NTUC Fairprice Co-operative Ltd was founded by the labour movement in 1973, with a social mission to moderate the cost of living in Singapore.
From one supermarket, FairPrice has grown to become Singapore’s largest retailer, with a network of more than 230 outlets comprising FairPrice supermarkets, FairPrice Finest, FairPrice Xtra, FairPrice Xpress and Cheers convenience stores. Our group consolidated turnover is reached USD2.2billion.
Today, with its multiple retail formats serving the varied needs and interests of people from all walks of life, the social mission of NTUC FairPrice has evolved to make the dream of living well accessible to everyone by moderating the costs of the good life. Many Singaporeans grew up with NTUC FairPrice beig integral in their lives.
NTUC FairPrice is one of the first supermarket retailers to engage customers through social media. We started to use social media to engage our customers and potential shoppers, on many fronts.
In August 2009, we launched the That’s My FairPrice (TMFP) Facebook profile page as an extension of our branding strategy in reaching out to a younger group of customers. This initiative was widely successful as we managed to garner over 1,000 fans in just three hours after it was launched. Our Facebook page has over 37,000 fans to date.
We have set up this social platform as a place where families and community can meet and bond.
Through this, we are able to not only share and inform customers with our latest announcements like store openings, promotions and customer events; we also celebrate key festive occasions with our community, and they in turn share their lives and aspirations with us by posting pictures of their families and happy moments.
We involve our customers in various CSR related activities on the facebook platform. This is an avenue for our fans to directly interact with us and our shoppers have begun to feel personally invested in our business and proactively communicate with us.
Recently, we have also started a blog to provide updates on FairPrice’s CSR activities. We use our blog to share news, pictures and videos with the online community.
We have also recently launched an official Twitter account @FairPriceSG to keep our customers updated on the latest announcements and promotions at FairPrice as well.
Beyond this, we have also launched a wine pairing iPhone/Ipad app that can only be described as ‘uniquely Singaporean’. The application pairs wine with popular Singaporean dishes rather than European dishes unlike most of the other applications available in the market. We rallied our social community to co-create the wine pairing list featured in the app.
We also have a “My FairPrice” iPhone/iPad app to make it easier than ever for grocery shoppers to plan their shopping even before stepping into the supermarket.
The My FairPrice app promptly provides money-saving tips, recipes and weekly promotional information at FairPrice’s network of over 100 supermarkets, FairPrice Finest outlets and FairPrice Xtra hypermarkets to help customers keep within their grocery shopping budget. It also provides customers with convenience at their fingertips, allowing them to create multiple shopping lists and even search for the nearest FairPrice store in their vicinity.
The app has over 70,000 downloads within 3 months of its launch.
Objectives
As a forward looking retailer, FairPrice recognizes the need to innovate and look for ways to better communicate with different consumer segments through various platforms, including social media.
We understand that consumers want too have a say and contribute to the brands that they buy. With Singaporeans becoming increasingly stretched for time, we wanted to look at new ways to help their life easier.
We are excited that our initiatives have been met with such great response and look to continue to explore new ways of engagement.
Results
Within a year following the launch of our social media platforms, our brand equity score grew and we were found to have enjoyed extremely strong emotional bonding with customers, according to the Shopper Trend survey.
With the growing number of fans on Facebook, we have definitely increased our brand awareness to the more technology-savvy online consumers in Singapore. More online consumers are becoming aware of us and are also taking opportunities of our updates on promotions.
Recently, in the Asia’s Top 1000 Brands reportbased on a survey conducted by Campaign Asia-Pacific and Nielsen, where respondents are asked to name the best brands that came to mind – NTUC FairPrice is the only local brand to be in the top 10 list in the latest report on Asia’s Top 1000 brands. Apple, Samsung and Sony were the top three brands named followed by FairPrice in 4th place.
The report cited our “marketing initiatives and investments into local community programme” as the key reasons for us being the only local brand to retain our position compared to last year.
Contact Information
NTUC Fairprice Co-operative Limited
680 Upper Thomson Road
Singapore 787103
Main: (65) 6456 0233
Fax: (65) 6458 8975
http://www.facebook.com/#!/thatsmyfairprice
https://twitter.com/fairpricesg
http://www.csr.fairprice.com.sg/