing dynamic between businesses and consumers”
They will still make their power felt, but the engagement between Asda and Monroe shows a changing dynamic between businesses and consumers, acted out on public platforms by often well-informed, committed influencers whose power – typically driven by personal passion – is only likely to grow.
Retailers cannot afford to be tone-deaf to their concerns and will need to engage with them. Accessibility of value is unlikely to diminish in importance soon – only this week the ONS reported that pay growth is lagging behind rampant inflation as real wages slipped 0.8% year on year between October and December.
But retailers have an incomparable track record in listening to, and hearing, consumers. While the debates may play out in new ways and on new platforms, staying true to those old values will keep retailers in tune with consumers’ moods and needs, just when shoppers need it most.
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