The Brief

Despite Walmart having a decade of experience in the Japanese supermarket and driving their edge with their Everyday Low Price strategy made possible with their network capability to purchase at lower prices, the discount competition in the industry was ever fierce, making it difficult for SEIYU to set themselves apart on low prices. Therefore, we needed to build awareness that Walmart offers lower prices than competitors to drive store traffic and sales.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

The way Japanese markets communicate low prices is by selecting items to discount and communicating this on a daily basis. However, if the customer is not interested in the discounted product, they wouldn’t necessarily have an image of low price let alone buy the sale items. This is why SEIYU decided to run the SAGERIKU campaign where they asked the customers to vote on the products they want discounted via twitter and cut prices on top 100 products in all branches.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

This SAGERIKU campaign was featured in 5 TV news programs as a news piece as well as in a special feature in two national papers. In total, this resulted in a media exposure to the value of 500millionJPY and set record for the awareness that SEIYU is a supermarket with low prices. The sales of the discounted products soared from the same month last year making this a campaign that made SEIYU happy with sales increase and customers happy with low prices on the products of their choice.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

In Japan, the products discounted by supermarkets are not necessarily the ones customers want to see prices reduced. However, SAGERIKU campaign lowered prices on products customers voted on which resolved this discrepancy between supermarkets and customers to create a structure that furthered sales. Also, by leveraging twitter, we were able to create a movement where “customers reduced prices together” as they can work with the followers to make sure that prices get reduced on the product they wanted.