Sleep shopping

Waking up our customers

It’s three years since we introduced ‘Try Something New Today’. It was always much more than a slogan; it’s an idea that has inspired our entire business and been hugely popular with customers.

The insight behind this idea was that the average supermarket stocks around 30,000 products but individual customers tend to buy from a selection of the same 150 items for their weekly shop and they don’t seem to notice what’s going on around them in the store.

We tested this idea by reworking research originally carried out by Harvard University. We dressed someone in a gorilla suit and sent them sent into a store. Then we asked customers if they had noticed anything unusual while doing their shopping; most had not. In other words, they sleep-shop.

From television and press advertising, to colleague training to our popular ‘tip’ cards, encouraging people to ‘Try Something New Today’ has proved a great way of opening their eyes to all the things that our stores offer. And it has had a powerful effect on sales as well.

May 2009