Casino Debuts Well-Being Range
Casino’s new Bein pour Vous! private brand range of good for you products feature color-coded panels on packaging including orange for Sport, red for Special Food Attributes, blue for Health, and green for Protection.
The new private label range, called Casino Bien pour Vous!, is available in numerous food and nonfood product categories and is being carried throughout the retailer’s network of almost 6,500 stores.
There are currently 55 products in the new Casino Bien pour Vous! Range, and the range will grow to include almost 100 supplemental items throughout 2011. The new private brand products are already available in several store departments including grocery, dairy, drinks, personal hygiene, beauty care, healthcare, and leisure.
Product information and additional services is being made available on the Internet at www.casinobienpourvous. Fr.
“Committed for more than 10 years to the promotion of healthy living and a balanced diet, from the start of 2011 Casino is innovatively launching the first easily available large range of products dedicated to ‘well-being’: Casino Good For You !” says the Casino Group in its 18 January 2001 news release.
“A range which rests, above all, upon a varied and balanced diet, physical exercise and relaxation. Designed to cater for the needs of those who wish to take care of themselves each day – while enjoying themselves! – the range is centred upon 4 main categories and 12 associated benefits.
“The range responds to the very latest thinking for good health management, such as managing ones weight, controlling the daily intake of salt or maintaining good bone structure by offering products perfectly suited for healthy day-to-day living (without losing any of the flavour !).
“On the price side, these products fit perfectly into the Casino pricing policy at 20% below the levels of national brands.“
4 Main Groups
Products are grouped to help address 4 different health interests of customers:
Health: fresh cheese with lemon, mixed Yogurt with strawberry, specific 1-liter mineral water that delivers 45% in calcium and 30% in Magnesium needed for one day, Milkshake hyper protein for loosing weight.
Protection: specific “yellow fruit marmalade” high in C vitamin.
Specific Food Attributes: different products are labeled “without gluten” “low or without lactose”, ”without salt.”
Sport: “Isotonic beverage” for endurance, “hypotonic beverage” for sport in humid rooms, “strapping band,” “cohesive band” for wounds.
The Monoprix store banner carries its own Monoprix brand lines. Seen here is Verbena infused tea, and Monoprix bio! soy, herbs, and garlic spread.
These healthy products (named in France: “Alicaments” for food and para-medecines) together with a personal 3- or -6 week nutritional coaching plan with the help of Casino dieticians will answer the needs of health sensitive customers.
Jean-Charles Naouri
Jean-Charles Naouri, CEO of Group Casino told Le Figaro French newspaper in mid 2010 “the morale of French customers does not seem to help a recovery of French consumption…. Numerous indicators show that pessimism got worse…at the same level than in September 2008 which was the peak of the economic crisis”.
But at the same time French are optimistic for the future: the French birth rate is increasing at quite a fast speed for a developed country just as the sales of houses is increasing too.
French customers prefer security rather than taking risks not only in their jobs but also in their product consumption. They want to decide for themselves through product information as well as through other customer opinions through Internet communication. So Casino has adapted its business to these new consumer wants in term of products, communication, and prices.
Group Casino’s retail position is well situated. On one hand, a large part of its business is based outside France with 40% of sales coming from its international stores which are averaging a 10% sales increase per year. On the other hand, Casino is invested mainly in proximity stores: supermarkets, convenience stores of many kinds and also by a large part in the area of Paris where shopping power is higher than in any other of the French regions.
Furthermore, as Jean-Charles Naouri has said: “Casino adapts itself to the morale of her customers”. So these past months Group Casino has introduced many changes in its Private Label portfolio. The new products are not completely introduced in all of its stores so advertising has been soft (mainly internet) on them. One big reason for this is that they need product information, not just classic advertising.
Tous Les Jours
The most important element (price image) is the evolution of Casino’s entry lines (often named first price). That was, in the near past, portrayed with dull white packaging with a logo based on a smiling “€” named Eurosourire.
It has now been refashioned with a rather modern design employing 3 colored dots.
Readers have to know that French people accuse the Euro monetary system of being the cause of huge prices increases in the retail market. So the name Eurosourire was not of the best choice.
More important than the new brand name and product logo is the fact that Casino is greatly increasing the number of SKUs in the new range — up to 1500 items by the end of 2011. Currently, there are 400 items in the new range. This new range is named very simply Tous les jours or “Every Days”. Even if it is still an entry line, the fact that the products do not look like first price in terms of packaging and that they will be so numerous (1500) will be an important signal to customers that Casino is taking care of their everyday’s budget needs. It is good for consumer morale in these difficult times.
As Jean-Charles Naouri Casino CEO explains, customers have changed in the way they choose food products. Internet and cellular phones become important to get informed of the best-balanced menu for each person. Advertising cannot give you personal advice. The New Media can and Casino for a long time has already offered these services and can volunteer food recommendations to its customers.
The Casino Bien pour Vous! range includes a blue-coded Health line. Seen here is bran cereal that is promoted as a rich source of fiber and good for digestion.
The new Tous les jours range is being deployed in all branches of Group Casino: Geant Casino, Casino Supermarket, Monoprix, Spar, Vival, which are about 6.500 stores in France (but not up to now seen in Franprix and LeaderPrice stores).
The Tous les jours products do not carry any retail store brand name which is quite surprising. There are just these 3 color dots set in a row with the words tous, les, and jours set inside in sequence. The colors change according the product contents.
Other Store Banners
The Casino store brand is not the only banner of Group Casino. There is also Monoprix (50% owned by Group Casino) as well as Marché Franprix and Leader Price Monoprix has its own brands in term of private labels. In fact, it is well known as being one of the first “dollar stores” and was and still is a large seller of nonfood products. Its Private Label brand for food is mostly “Monoprix”. But to keep living for such a long time with the same PL brand, they had to make it evolve in package design as well as in the content along with added sub-brands such as “Monoprix Gourmet”. Even today they have developed some humoristic Monoprix products with bright colors and a joke printed on the packaging. As an example, for a verbena tea they printed “the infusion that makes you forget that your salary was not increased this year.”
The BIO products are very well developed in Monoprix. It is a very strong trend in French retail and all companies work on these Bio products in packaged groceries as well as in fresh products.
The other change that we will see in the near future will be the 1,500 Tous les jours products that will be deployed on Monoprix shelves. In early February they were not present in the Paris Monoprix stores that this PLI correspondent visited. When they arrive, it will be a real change.
Franprix and Leader Price are both under the management of Jean Michel Duhamel as we explained in the Private Label International Spring 2009 issue. So evolution in term of PLs are about the same in these two banner stores:
Franprix has developed Leader Price products on its shelves and Leader Price announced that they were “welcoming” 200 national brands on their shelves. But the arrival of the 1.500 Tous les jours products as announced by the company will change the aspect of these stores.
To keep their personality they still have some exclusive products:
For Franprix: The PLs are mainly under the brand Leader Price. In particular, Leader Price Bio food products now number 110 items and this year will be increased by 30%. All Bio products are certified Ecocert. There is also a fine bio line of cosmetics. Furthermore, customers can find some ethical products certified by Max Havelaard.
For Leader Price, that is at the same time a store banner and a PL brand, the new approach is to present a line named Selection de nos Régions with 75 typical products of regional French cuisine which is not in the mind of national nor international cuisine.
These 75 products were chosen by Jean-Pierre Coffe — a chef who is now more a gastronomic critic who works on TV and has written many articles and books fighting what in France we name “malbouffe” and represent the international “junk food.”
These Selection de nos Regions products are more gourmet than standard.
On a global view, we have noticed that Group Casino uses the same surveys and work to have a common approach on its PL strategy but that is well adapted to each kind of its stores. The only difference is on Monoprix that has more sophisticated customers than the other food stores. Overall, we have to remember that Casino claims to be in tune with its customers and to adapt its offer when opinions evolve and to continue to be “nourishing a world of diversity”. Indeed, Nourrir un Monde de Diversité is the slogan incorporated into the logo of Group Casino.
And today the trend is on products more focused on various tastes and opinions that mean a larger offer in stores.
