Author: Juliette Lagrue
How is Lidl transforming while maintaining its customers?
Since 2012, the supermarket Lidl has been reviewing its upward positioning, by abandoning hard-discount, by integrating classic brands into its shelves and by developing its retail brand. Behind this new strategy is a response to the slowdown in the growth of hard discounters. A risky and expensive bet, considering the 1500 Lidl stores in France.
Lidl abandons hard-discount and renovates its points of sale
The Lidl's new positioning was affirmed in the renovation And the origination of responsible shops, in more pleasant premises in order to best satisfy customer experience in store. Larger spaces, large windows, high ceilings, designer furniture, a “market” spirit, tactile cash registers... All in a responsible approach (LED lighting, zero waste policy, etc.). A change appreciated by Lidl's regular customers.
Beyond its redesigned supermarkets, Lidl has launched into the Pop-up store concept in the Marais, on the occasion of the 2018 wine fair. The objective of this pop-up store? Convincing Parisians of the revival of Lidl by removing doubts about the quality of its products as well as to promote their new Lidl-Vins website. What could be better than wine to bring everyone together and make everyone agree.
Lidl's digital transformation
A strategic repositioning and the modernization of an old brand necessarily involves digital technology. And Lidl understood this well, in internalizing its community management, this allowed him to define Facebook as a real customer relationship channel. With quick answers on Messenger, friendly comments and dynamic and regular content. A means of direct communication with its customers that allows create a link. Lidl uses Facebook as a central strategy in its digital transformation, in order to assert its proximity positioning.
Lidl is also present on other networks in which it has set up a multi-channel communication strategy. Instagram is for communicating about the brand's beauty products with tutorials, short videos, and colorful visuals. They had previously tested communication on the food side, but her community was more receptive to beauty. Once again, they were listening to their community, always with a view to proximity.
In order to adapt to the lockdown, Lidl has put itself on WhatApp by offering customers the possibility to check the Attendance rate of its stores. The service also guarantees a fast support for the most common questions by giving an answer in 30 minutes maximum. Twitter, on the other hand, is used for event purposes in order to relay information. To give itself a facelift, Lidl has therefore bet in part on its social networks.
Moreover, the brand does not hesitate to launch contests on its Instagram to thank its community. Last year, they launched the 3-minute timer for free groceries in stores. Isabelle Schmidt, the manager of community managers, says that thanks to these actions, her community is very Committed.
Recently, the brand developed its YouTube channel by collaborating with a culinary youtuber with 960k subscribers, Hervé Cuisine. And it works quite well, with an average of 400,000 views on recipe videos under 10 minutes long, broadcast every Tuesday.
But Lidl did not simply recruit an influencer, the brand created a real staging its products. The videos are shot in a studio where all the culinary products, utensils, condiments and decorations come from the supermarket.
Finally, the influencer brought visibility to the videos, and thanks to the complete promotion of the products in the video, comments flowed with questions about where the elements came from. One digital window well designed for the brand.
A digital transformation is complex and long to implement, but once it is launched, the new image of the company can very quickly be imbued in the minds of its loyal consumers.
Unlike retail outlets that don't have this flexibility. Each space must be redesigned and renovated, the task must be repeated on the 1500 supermarkets. Digital transformation is simply faster and easier to adapt based on consumer feedback.
The change of Lidl also involves the transparency of its products. To do this, the brand has used the Yuka application, allowing consumers to scan and observe the nutritional quality of products. Today Yuka has more than 20 million users. This strategy allows Lidl to guarantee the transparency of its products, an important criterion for consumers.
Launching a complete change in the positioning, and therefore the business plan, of a 30-year-old brand is daring and impressive. The numbers speak for themselves, Lidl gains market share.
However, it is notable that for non-Lidl customers it is difficult to stop equating Lidl with a hard-discounter. The supermarket has then created a real communication coup recently around Lidl textile products.
Lidl goes viral with its sneakers and socks
To make sense of its desire to become a brand young and “cool” and to make people forget its hard-discounter past, the brand launched its clothing collection proudly displaying the Lidl logo. After having been very successful in Germany and Belgium, Lidl attacked the French market in November 2020. A limited clothing collection with the aim of create scarcity. The clothes and accessories sold out in a few minutes. The pair of sneakers sold at a very discount price of €12.99 can already be found on resale sites at more than €1000! And Lidl did not hesitate to relay the buzz by sending the basketball pair to personalities like DJ Snack or Djibril Cissé. Pairs of sneakers are now selling for around €4900 on eBay. This is what we call a successful marketing operation.
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