Corner stores use marketing to thrive

From...

By Steven M. Zeitchik

(IDG) -- Out of the corner of your eye, you see the phrase on the grocery-store awning. You blink and turn away, but when you turn back it's still there. MyCornerDeli.com, it reads, like something out of a "The Far Side" cartoon.

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It's not a joke, or some sort of postmodern commentary on the failure of dot-coms. It's just the latest branding experiment in a world that already seems to teem with them.

Of all the phenomena to spring from the branding craze during the past two decades, perhaps none is more curious than the idea of independent stores gathering under one umbrella. True Value started the collective-marketing trend with hardware stores in the 1980s; in 1999 Booksense tried to do the same for independent booksellers. ("Act like an independent, think like a chain," is program director Carl Lennertz's mantra.) The strategy almost seems self-contradictory: independents with common, yet distinct, traits, joining together to promote their individuality. But some mom-and-pops have embraced the idea, and with the growing emphasis on name-recognition, many are hoping a wider reach is worth a slightly flattened image.

The latest group to try such a gambit is New York's independent grocers. If you live or work in New York City, you see these high-margin businesses on nearly every block; more than 2,400 are estimated to operate in the borough of Manhattan alone. About 180 of them have signed up with MyCornerDeli, a startup with a 12-person staff that aims to help the stores market themselves on the Web, and help manufacturers place their products in the stores. By putting the MyCornerDeli brand on their storefront and posting their product information on its Web site, the member stores allow New Yorkers to place orders at any time of the day. It sounds a bit like the nearly departed Kozmo, but the difference is that here, the site acts merely as conduit; the individual stores fill the orders and take credit for each sale. (MyCornerDeli draws revenue from commissions and marketing fees.)

Marketing via the Web -- or any other medium, for that matter -- is a new tactic for many of New York's independent groceries. Unlike supermarket chains like Safeway or Shop-Rite, which display their brands with large neon signs, many of these independents operate without anyone knowing their name. They usually offer a moderate degree of friendliness and comparatively fresh food, but they tend to have outrageously high prices, even by New York standards. Their biggest advantage is ubiquity.

These factors would seem to make the corner stores a tricky case for brand marketing, but MyCornerDeli CEO Michael Cohen thinks the stores can benefit from a common identity. "If there are four on a block, wouldn't you want to shop at one that's part of MyCornerDeli?" he says.

He also aims at the manufacturers whose products are sold in the grocers. Cohen has signed deals with companies such as Nantucket Nectars and H.J. Heinz's StarKist tuna, which pay MyCornerDeli to help market their products to these stores. "Some of these companies aren't like Coke. The don't have 75 sales reps who can go into the stores. We make sure they get their SKUs on the shelves." By bringing together these very disparate businesses, the argument goes, both supplier and retailer can benefit from more exposure.

In the wake of Webvan's collapse, Cohen believes the grocery business doesn't need a new warehouse or thousands of pick-and-packers. Grocery stores already know how to display fruit, cut flowers and slice ham. What they do need is a little image-consulting. And a dot-com, he thinks, can provide it for them, with the speed of a bike messenger.