Georgetown University MPS-PR/CC Bloom Digital Strategy Proposal

1. D I G I T A L
C O M M U N I C A T I O N
S T R A T E G I E S
Final
Project
Laura
Wilson,
December
2010

2.
Company Background
Bloom was established in 2004 as an operating division of Food Lion LLC a
subsidiary of Delhaize America. Bloom is a chain of grocery stores in the South and
Mid-Atlantic states with over 65 store locations to date.
The idea for Bloom blossomed in 2002 when Food Lion saw a void in the
grocery store marketplace for a store that was truly customer-centric. Food Lion set
out to examine how a grocery store could give the customer’s a shopping
experience that was simple and hassle free. Food Lion’s concept team worked to
pinpoint ways that they might be able to alleviate the normal stresses of going to
the grocery store. They wanted Bloom to meet customer’s needs and expectations
of the competitive prices and quality products of a Food Lion but give their
customers a different more upscale, efficient, stress free experience.
The concept of Bloom was piloted in Charlotte, North Carolina with five initial
locations. The pilot stores featured non-traditional layouts that were designed to
maximize convenience for the shoppers and eliminate the feeling that grocery
shopping was a “ necessary chore.”
Today Bloom differentiates itself from other grocery store chains through its
store design and layout, merchandising, and technology that enhances the
customer shopping experience. Bloom utilizes technology in its stores that helps
customers find products quickly and gather important information about its
products with ease and efficiency.
The unconventional layouts Bloom uses include what is referred to as a
“TableTop section” at the entrance to the stores where shoppers can purchase
quality, fresh pre-made meals. Bloom stores place a heavy emphasis on meeting
customers' needs for home meal solutions that include fresh, ready-to-eat “home-
cooked” style meals.
The Bloom stores also feature noticeably wider aisles for easier navigation
through the store and more convenient grouping layouts of the food. Bloom stores
group its foods in ways that “make sense” to the customer. In many Bloom
locations milk, eggs and other typical “convenience items” are located at the front
of the store so that customers do not have to walk to the back if it is not necessary.
Bloom is also one of the first grocery stores to pioneer the “self-checkout”
where customers are able to scan their own groceries in a quicker and more
efficient manner. When customers walk in the door of most Bloom stores they are
able to pick up their own personal shopping scanner, which allows them to scan
and bag their own grocery items as they shop through the store.

3. This eliminates the time-consuming checkouts and long, frustrating lines
that most people hate about grocery shopping. “Check-out” for Bloom customers
using this system is simply paying for what you bagged. Using this scan technology
also gives customers a running total of the cost of the items that they have
selected while they shopping through the store. This allows customers to more
accurately keep on their grocery budget.
Bloom has also piloted Personal Assistant Technology in their stores
including touch screen computers that customers can use to find out product
information, recipes and grocery lists and print them right there in the store. Bloom
stores also use small produce scales with printers that let customers create their
own bar-coded tags to maximize the customer convenience when checking out
their own items.
Digital
Communication
Strategies-­‐
Final
Project-­‐
Laura
Elizabeth
Wilson
3

4. Current Social Media Landscape
Bloom has clearly made an effort to enter into the social media landscape in
some form. Bloom has created a customized Facebook page and has begun using
Twitter to announce “deals” and to push out some content they have created.
Neither the Facebook page nor the Twitter account have a significant following or
significant engagement amongst customers.
Description: Bloom Grocery Stores has one
official Facebook business page. The page features
customized tabs and includes a “switch page” which
changes the landing page for the user after he/she
likes the page and offers coupons and specials.
There are currently 1,539 users that like the Bloom
page.
Description: @Bloom_Grocery is the official Twitter
handle for the chain of stores.
Bloom tweets very infrequently (sometimes days apart) and
does not have a strong following on Twitter. There also
appears to be little engagement with other users on twitter.
Description: There currently appears to be no official
YouTube channel although there are a number of Bloom
commercials on YouTube with the most frequently watched
video receiving 6,682 views.
Description: There currently appears to be no official
blog for the Bloom grocery stores.

5. Website and Demographics
The Bloom website ShopBloom.com averages approximately 27,078 unique
monthly visitors. Bloom’s customers tend to be college educated, mostly
Caucasian and affluent. Over 48% of visitors to ShopBloom.com are between the
ages of 18-34 which appears to be representative of both Bloom’s typical customer
and their target audience.
According to Quantcast.com, the Bloom website attracts males and females
almost equally, however, females frequent the website at a greater rate than is
typical of your average website.
It should be also be noted that ShopBloom.com does receive a greater
amount of traffic from an African-American demographic than may be typical of the
average website. However, I believe this can be attributed to the population in many
of the areas where Bloom stores are located.
ShopBloom.com gives visitors the option of opting in to weekly e-
newsletters as well as joining their Breeze mobile club to get targeted coupons and
deals.
Digital
Communication
Strategies-­‐
Final
Project-­‐
Laura
Elizabeth
Wilson
5

6. Competition
Two of Bloom’s biggest competitors are Harris Teeter and Trader Joes.
A comparison between the three websites on Compete.com shows that
ShopBloom.com gets significantly less traffic than two of its competitors. It must be
noted that Harris Teeter and Trader Joes do both have greater national reach than
Bloom however they are still significant competitors in the southeastern and
midatlantic states where Bloom stores reside. Harris Teeter is particularly popular in
Charlotte, NC which is the city of Bloom’s 5 flagship stores.
A comparison of the social media between the three stores shows that while
Bloom’s website will have to make significant leaps to catch up to its competition,
an overview of the social media landscape shows that Bloom is not too far behind
its competitors. While Bloom has the least amount of fans on Facebook it has the
most advanced page with extra applications and functionality for its users. While
Bloom’s twitter account is not used frequently it appears to be used more
effectively than Harris Teeter (Trader Joe’s does not have a twitter account)
Websites Website Stats Social Media
Bloom -Site is too small -27, 078 monthly visitors -No official blog
-Layout becomes confusing - Weekly email
-Doesn’t fit well with image -1,277 inlinks - Mobile Club
- Facebook page- very few fans
-263 pages - Twitter account- few followers and little
engagement
Trader Joes -Themed and stylized -399,897 monthly visitors -Does not appear to have one official blog
-Fairly organized - Facebook page with over 265,000 fans
-Interactive virtual tour on -86,326 inlinks -No official twitter account
website -No YouTube Channel
- 515 pages
Harris Teeter -Well organized but visually -328,700 monthly visitors -No official blog
boring site -16,933 inlinks -Facebook page with over 29,000 fans
-Well developed ecommerce -6,252 pages - Twitter account but few followers and
engagement
-No YouTube Channel

7. Bloom in the Media and in the Blogs
Bloom lists their press releases and media coverage they have received by
year on their main website. The majority of the press releases for 2010 and 2009
were that of “product recalls.” While this is certainly very important and valuable
information for the consumer I would like to see more information regarding Bloom
as a company—what cool things are they doing? What causes are they
supporting? What events are taking place in the stores? How is Bloom making an
impact in the communities in which they reside?
Not surprisingly, much of the blog conversation surrounding Bloom online
took place on discussion boards and forums where consumers were discussing the
merits of shopping at various grocery stores. Interestingly many of the
conversations that specifically mentioned Bloom were comparing Bloom to a
competing grocery store such as Harris Teeter.
There was a resounding consensus that one of the most compelling reasons
to shop at Bloom was because it was often quick and convenient because of the
easy layout. It also was clear from the discussions that Bloom does attract a young,
affluent audience that is on the go and does not necessarily want to leisurely shop
in a grocery store.
Many of the positive comments about Bloom was that it was simple to shop
there if you just needed to pick up something for dinner because they had lots of
ready-made foods available in the front of the store and they also grouped their
foods together by meal or in ways that made sense. For example, one person liked
that Bloom often had all of the typical breakfast items near one another so that she
did not have to search around the store to try to find the items necessary to make
her breakfast.
Digital
Communication
Strategies-­‐
Final
Project-­‐
Laura
Elizabeth
Wilson
7

8. Analysis of Current Strategy
While Bloom’s online presence is, in my opinion, very weak I found a number
of interesting and unusual campaigns that the stores have ran “offline.” This
included a series of very funny and irreverent television commercials that were
clearly aimed at a younger demographic who would appreciate the humor and wit
in the commercials. One particular commercial that was posted on YouTube had
over 6,000 views and was a commercial where a young woman
was admiring a particularly attractive and buff “bag boy” who
could carry out all of the bags that she was able to check out
herself. In the commercial she joked that since she could
check out her grocery items herself she was able to have as
many bags as she wanted so that the attractive employee
could help her. The commercials are unlike anything you would
normally associate with a grocery store.
Bloom also erected a giant billboard sign to promote a
new brand of beef that it was selling. The billboard dispersed
an enticing steak scent during rush hour each morning and
evening in Catawba County, North Carolina. This billboard is
one of the first of its kind in the country.
Bloom clearly has a goal of differentiating itself from the normal staid grocery
stores that people dread going to. Bloom has run a number of edgy and
unconventional campaigns offline and it is disappointing to see that this has not
carried this over to the online space. Bloom is clearly trying to appeal to a younger
18-34 demographic and it is surprising that they have not tried to reach this
demographic in the online space where we know that they frequent. Since Bloom
has adopted a number of leading edge technologies in its grocery stores I believe it
should mirror this in its online strategy to continue to maintain its unique selling
proposition as a “different kind of grocery store experience.”
Goals
1. Continue to improve convenience for customers by providing a hassle-free, unique grocery
shopping experience both in the stores and online.
2. Focus on reaching the target audience of young professionals between 18-35 online.
Objectives
1. Implement website upgrades to improve the online experience with Bloom and increase
overall sales by 20 percent in 2011.
2. Increase visits to their ShopBloom.com by 25% through a new blog.
3. Increase visits to its stores by 25% in 2011 because of new mobile application.

9. Recommendations
Update Website
ShopBloom.com does not represent the image that the Bloom stores want
to portray to its customers. Bloom prides itself on being cutting edge and different
and this website does not represent those qualities.
The website has several aspects that are very important to change. First, the
actual content on the site is far too small. The dimensions of the page do not take
up a significant enough portion on the screen and it makes the images and text
difficult to see clearly.
The organization on the website is also poor. The menu bar on the site is
very confusing and does not help the user navigate the site with ease. This is in
complete juxtaposition to what Bloom hopes the customer experience is in its
store. Bloom prides itself on ease of use at its store but its website is difficult and
frustrating to navigate.
There is no clear call to action for the user on ShopBloom.com. What is it
that you want the user to do on the website? This should be the largest button on
the site in order to make it very obvious to the visitor what it is that they are
supposed to do once they are on the site. Currently, the visitor is faced with so
many options and so much to look at on the homepage of the site I believe that
they will be “paralyzed” and do nothing. In my opinion the “call to action” on the site
should be some kind of “opt-in” that allows Bloom to gather information about the
visitor so that Bloom can continue to communicate to him/her.
The links to Bloom’s social networking sites, newsletter and mobile coupon
club should also be positioned more prominently on the homepage. Currently these
links are almost “below the fold” and a user would have to scroll down to find them.
ShopBloom.com must clean up and organize its site in order to give
customers the same experience online as they do in their stores. By fixing the
website in the ways suggested ShopBloom.com can expect an increase in the
number of consumers who return to the website and who have a positive
impression of the store.
The success of the website changes would be measured in an increase in
the number of visitors to the site and a decrease in the bounce rate amongst users
who land on the site and an increase in the amount of time spent on the site.
Digital
Communication
Strategies-­‐
Final
Project-­‐
Laura
Elizabeth
Wilson
9

10. Breeze Blog
One of the unique things about Bloom as a grocery store is that it provides
its customers with tons of great information at their finger tips when they are
browsing through the store. Bloom does this in their stores through state of the art
touch screen computers that can print information for customers on the go. Bloom,
however, does not offer the same breadth and depth of information to its
consumers online.
I think that Bloom could benefit from a blog that speaks to the younger
demographic that spends a significant amount of time online. A blog is a type of
website or part of a website that is frequently updated with fresh content or
“entries.”
I think that the target audience for Bloom would be interested in content that
is “lifestyle” related such as ways to save money when shopping in the store,
recipes that can be whipped up in only a few minutes and unusual combinations of
food.
A blog of this nature would also be another way for Bloom to differentiate
itself by showing the stores “personality” through witty entries and videos similar to
their humorous TV commercials that seemed to be a hit amongst viewers on
YouTube.
A blog would also give consumers a place to interact and comment with
Bloom in a way that is not currently available to its customers. One place that
Bloom appears to be really hurting is in its lack of a “raving fan base.” If Bloom does
not give a forum to foster such a community it will never be able to build a loyal
customer base amongst this demographic.
Another reason that a blog may be important to Bloom is that none of
Bloom’s current major competitors are using such a tool and this would be a way
to set itself apart from the traditional grocery store.
Bloom would measure the success of this blog by the number of views that
it gets, the number of sites that link to it and the level of activity, interaction and
engagement that takes place surrounding the blog.

11. Mobile Application
Lastly I suggest that Bloom expand their current “Mobile Club” further into a
downloadable mobile application that customers can use to store shopping lists,
product information and access mobile coupons that can be scanned on their
phone as well as mobile “push notifications” (messages that are initiated by a server
and sent to the customer rather than specifically requested by the customer) while
shopping.
I believe that this is particularly relevant for this store because Bloom has
positioned itself as the leader in unconventional ways to connect with its customers
while they are shopping. Bloom has a variety of tools and technology in its stores to
provide its customers with a quick, convenient and hassle free shopping experience
but it does not offer a mobile application, only mobile SMS texting information
through its mobile club.
According to a ComScore MobiLens study in October 2010, 28% of US cell
phone users have smart phones and 41% of all new mobile phone purchases are
smart phones. This number is even higher for our target demographic between the
ages of 18-34 and it will only be increasing in the coming years.
The mobile phone is the perfect platform to explore ways that Bloom can
provide a cutting edge and unique shopping experience to its customers. While
there will be some customers who will not be able to participate in this shopping
experience because they do not have a smart phone I think Bloom offers enough
other options for its customers to counteract that negative aspect.
By offering this unique application for smart phone users I think Bloom would
receive increased media attention and online buzz as well as more returned
customers in its target demographic. Bloom will be able to continue to be a
marketplace leader in convenience technologies in grocery stores and maintain its
image as the cool, grocery store alternative.
Bloom would measure the success of this feature through the number of
downloads of this application and the increase in online and offline mentions about
its brand.
1
Digital
Communication
Strategies-­‐
Final
Project-­‐
Laura
Elizabeth
Wilson
1

12. Conclusion
Bloom is a leader in unconventional and outside-of-the-box retail
experiences, however, Bloom will only be able to maintain this image if it capitalizes
on its opportunities in the digital world online.
By updating ShopBloom.com and giving it a cleaner, more organized look
and adding hip, relevant and useful content to its blog, Bloom will have a stronger
web presence, increase its web traffic and provide a forum for engagement with its
customers outside of their stores. By adding the option of allowing customers to
download a mobile application Bloom will be reinforcing the idea that it is the cool,
grocery store that allows you to have the information that you need when you shop
and gives you a shopping experience that is convenient, fun and hassle free.
Bloom must update its digital strategy in order to survive in the crowded
marketplace of grocery store retailers. A store that touts itself as technologically
savvy and at the forefront of the future shopping experience must have a consistent
image and message outside of the store.
While there are many things that Bloom can do to improve upon their overall
digital strategy I believe that updating its website, pushing out compelling content
through a blog and engaging customers and offering a hip, relevant mobile
application Bloom will be making the right steps towards securing its spot as
marketplace leaders in the coming years.