Whole Foods' recipe for market dominance (success story)

Whole Foods has succeeded in positioning itself as the "top of mind" organic retailer in the United States. This success is due in part to a digital communications strategy focused on content and audience interaction.

The food market for organically grown products has been showing mouth-watering growth rates for the past decade or so. It reached $84 billion in the United States in 2016. These figures have encouraged many players to launch (or diversify) to take advantage of the economic opportunity. One player is gaining market share faster than the others: Whole Foods. What can we learn from its communication strategy?

Key Learnings :

• Whole Foods places content at the heart of its digital strategy: the chain has its own dedicated blog accessible from the website (like Eataly), in which it mainly shares content from influencers.
• On social media, Whole Foods shares brand photos and videos, but also regularly "regrams" qualitative content published by influencers or individuals.
• The brand also uses Instagram stories and Facebook lives to share more interactive content with its subscribers. This enables it tofuel its storytelling, and build loyalty among its online community.
• Influencers are at the heart of the brand's content marketing strategy, as they share authentic content. The brand collaborates with both stars and micro-influencers from different verticals: Food, Lifestyle and Maternity in priority.
• The link in the Instagram account bio doesn't lead to the Whole Foods retail site, but to a landing page with videos of their ambassador Kristen Bell sharing experiences or recipes.
• Campaigns are mainly local to maximize engagement. Some national campaigns, such as Values Matter, reinforce the brand's positioning.
• Whole Foods interacts with its community: the brand responds to almost every comment on Facebook.

Results of this content and influence strategy:

On Instagram:

• On average, Whole Foods' Instagram posts generate 10,000 interactions each.
• Between September 2 and 11, 2016, on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, Whole Foods' audience grew by 0.4% to reach 8.5 million subscribers. Instagram is a major contributor to this growth, with over 30,000 subscribers added during this period.
• Today, Whole Foods has 2.5 million followers on Instagram.
• Many regrams of Food and Lifestyle influencers. Whole Foods also works with micro-influencers and encourages their notoriety by exposing them to its 2.5 million subscribers:

• On the account's Instagram bio, the link leads to a landing page featuring content created with influencer Kristen Bell :

• The landing has two calls to action: "click to shop" and "sign up to our newsletter" to maximize conversions.
• Each image leads to dedicated product content (testimonials, recipes, etc.).
• Whole Foods also activates influencers for specific calendar events. For Valentine's Day 2017, for example, the brand collaborated with Food micro-influencers to dream up recipes for perfect meals. Husbands That Cook, for example, shared content on Instagram (34,000 followers), Facebook and the Whole Foods blog to celebrate February 14:

On Facebook :

• Whole Foods presents its new products - often aligned with the American calendar or product seasonality - both to announce them, to encourage subscribers to try them, and to gather feedback:

• To maintain the link with its audience, the brand responds to all comments and questions on Facebook :

On Twitter :

• The Whole Foods Twitter account is also very active: the chain tweets every day to highlight its products, recipes and promotions, as well as its social and ecological commitments.
• Whole Foods also communicates on the launch of its new products, taking advantage of the opportunity to relay its greatest successes. The video of actress Tabitha Brown raving about her new vegan bacon sandwich has been viewed 1.3 million times. Thousands of Internet users have since rallied to get the famous sandwich - called the TTLA - sold in their local Whole Foods. The brand cleverly invited them to share their tasting of the TTLA online with the hashtag #TTLAChallenge.

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