The new ‘Pop to Co-op’ campaign reframes everyday shopping missions as small but meaningful life moments, according to Samuel Walker, marketing director of the convenience retailer.

Co-op’s latest campaign is therefore built around those frequent moments: from a quick lunch, to feeding the kids, or making the most of a barbecue or picnic.

“It bridges the more retail-focused missions and needs language that represents how customers really talk about how they use us; how they want to shop; what they’ve got going on in their lives,” explains Walker. “That gives us a great way into really dramatising that role we can play for them.”

As a member-owned company, the focus of any campaign has to be “really customer focused”. This latest campaign “feels like it’s come from customers”, shares Walker, it’s even influenced by the way Co-op’s members talk about the brand.

“They often refer to popping to Co-op. When we thought about it, that’s how we refer to it as well – customers popping into Co-op. It just really encapsulates that role,” he notes.

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The convenience retailer repeatedly goes back through consumer research or speaks to customers again to ensure Co-op is delivering every day. That may be “the right price, the right quality, the right ease and convenience”, says Walker.

“Strategically that’s clearly where we are in trying to serve customers, be customer-centric, and do a better job for them day-to-day. ‘Pop to Co-op’ is a really natural fit because it points directly back into that.”

He adds: “We’re straight talking, we’re honest. There’s that Northernness that comes in, so making sure that [the campaign] really felt like us.”

‘Pop to Co-op’ has multiple touch points to convey promotions, pricing, quality, convenience and even quick delivery. It is also designed to bridge the gap between “pop to Co-op for the match” messaging with longer term reasons to consider the brand.

“The beauty of the platform is it just stretches and lets us talk across all of those things really consistently,” notes Walker.

For Walker, the campaign’s next phase is about striking the right balance between brand-building and short-term activation. Co-op is tracking a “really balanced set of KPIs”, spanning sales, transactions and frequency, as well as brand perceptions, digital performance, CRM effectiveness and in-channel measures.

“We’re absolutely looking at it in that full funnel sense,” he says, with measurement running “from econometrics and brand tracking right down into some of the channel KPIs”.

While some gains will come quickly, Walker says the bigger prize is building a platform that can grow with customers over time. “It’s definitely about that mix of quick wins and the impact that takes a bit longer to build,” he says. “You can’t just go and pile everything into a very tactical execution. You’ve got to have a view of where are you going to go and build over time.”