Ornua and Sodalite Create a Cheese Vision for the Next Decade
It’s an accepted truism that everything tastes better with cheese on it. Well, nearly everything. With that in mind you would think shoppers would find the display easy to shop. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. Cheese, along with Wine has proven to be one of the most complicated categories to shop in a modern supermarket.
The sheer volume of products in the aisle makes the shopping experience overwhelming for the average shopper and takes the joy out of exploring what is an exciting and diverse category. The category team at Ornua, led by Category Director Richard Lunn, were aware of the challenges facing the shopper and wanted to challenge the retailers with a vision to take cheese into the next decade.
Richard Lunn said
“Ease of shop can be improved by merchandising sectors with strong synergies together. Clearly communicating this segmentation at fixture makes the display much clearer for the shopper.”
To help Richard and his team develop a vision for the category he engaged Sodalite Creative. Richard said “I’ve worked with Tony J, Managing Director, at Sodalite for over 15 years and I knew his team would be able to support us to develop our vision”.
The Sodalite team were provided shopper insight from recent studies and tasked with understanding the data and developing a cheese aisle that would inspire the shopper whilst making the whole shopping process easier and less stressful.
Sodalite accepted the challenge with gusto.
Sodalite developed clear POS to inspire shoppers and encourage browsing, including headers to communicate the category segmentation.
Sodalite also changed the look and the feel of the main aisle ensuring it was easier to shop and reflected the needs of modern dairy shoppers. By understanding and using the insights from the shopper research, the team at Sodalite developed a vision like no other.
The aisle was transformed into a destination that helped shoppers understand the various sub-categories and took away some of the fear of purchase.
Senior Category Manager Jessica Watson said
“Sodalite created impactful fixture treatments to increase basket spend as well as expand repertoire. This can only be good for the retailer and the category as a whole."
The Sodalite team also went to work on the now ubiquitous back wall deli creating an impactful destination at the back of the store for shoppers to be inspired not just by the range of cheese but also by the complementary anti-pasti and cooked meats
The Sodalite team knew that the vision needed to be brought to life to ensure maximum impact. Not only would they create an animation taking the viewer down the aisle to see a before and after dairy aisle, they also employed the latest immersive virtual reality technology.
Tony Jerodiaconou, Sodalite Managing Director said “We are seeing many of our clients immersing their customers in their aisles using the Meta Quest immersive headset. It’s portable and very easy to implement. Nothing has the same impact as being immersed in the aisle to see the fixture as a shopper would.”
Richard Lunn said
“The team here at Ornua were so impressed with the way Sodalite took our data and developed what can only be described as a “best in class” visualisation.
Not only that, but they then turned it into a fully immersive environment and fully supported us as we presented to the trade. It’s rare to find a company that is so customer centric. Nothing was too much trouble.”
The team at Ornua are continuing to take their vision to the trade and will work toward making it a reality with Sodalite at their side to support them with any future communication needs.