The Challenge
Five decades ago, The Company Shop’s Founder and Chairman John Marren realised that surplus wasn’t a disposal issue, it was a redistribution one. They’re now the largest redistributor of surplus in the UK, selling food, drink and a range of other household channel surplus products through their award-winning social enterprise, Community Shop.
When we first met them, their parent company was using the same name and brandmark as their retail stores. So our first challenge was to give them more effective brand architecture, so they could talk to corporate audiences and retail customers in clearly differentiated ways.
The Approach
We invited the Company Shop team to join us for a Brandschool® where we ran discovery sessions, workshops and audience research to help us build a robust strategy. We then built a clear brand architecture, renaming the parent company Company Shop Group and keeping the name Company Shop for their retail stores.
We then gave each a clear brand positioning: Company Shop Group "Turning problems into potential” and Company Shop “Shop good, feel good, do good."
The next step was to create brand guidelines for both, as well as for their social enterprise Community Shop - which supported the new positioning as ‘Open for more’ because besides it being a social supermarket offering deeply discounted food, Community Shop members have access to life-changing services that build stronger individuals and more confident communities.
Communications included interior branding, culture books, membership acquisition campaigns and a world class sustainability report which was presented to Parliament.
We also wanted to make sure the new positioning was deeply-embedded within their corporate culture, so we took the Company Shop Group positioning of "Turning problems into potential" and developed it into a multi-channel employee communications campaign called “Be the potential”.
The Result
We’ve taken the Company Shop Group brand into a new era. Our visually powerful, multi-faceted and connected brand platform has helped them grow even further, with a first store opening in Scotland, a new Community Shop in Halton and new product areas being introduced. In 2019, they also won a second Queen’s Award for Enterprise, the most prestigious prize in British business.
Company Shop
Say hello to a new kind of supermarket. Company Shop is unlike any other supermarket because when you become a member you can enjoy high quality food and household brands at super low prices.
Shop Good
Fantastic choice of favourite big brands at up to 70% off the normal price.
Feel Good
Just think what you can enjoy with the money you save.
Do Good
Help save the planet by saving the pennies.
Community Shop
Building stronger individuals and more confident communities.
Providing a hand up, not a handout - Community Shop is the award-winning social enterprise. It uses surplus food to do much more than feed those on the cusp of food poverty. It builds confidence, gives people purpose and nurtures stronger communities.
Learn more about Community Shop and the Company Shop Group at companyshopgroup.co.uk.
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