A Look At Whole Foods’ New Ad Campaign: Values Matter

Whole Foods Market has launched its first national advertising campaign. The theme is “Values Matter.”

Some suggest Whole Foods’ new ad campaign is designed to shed its “Whole Paycheck” reputation – the idea that prices are so high you need your whole paycheck to shop there. Others see this campaign as a way to bolster sales, after slow same-store sales growth and lower than expected earnings.

Yes, Whole Foods has a reputation of high prices, though they have recently cut prices in key areas of their stores. And yes, Whole Foods is experiencing the effects of increased competition in the organic grocery market from companies such as Trader Joe’s and Sprouts Farmers Market.

It’s a classic marketing problem: perceived value.

Thankfully, instead of tackling this problem by creating a “new and improved” image, as many ad agencies would suggest, Whole Foods turned to their 8 core values.

Whole Foods’ Core Values

Here’s a list of Whole Foods’ Core Values:

1. We Sell the Highest Quality Natural and Organic Products Available
2. We Satisfy, Delight and Nourish Our Customers
3. We Support Team Member Excellence and Happiness
4. We Create Wealth Through Profits & Growth
5. We Serve and Support Our Local and Global Communities
6. We Practice and Advance Environmental Stewardship
7. We Create Ongoing Win-Win Partnerships with Our Suppliers
8. We Promote the Health of Our Stakeholders Through Healthy Eating Education

Since I first looked at Whole Foods’ values in November 2013, their core values have not changed. This is kind of important since Whole Foods even makes this statement on their website.

However, I did notice that the detailed explanation of each value has been updated, likely in preparation for this new campaign. Thankfully, an analysis of these changes reveals the essence of each value has remained the same. (If not, I would have been concerned about the integrity of the campaign).

Campaign Videos

Since Whole Foods launched their new ad campaign earlier this month, they have uploaded 29 videos to their YouTube account. All of these videos support the new Values Matter campaign, ranging in length from 30 seconds to almost eight minutes.

The line that best captures the essence of the entire campaign is this one:

“… to us, value is inseparable from values.”

That’s a brilliant and powerful statement.

Two other insightful statements that caught my attention from the various videos include:

“Let’s make our tiny choices add up to something bigger.”

“The time is ripe to champion the way food is grown, raised, and caught.”

But what a viewer might not realize is that all 29 videos were designed to support the company’s 8 Core Values. This is simply a brilliant strategy, and makes me wonder why more companies don’t do this….

Of particular note, six of these videos support the core value that speaks about team members: “We Support Team Member Excellence and Happiness”. Each of one of these videos is made up of statements from real employees.

Quite possibly the best statement of all is near the end of the video Share the Love: Team Members –Part 1 where a Whole Foods employee says:

“Values matter because they are the foundation of what we’re built on.”

That says it all.

Hats off to Whole Foods for building an ad campaign based on their core values. They clearly know something many others haven’t yet figured out: Values Matter!

 

What do you think of Whole Foods’ new ad campaign?