The vegetable Name Change

Delhaize

Overview

Turning vegetables into a viral sensation? Easy. Just let children give new names to ordinary vegetables. So long “courgette”, hello “troll bat”. This vegetable name changing by Delhaize got picked up by popular media all over Belgium, even resulting in a German techno song.

More importantly: with a 151% sales increase, business results were impressive too.

The Challenge

The changing market context confronted the retailer with a major challenge: How could Delhaize differentiate its brand to stop the dropping market shares? Looking at the market shares, we noticed that one specific audience is underrepresented: families with kids.

The core objective was a 10% increase in market share among families with young kids to counter the drop in overall market share. Moreover, the campaign needed to raise vegetable sales with 60%. To reinforce brand meaningfulness for the audience, the campaign should also boost Delhaize’s health perception to regain the top position in the health index.

The Solution

How could Delhaize step away from a conventional way of promoting vegetables and take on a unique and disruptive approach? To create brand meaningfulness for the audience, the retailer had to offer a solution to one of parents’ biggest struggles: How could Delhaize help parents to convince their (young) kids to eat more vegetables?

Key insight: from feeding information to feeding entertainment and inspiration

Delhaize decided to build a magical world around vegetables and bring Magical Veggies to life in all customer touchpoints. By creating a magical world around the vegetables and giving them fascinating names, the retailer wanted veggies to enter popular kids’ culture.