Whole Foods Launches First Ever National Advertising Campaign

Students, instructors and administrators alike of culinary school programs are undoubtedly already familiar with Whole Foods. What’s interesting about this, though, is that the organic grocer franchise has built their reputation among foodies without having to break the bank on advertising. In fact, up until now, all of their advertising has been done at the local or regional level. Slate has reported, however, that the grocery store chain has recently signed off on their first ever national ad campaign. While some things remain to be seen as the campaign progresses onward, a great deal of detail regarding its focus has already been revealed to the press. Take a look at some of the finer points of the effort:

The campaign
According to Digiday, the campaign is a direct response to the fact that Whole Foods sales have taken a hit recently due to increased competition in the organic food space. Further, many consumers believe that Whole Foods’ groceries are overpriced, causing them to look elsewhere for their food. In an effort to both justify their prices and distinguish themselves from their competition, the new campaign will focus on exposing the company’s organic sourcing processes. The effort, which has taken on the tagline ‘Values Matter,’ will be headed up internally by Jeannine D’Addario, the grocer’s global vice president for communications in tandem with Partners & Spade, a creative advertising agency.

Honing down an audience
While most campaigns are aimed at simply expanding the customer base of a given enterprise, Whole Foods Market seems to be taking a slightly altered approach with this one. Slate has reported that the effort will take the form of 22 videos, each one focusing on a different aspect of Whole Foods’ sourcing process. While several of the ads are expected to play on television, they have all already been uploaded to the popular video hosting website YouTube, and will remain there through at least winter of 2015. In this light, it appears that the company is appealing to younger generations of grocery shoppers. Further, they’ve reserved ad space in numerous high end publications such as Rolling Stone and Bloomberg BusinessWeek, indicating that they may be pursuing a consumer of a certain socioeconomic level nationwide. While it’s still far too early to speculate on the effectiveness of the campaign, if it succeeds it could pave the way for the 400-chain store to continue expanding.