While the rules of effective ad or flyer design are basically the same across the board, certain industries have strategies and standard practices that are unique. Even if you are a small, local food business rather than a large national chain with a million dollar marketing budget, you can still use the strategies they employ to make your ads more effective.
1. KNOW YOUR SHOPPERS
While this is not a physical design element, it does have a massive effect on how your ad or flyer is received by the customer. It’s crucial to know what is most important to your customers: value, selection or convenience. Is your store in a high-end neighbourhood? If so, then you can put more emphasis on your premium and rare items, current food trends and selection. If it isn’t, you want to put more of an emphasis on your sales and promotions for basic goods, letting your customers know that they’ll be getting more value for their hard-earned money.
2. KNOW YOUR COMPETITION
Another important intellectual design strategy is to know the other supermarkets and food stores you are in competition with. Let’s say that a few miles away, there is a large health food store. You have more of a general selection of food items. Obviously, they will have a better selection of organic produce and health food brands. You can handle this in a few different ways. Either downplay the role of those foods at your own store, especially if you have only a small selection, or offer and advertise a really great deal on specific organic or health oriented products to take a cut of their market. It’s been proven over the years that customers are willing to travel farther for a great deal. This is why knowing the competition in a radius around your store is so important.
3. EMPHASISE THE POTENTIAL
In some cases, you don’t want to show the actual item you’re selling; you want to show the potential of the item you are selling, especially when it comes to food and drink items. It doesn’t take much to understand why a nicely browned and seasoned cut of beef on a bed of fresh greens looks more appealing than a marbled, bloody and raw steak in the package. The same is true of a frosted, cold glass of beer, versus simply showing a can or bottle. When it comes to fruits and vegetables, showing it raw is usually better due to the loss of colour from cooking. Here, the potential of the food is in its natural state, because customers want their produce as fresh as they can get it. You want to make it look like it was just plucked from the garden or orchard and set on the shelves. Customers equate freshness with higher flavour and quality. In short, take care with choosing your graphics and photos.
4. JUDGE IT BY ITS COVER
You want your most eye catching graphics and best deals on the front and back cover of your flyer or leaflet. Most shoppers pay the most attention to those two pages, so you should, too. Place your verbal and visual imagery in a way that makes a big impact, using bright colours. Make the pictures of products varying sizes so that the eyes travel around the page, rather than skimming over a grid-like ad. Focus every listing either on value, selection, or convenience, because those are the top three reasons why a consumer would choose your store over the competition.
5. USE MELNO TO DELIVER
While you could insert your supermarket flyer into the newspaper, it is more effective to use a quality letterbox delivery service like Melno Distributors, because you can chose total coverage or select areas for distribution. We have been serving the greater Melbourne area for over ten years, and we deliver to over 100,000 homes and businesses each week. Whatever your strategy for attracting customers, Melno Distributors should be part of it. Call or ask for a quote online today!