Hearts & Minds: The £1 stunt that turned into headline gold

Some PR stunts, as we know, can backfire horribly. But occasionally one comes along that hits the spot. This appears to be the case with a food retailer’s offer of a £1 discount for alerting staff to a shoplifter. They will receive a credit on their loyalty card. ‘We're encouraging our loyal customers to help sound the alarm, and if they do help to catch a shoplifter, we'll top up their Bonus Card to spend in store,’ said the executive chairman. The chain loses £20m a year to shoplifting. The firm says it impacts their bottom line and ability to reduce prices and reinvest in wages. ‘Some people see this as a victimless crime, it is not. It's a cost to the business, to the hours we pay our colleagues, and it involves intimidation and violence,’ said the chief. ‘We’d like customers to help us lower our prices even more by pointing out shoplifters.’

One quibble might be that it encourages shoppers to take matters into their own hands but the chain stresses they are only being incentivised to pass on a description – the rest is up to the store. Another could be that £1 is not much, but this is a budget brand and besides, any higher, might lead to false claims and rows. No, it’s a straightforward, easily understood, no frills, no catches, deal. The promotion is smart because it creates a sense of common purpose between company and consumer, deepening loyalty; it is an eye-catching move and tunes into the zeitgeist and gets the firm into the headlines at a time of intense competition; it markets them, in the sense if you were not aware they offered a loyalty card, you are now; it will cost them next to nothing; plus it shows initiative and associates the label with forging ahead and leading, not following.  

The hard parts there are marrying the company’s needs with those of the customer and hitting a popular nerve. Doing one of those is difficult enough but achieving them both is clever. What this shows is how it pays to step back and to think. Our industry has a problem, it is costing us dearly, how can we involve our regular shoppers, the ones who know us and trust us, who we want to reward and keep, in helping us tackle it? Sometimes, the simple ideas really are the best.

Chris Blackhurst is one of the UK’s foremost business journalists. He was previously Editor of The Independent and City Editor of the Evening Standard.