Case Study - Poundland

With well over 400 stores, Poundland wanted to capitalise on its high street presence. It wanted to become an essential location for everyone’s weekly shop. It wanted to own the hearts and minds of the nation’s shoppers. Poundland was seen by many as an occasional and/or seasonal shopping destination. We knew this challenge was all about making key audiences aware of its broader range of branded groceries and household goods. In doing so we could put Poundland firmly in the same playing field as ‘the big four’ supermarkets.We devised a ‘Weekly Essentials ’ campaign that challenged shoppers to find out just how much they could save on their usual weekly shop with Poundland. The campaign was

leveraged via a mix of social media and traditional PR. A Netmums partnership and outreach to key mummy bloggers was blended with a research-led news release supported by a proactive media relations drive to key national, online and women’s titles.The campaign delivered 30 pieces of branded coverage across the personal finance and consumer affairs pages. These included a double page spread in the Daily Mirror that compared Poundland’s branded ranges favourably to those of the major supermarkets. Over 250 mums shared their Poundland money-saving experiences on the influential Netmums forum. A series of competitions in key national women’s titles to win a weekly shop for a year, supported the outreach. There was a tangible shift in consumer perception of the brand. As a result of the activity, year-on-year sales increased by 56% in the grocery category, 26% in health & beauty, and 20% in household.

Yellow: The fact they have included ‘400 stores’ makes it obvious that they have conducted their own market research into the store and area backgrounds. Knowing that they have picked out 400 different areas for there shop means that they have researched the other businesses around the area and what the demographic of the public are in that place. By knowing this they can find out if the public would be more willing to spend money in that town/city or stand back when it comes to spending there money as it’s most likely that they would want to save it. For Poundland it’s important for them to get there target market correct and to find an area that has a strong high street, thousands of houses and an a strong council that is bringing money into the towns and cities. The fact that Poundland have said ‘hearts and minds of the nation’s’ is showing that they know what there target market needs to feel when they enter there shops, they don’t want it to be messy or miserable, they want there customers to enjoy shopping within there business. It is also a strategy based idea that they want to capture the ‘hearts and minds of the nation’s’ because they want to control and be successful as possible so to brain wash the customers into thinking there company is the best and most reliable then this would definitely contribute to being a market strategy. By researching there target market they have realised that by making Poundland a ‘seasonal, occasional shopping destination’ then it

- Market Research- Market analysis- Marketing strategy- Advertising- Brand promotion- Managing a message- Positive publicity

- Spin- Damage limitation- Lobbying

means there customers are welcome all year round and it keeps them coming back and buying presents for there family and friends in the future. This shows that they believe that there target audience likes the holidays and seasonal times so by there target market saying that it’s ‘seen’ as a ‘seasonal, occasional’ place then it shows that the audience understands and likes the shop.

Green: Market analysis is defifiently shown through Poundland’s work, a company called ‘Netmums’ produced a forum for mother to connect and talk about what they feel about saving money and how much they could save. The fact that they are using social networking and blogs means that Poundland is analysing what technology people use and what websites they go on. By researching in detail that would have found that most people these days go on social networking sites to meet new people and to keep in contact with old friends etc. (Facebook) It’s a perfect place for debating and getting you message across e.g. Twitter. The more Poundland go through social media the more spin they can have on their business so that they can bring new and exciting ideas to improve the business. Poundland have analysed families because you can tell that by producing a campaign to save money, would definitely be temping for new families and especially mum’s. Saving money will bring new customers in and the research that has gone into finding this information out could be used from questionnaires and focus groups e.g. families, mums, dads etc. The more answers you get the more the more you can build you campaign so that it suits everyone’s needs. To involve competitions is also a very good idea as it helps the mums to get excited, active and fun when it comes to winning something from a successful business. Netmums always have competition running, this week they are doing: Win 1 of 5 £250 Boots vouchers with Oilatum Win a wooden climbing frame from Plum worth £949.99. These prizes are fantastic and they get people together so that they can work for a prize and be a team. By the customers having a good time it puts the company is positive publicity for future events. It has showed that Poundland know what their customers enjoy and what they like to do.

Light Blue: The marketing strategy used within Poundland is very important. One of there techniques that they have used is social networking, they know that by making an account themselves, they can promote new products that they are selling and introducing brand new stock that they haven’t had before, this can be done through Twitter as this network if for exploring and talking to one another. Facebook is another network that would be suitable for Poundland because you can post images and talk about the location you are in so that the customers know which business is doing what, it keeps everyone connected and together. This is a very modern strategy that a lot of businesses are using at the moment, by talking to customers and seeing there view about the shop will help the business grow better. A campaign was a good idea because Poundland helped customers to save money, which is very important these days as people are trying to save as much money as possible. Poundland will also be more successful with a campaign as it makes the business look busy and it brings new customers in which will produce more sales for the business.

Pink: The fact that BOTTLE bought a double page spread out of a popular national tabloid paper shows that they are getting their work out there and recognized, even if it isn’t in the typical form of advertising. Anything that gets your company or work or product recognized and promoted is classed as advertising. Buying out a double page spread of this certain newspaper shows that the company is serious about what they are doing and means to achieve their aim. It also is being shown to the target audience of Poundland. An advert for Poundland would not be shown in a Broadsheet paper such as the guardian. The promotion showed the comparison between Poundland’s own range and the range of a major super market. Doing this shows to the people reading the promotion that BOTTLE is confident that Poundland’s prices are the lowest because it there was a price that was higher than the major supermarket’s in the advert, it would immediately put people off. Comparisons are becoming a popular and effective form of advert because nowadays, people like to save as much money as possible and by showing them that Poundland is the cheapest; they are most likely to go there.

Red: The whole challenge of this transformation was to make Poundland’s key audiences aware of the broader range of branded groceries and other household goods so that people were more likely to shop there. By promoting their broader range of essentials people would be more intrigued to go as it suggests they can get everything that they need under one roof and at good prices too. Included in the campaign were 30 pieces of branded coverage across different sections of a newspaper such as the personal, finance and consumer affairs pages. This way, by the time the person had finished reading the paper, Poundland’s products would be well stuck into the person’s mind. Also, it was good to use a range of pages so that they hand more chance of being seen in the first place since someone who reads the finance page may not read the personal page. After all this brand promoting, figures were taken and there was a substantial increase in consumer perception of the brands Poundland sold, meaning that all the promoting had worked and BOTTLE had achieved their goal of making Poundland become a better recognized supermarket.

Teal: By challenging people to try Poundland to see how much they could save, sends a message out that Poundland is the best place to save money and that they are confident and willing to show that. It is sending a message that shopping at Poundland is just like going to a major supermarket such as Tesco or Asda only it’s cheaper. If the challenge is successful then people will spread the message to friends and family. During the transformation, BOTTLE reached out to a blogger site called Netmums (a place where Mums exchange tips with other Mums to help make things such as shopping easier for them) and challenged them to try Poundland to save money, resulting in over 250 Mums sharing their money saving experiences at Poundland. It is made clear that Poundland is making an effort to send a message out to it’s customers about their campaign and saving money and how much the store has generally changed with the message of earning the hearts and minds of our nation’.

Purple: Poundland has had growing positivity towards its business, when being

compared to other businesses e.g. Tesco you can see that people prefer Poundland for it’s wide range of products at good prices. Daily Mirror agreed and thought that Poundland was stronger than other supermarket businesses. When customers find out about this they will more likely spend their money through a good, honest business than a supermarket that’s quite expensive. This is definitely positive publicity because if Poundland get’s good reviews off a newspaper then thousands of people will read it and then be interested in the business and what they have to offer. Due to the fact that Poundland has growing popularity through newspaper articles and the activities/campaigns that have been made, they have had 56% increase in grocery sales than last year. 26% in healthy and beauty and 20% in household good, this will give positivity and confidence to the business so that grow and receive new customers. The fact that Poundland is producing more sales means they can develop their shop so that it looks more professional and good competition with other supermarkets. When Poundland said ‘ hearts and minds of the nation’s’ it shows that the more they develop the more they will please customers with their positive publicity but also the development of the company.