Whole Foods

Whole Foods is a supermarket brand that is a world leader in natural organic food with more than 400 stores in the United States, Canada, and The United Kingdom. For Whole Foods content on social media, I checked their Facebook page, Twitter account, their main website and their channel on YouTube. Here is what was found:

·      Who is the target audience?    

Their target audience is diverse and multicultural, men and women (parents) between the age of 30 and 50, who are educated to a degree level. They are work professionals with the mid-to-high level of income, living in cities or suburban. They are also more conscious about healthy foods, fitness and sustainability issues compared to others.  On Whole Foods YouTube channel, they have 68,500 subscribers, updated recipes, and videos of easy prepared meals and snacks. On Facebook, they are very responsive to messages and offer several languages to read their public posts such as Dutch, French, Spanish and Portuguese, besides English for sure. They even had a recent event celebrating (Earth Day). On Instagram, they have about 2.1 million followers and a large number of photos that makes you feel hungry by just looking at them. Finally, on Pinterest, they have vegetarian recipes and other activities besides cooking like DIY weddings.                                   

                                                                                                                               

                                                                                                  

·      How is the brand using content to focus their message?

The brand knows what the target audience needs and provides it through multiple methods, such as premium customer service through all social media channels, being active and responding instantly to and complaint or question, using colorful photos of fruits and vegetables on their sight that inspires nutritious and freshness to grab attention and to serve the biggest number of consumers, several languages are provided on the website so that the content can be translated in no time.

·      What is the message?

Their message is to spread awareness and make more people conscious about how easy it is to embrace a healthy lifestyle that makes the whole family healthy, eat nutritious organic food and high-quality natural recipes that have an exceptional flavor and at the same time, save the environment and sustainability. All that lets them contribute to social development and grow the business ethically.  

·      What is the action the brand wants the individual to do?

The brand wants to encourage the customer to visit their markets that are all over the country, and have a well-rounded experience and eventually buy natural organic food. In addition, they want people to be more concerned about sustainability and environment.

·      Why is the content effective?

Their content is effective due to the high-quality products, the quick response, their ability to understand costumers needs, the connection they accomplished with their target audience and their crystal-clear mission.

·      Do the various pieces of content work together (i.e. synergistic) to build the brand persona? Or is the content fragmented and unfocused on any one particular audience or thought?

Yes, from my point of view, all pieces of content on different social media channels have the same objective and work together to accomplish building the brand persona by grabbing the attention of their target in different ways such as recipes, short videos, and beautiful viewed images of fresh colorful food.

                                                       

·      By checking several channels and accounts of Whole Foods, I found out that their team is working actively on multiple social media channels in order to satisfy the costumers and build a strong connection with them. They managed to do so on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and lastly, Pinterest. They are updated on tweets, posts, blogs and continuously placing pictures, recipes, do it yourself (DIY)and more.

The Early Years of Whole Foods

Whole Foods was found back in 1980 by the founders John Mackey and Renee Lawson Hardy, Craig Weller and Mark Skiles, the owners of Clarksville Natural Grocery. John was a college dropout twenty-five-year-old and his partner Renee was only twenty-one-year-old. They borrowed some money from family and friends so that they can open a small natural store in Austin, Texas that was called the Safer Way. They started with only 19 workers. At that time, there were no more than 6 natural food supermarkets in the United States. Within two years, Safer Way engaged with Clarksville Natural Grocery. The outcome of that was the birth of Whole Foods on September 20, 1980. At 10,500 square feet and a staff of 19, this store was quite large in comparison to the standard health food store of that time.

My analysis:

Whole Foods has accomplished having loyal customers by keeping their promise and resuming what they offer. In my opinion, one of their major strength points is having these loyal consumers and they should do anything they can to keep them and attract more. They also have their markets build in the great location to reach their target audience and already have a great connection with them. On the other hand, one of their weaknesses is their high prices when compared to others. Due to that, people are decreasing their demand and pulling away and switching to other stores that offer similar products. That is one of the problems and threats Whole Foods is facing. To resolve that, they might offer seasonal sales or reward points when purchasing eco-friendly products to encourage such activities. A way of expanding the business and have more customers is going globally. Opening stores in Europe is an idea to grow and have an opportunity to develop. Another simpler method of opportunities they have is to create special events such as family organic day since they are concerned about the environment. Cooking classes always snatch women’s attention, especially moms. 

            To conclude, what makes Whole Foods special is their commitment to serve only natural organic food and products. Even though the prices are higher, still, people are purchasing continually because, in the first place, it is for premium high-class consumers. By offering nutritious food, gluten free and eco-friendly products, Whole Foods managed to specialize the brand and serve conscious well-educated individuals and families that are concerned about what they eat and what they serve their children. With a company that started so small, it's outstanding how they significantly transformed into one of the biggest supermarkets in the country.