Woolworths Supermarkets

Type	Subsidiary
Founded	1924
Headquarters	Bella Vista, New South Wales,  Australia
Number of locations	700+ [1]
Key people	Michael Luscombe, CEO
Industry	Retail
Revenue	▲ A$42.3 Billion (2007)
Employees	175,000
Parent	Woolworths Limited
Website	www.woolworths.com.au

Woolworth supermarket located in the Wagga Wagga Marketplace

A rebranded Woolworths store in Temora, New South Wales

Melbourne's first newly branded Woolworths supermarket in Chadstone, Victoria.^[1]

The 21-year-old Woolworths supermarkets brand, used from 1987 until 2008

Woolworths is the largest supermarket chain in Australia, owned by Woolworths Limited. It is colloquially known as "Woolies" and in Victoria the majority of stores trade as Safeway.

[edit] Advertising

Woolworths advertises through television, radio, newspapers, catalogues, their website and in-store. Since the 1980s Woolworths, Safeway, Purity and Roelf Vos used the tag-line The Fresh Food People. This was accompanied by a jingle launched in the early 1990s that continues today. Woolworths introduced a second slogan Bringing food to life, with accompanying jingle, but was eventually dropped and Woolworths reverted back to the original jingle.^{[citation needed]}

In late 2005, a new second slogan "Low prices you can count on everyday" was launched. As of 2007, that second slogan has changed to "Low prices you can count on".

In mid-2008 Woolworths (and Safeway in Victoria) started a new campaign, "Australia's Fresh Food People." The advertisements and POS system depicted Australians from different cultural backgrounds engaging in activity relating to "Fresh Food", such as a boy trying to grow an avocado from a seed, an older man getting his watermelon home from the supermarket, and a couple protecting their vegetable patch from cockatoos. This campaign introduced a new theme song, replacing We're Woolworths the Fresh Food People, Woolworths the Fresh Food People, Woolworths the Fresh Food People... with We Are, We Are, Fresh Food People, Australians are Fresh Food People, and we are the Fresh Food People.

[edit] 2008 Rebranding

On 22 August 2008, Woolworths announced it was launching a new identity for all its supermarkets and plans to replace the Safeway brand in Victoria, in order to unite all of its supermarkets under one common brand 'Woolworths'. ^[2]

The logo, which had been in use for 21 years, was replaced with a new brand image with a new green tinted icon representing the 'W' in Woolworths with the addition of a stylised leaf to suggest fresh produce. It is also reminiscent of a 1970s Woolworths logo. However, the company's slogan, "The Fresh Food People", which is known throughout Australia, remains as a key part of the new logo. The company introduced these changes in order to further distance itself from its major rival Coles Supermarkets, and to make its branding more modern, 'softer' and more likeable.^[3]

In September 2009, this rebranding scheme was extended to New Zealand stores where the new Woolworths symbol is to be used alongside the Countdown brand. ^[4]

In October 2009, it was reported that Apple Inc. had lodged an objection to Woolworths' trademark application with the Australian Government's intellectual property agency IP Australia, claiming that the logo resembles its own. The reports said that Apple was concerned that Woolworths had applied for a blanket trademark for the design, so it could be placed on any product – even on electrical goods like computers and music players. Woolworths was not selling its own brand electrical goods then, but a spokeswoman for the company said that, "While we can't rule anything out, we haven't got any plans at the moment."^[5][6] Woolworths' rebranding program in its 802 Australian stores had been in progress barely over a year.

[edit] Loyalty schemes

[edit] Discount Fuel Offers

Since 1996 Woolworths has offered its customers a number of incentives for purchasing at their stores by subsidising petrol prices at Caltex Woolworths petrol stations and the now defunct Woolworths Plus Petrol. Discounts included 2-cent, 4-cent, 6-cent and in some regional areas 10-cent discounts on fuel when purchases over certain amounts were conducted. As of September 2009, the current offer is a 4 cent/L discount when transactions of over $30 are conducted in-store, with a further 4 cent discount available if customers spend another $5 or more on other items at the petrol site.

[edit] Everyday rewards and credit card

See also: Everyday Rewards

Everyday Rewards Card

In September 2007, a trial began in central west New South Wales of Everyday Rewards, a Woolworths shopping card that automatically tracks supermarket purchases and stores fuel discount entitlements, thus eliminating the need for shoppers to retain paper coupons previously used for this purpose.^[7] In addition it allows Woolworths to record purchases made by customers to offer them relevant promotions and for studies in demographics and marketing,^[8] hence incentives for customers who register their details. This followed Woolworths announcement that is was planning to launch a general purpose credit card in 2008.^[9] Woolworths is expected to offer these credit cardholders reward vouchers redeemable throughout its store network.^[10] Woolworths subsequently announced that the Woolworths Everyday Money MasterCard would be launched on 26 August 2008 and allows customers to earn shopping cards redeemable at Woolworths group retailers.^[11][12]

In February 2008, Woolworths announced that following the NSW trial, its Everyday Rewards card would be rolled out nationally, beginning with South Australia and Northern Territory in mid-February, and to other states (excluding Tasmania^[13]) by the end of May 2008. During the NSW trial, 50,000 cards were issued to customers.^[14]

Woolworths stated in June 2008 that "well over a million" shoppers had taken a card and registered their details.^[15] In August 2008, Woolworths stated that there were 3.8 million cards "on issue", with 2.4 million cards "registered".^[16]

From June 2009, Everyday Rewards cardholders were able to earn Qantas Frequent Flyer points, by using their Everyday Rewards cards. Cardholders who had successfully linked their Frequent Flyer card to their registered Everyday Rewards card can earn one Frequent Flyer point for every dollar over $30 that they spent in store. In August 2009, Woolworths announced that there were 3.8 million cards "registered", of which 1.2 million were linked to a Qantas Frequent Flyer account. ^[17]

[edit] Frequent Shopper Club

The Frequent Shopper Club, or F$C, is a reward program for shopping in Woolworths stores in Tasmania. It was started by Purity Supermarkets in the early 1990s before it was sold to Woolworths in the 1990s. It is still in use today.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Other Woolworths Limited supermarkets

A Woolworths supermarket in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales

• Woolworths still trades as Safeway in most locations in Victoria, and some towns on the Victorian border (e.g. Moama, NSW). From 2008, a rebranding program will see these stores progressively branded as Woolworths.
• In Tasmania, Woolworths traded as Roelf Vos and Purity prior to being rebranded as Woolworths in 2000
• In New Zealand, Woolworths operates supermarkets under three brands - Woolworths, Countdown and Foodtown. It is currently rebranding all stores with the design used by Woolworths throughout Australia under the Countdown name.
• Food For Less is a discount supermarket chain located in Queensland and New South Wales
• Flemings is a group of four supermarkets located in Sydney and the Central Coast
• Woolworths launched Thomas Dux Grocer in two New South Wales locations in 2008. Thomas Dux Grocer stores have a larger fresh food offering than traditional Woolworths stores, along with a larger delicatessen section. ^[18]

[edit] References

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2007)

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Woolworths Limited (Australia)

• Woolworths