Author: Juliette Lagrue
How is Lidl transforming while maintaining its customer base?
Since 2012, the supermarket Lidl has been revising its positioning upwards , abandoning hard discounters, integrating traditional brands into its departments and developing its own brand. Behind this new strategy lies a response to the slowdown in the growth of hard discounters. A risky and costly bet, given the 1,500 Lidl stores in France.
Lidl abandons hard discount and renovates its points of sale
Lidl's new positioning has been confirmed by the renovation and creation of responsible stores , in more pleasant premises in order to best satisfy the in-store customer experience . Larger spaces, large bay windows, high ceilings, designer furniture, a "market" spirit, touch screen 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 the pop-up store concept in the Marais district during the 2018 wine fair . The goal of this temporary store? To convince Parisians of Lidl's revival by removing doubts about the quality of its products and to promote its new Lidl-vins website. What better way to bring people together and get everyone on the same page than with wine?
Lidl's digital transformation
A strategic repositioning and modernization of an old brand necessarily involves digital. And Lidl has understood this well, by internalizing its community management , this has allowed it to define Facebook as a true customer relationship channel. With quick responses on Messenger, friendly comments as well as dynamic and regular content . A direct means of communication with its customers that allows it to create a link . Lidl uses Facebook as a central strategy in its digital transformation, in order to affirm its proximity positioning .
Lidl is also present on other networks in which it has implemented a multi-channel communication strategy . Instagram is intended for communication on the brand's beauty products with tutorials, short videos and colorful visuals. They had previously tested communication on the food part, but its community was more receptive to beauty. Once again, they listened to their community , always with a proximity perspective.
To adapt to the lockdown, Lidl has adopted WhatsApp, offering customers the ability to check the occupancy rate in its stores. The service also guarantees rapid assistance for the most common questions, providing a response within 30 minutes maximum. Twitter, meanwhile, is used for events to relay information. To give itself a facelift, Lidl has therefore focused partly on its social networks.
Moreover, the brand doesn't hesitate to launch contests on its Instagram to thank its community. Last year, they launched the 3-minute free shopping in-store offer. Isabelle Schmidt, the community manager, says that thanks to these actions, her community is very engaged .
The brand recently expanded its YouTube channel by collaborating with a culinary YouTuber with 960,000 subscribers, Hervé Cuisine. It's working quite well, with an average of 400,000 views on recipe videos lasting less than 10 minutes, posted every Tuesday.
But Lidl didn't just recruit an influencer; the brand created a veritable showcase of its products . The videos are filmed in a studio where all the cooking products, utensils, condiments, and decorations come from the supermarket.
Ultimately, the influencer brought visibility to the videos, and thanks to the full product spotlight in the video, comments poured in with questions about the provenance of the items. A well-thought-out digital showcase for the brand.
A digital transformation is complex and takes a long time to implement, but once it is launched, the company's new image can quickly be imprinted on the minds of its loyal consumers.
Unlike retail outlets, which lack this flexibility , every space must be redesigned and renovated, a task that must be repeated across all 1,500 supermarkets. Digital transformation is simply faster and easier to adapt based on consumer feedback.
Lidl's transformation also involves product transparency . To achieve this, the brand has partnered with the Yuka app, which allows consumers to scan and view the nutritional quality of their products. Today, Yuka has over 20 million users. This strategy allows Lidl to guarantee the transparency of its products, an important criterion for consumers.
Embarking on a complete change in the positioning, and therefore the business plan, of a 30-year-old brand is bold and impressive. The figures speak for themselves: Lidl is gaining market share .
However, it's notable that for non-Lidl customers, it's difficult to avoid equating Lidl with a hard discounter. The supermarket has recently created a real marketing campaign around Lidl textile products.
Lidl creates a buzz with its sneakers and socks
To make sense of its desire to become a young and "cool" brand and to make people forget its past as a hard discounter, the brand launched its clothing collection proudly displaying the Lidl logo. After having enjoyed great success in Germany and Belgium, Lidl tackled the French market in November 2020. A limited clothing collection with the aim of creating rarity . The clothes and accessories sold out in a few minutes. The pair of sneakers sold at a very discounted price of €12.99 can already be found on resale sites for more than €1,000! And Lidl did not hesitate to spread the buzz by sending the pair of sneakers to personalities such as DJ Snack and Djibril Cissé. The pairs of sneakers are now reselling for around €4,900 on eBay. That's what we call a successful marketing operation.
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