Hy-Vee...What if?

The other day I caught the tail end of an ad using an Aussie spokesperson. Big smiling surfer-guy from Australia. Happy guy. I was going something else at the time....maybe looking for the remote. I remember wondering what was he shilling. I didn't connect his happy face with the message.

A day or two later I saw the ad in its entirety. It reminded me why I always try to change the channel, fast-forward through ads.

The brand behind this ad and this spokesman was Hy-Vee grocery stores. Locally owned Hy-Vee. Locally owned here means...Iowa. That is Iowa where their corporate offices are located; Iowa where the majority of their stores are located and where the majority of their customers reside.

So, why does a brand built around helpful smiles in every aisle...and locally-owned hire an Aussie celebrity to shill for it, to promote family, food and fun? What? There's no one in Iowa you can turn to for that?

I love Australia. I spent nearly two months there, living and working in Sydney. Great city. Great people. Beautiful country. I had hoped that my work then would allow me to continue to stay and work in Sydney, visit Bondi and Manley Beaches, go visit the Blue Mountains, return to Heron Island right on the Great Barrier Reef....This celebrity looks like a great guy, hats off to him for his success.

But having said that...what's one of its celebrity spokesmen got to do with me? And why would his smiling face, even if he is a chef, encourage me to shop Hy-Vee's aisles staffed with helpful smiles, much less celebrate...family, food and fun.

Ok, he has some recipes. Well, great, so does my mom and everybody else's probably. You can get recipes off the 'net. There's even a recipe.com.

Again, what's he got to do with my family, my food, my fun?

By choosing this guy, you ignored the other great chefs here in Iowa. No, seriously. There are some great chefs here in Iowa.

• One of our favorites is the chef at Devotay in Iowa City. He uses...wait for it...locally grown organic ingredients.

See the tie-in. Locally grown...locally owned.

They also publish the Edible Iowa newsletter which highlights the ...locally-grown ingredients used in the surrounding locally-owned cafes, restaurants, diners. It's description is this:

Edible Iowa River Valley magazine is a community-based publication that promotes the local food, farms and cuisine of Iowa.

Community-based...That's hipster-speak for locally-owned.

Local food, farms and cuisine of Iowa...that's easily translated into locally-owned.

Wow. Think about the tie-in. The locally-owned Iowa grocery chain teams up with Edible Iowa to promote locally-grown produce from locally-owned farmers and in trun promotes locally-owned cuisine. Talk about walking your walk in your community!

• There's another great chef in Dodici's in Washington Iowa. We've had many wonderful meals there.

• And there's another one at the Lincoln Cafe in Mt. Vernon. I have yet to eat there. But my friends go crazy telling me how good the food and service is there.

See the theme...locally-owned. And their suppliers are locally-owned. And their produce is locally-grown.

I'm too far away from Des Moines, Quad Cities, Cedar Falls... to know their dining scenes. But I'm willing to bet that they have 2-3-4 chefs of renown, local renown definitely and probably national or even international renown maybe.

See the theme ...locally owned.

So, Hy-Vee....what if instead of paying for a spokesperson few of us have heard of and even fewer maybe really care about...You chose to partner with the locally-owned restaurants where their chefs have a local following, where their smiles are more than a tagline, where they use locally-grown ingredients from locally-owned farms? And they promote local cuisine?

You could create a a whole section on your site with THEIR recipes. And then their fans and followers could share their dining experiences having experienced those recipes in person from the hands of the chef.

Those shared experiences could inspire more customers to experience these other restaurants. Now you're promoting commerce for locally-owned businesses?

What if you offered specials on the ingredients, those locally-grown ingredients from locally-owned farms? That would help the local economies, the local communities. Then you would live the locally-owned tag line in your brand...and help other communities and restaurants and their employees and the farms where they bought those locally-owned ingredients.

What if you included an insert  in our newspapers featuring one of these locally-owned restaurants where the chef is local and the ingredients he uses come from locally-owned farms and suppliers?

What if you promoted one of these local chefs once a month on your site and in your ads? Each month would be another profile, another set of recipes for your customers to discover, another set of locally-grown ingredients your customers could buy from...you, another group of locally-owned businesses supported?

What if you had them do short videos?

Or appear with each other talking about the advantages of locally-grown produce, debating the merits of their reciptes, getting the customers in on the debate, then getting them to ...buy the ingredients from your store and visit those restaurants to test the merits of their stand?

What if sponsored a tour of these chefs to your local stores around the state? Locally-owned co-promotional opportunities to promote locally-grown produce and the communities they in turn support?

Imagine the impact on your customer loyalties if we knew that our purchases were inspired by a local chef, reminded us of the dining experiences we experienced, gave us a chance to share that with others who've had the same experience or maybe are fans of the other restaurants. Imagine the loyalty if we knew our purchases kept our money in our community?

So, Hy-Vee....the next time you look for a solution...maybe look in the local communities, within your fellow locally-owned, community-based businesses. ( You're one, also.)  There's a lot going on and you could use your status to help the locally-owned businesses survive and thrive and at the same time...inspire their customers to come to you for those locally-owned ingredients.

What if?

Comments

[Rachel Morey]

ah, you are a sweet man! but you assume hy-vee would be willing to regularly stock locally grown/produced items. and they do, but only a teeny tiny little bit. they publicize the hell out of the tiny bits, but you can't walk in with your list, and walk out with a whole lotta local stuff. using the aussie and keeping their message stupid, i mean, simple, lets them off the hook. and gives me a real good reason to avoid them. iowa cooks and food lovers aren't hy-vee shoppers. hy-vee won't get us using the aussie. their campaign is about as attractive to a foodie as jarred baby food would be as an entree.

[Zane Safrit]

"their campaign is about as attractive to a foodie as jarred baby food would be as an entree."

OH...SNAP! Love your comment and that last sentence especially.

I still see it in our local store. And every time I think "What? Who? What does this have to do with me, my shopping, my neighbors...my friends that work there...? What?" I shake my head and leave quickly.

Luckily our little town has options that include grown local produce.