Sprouts Grows a New Brand Identity

The first signals of a new branding message from Sprouts Farmers Market arrived this week, including a new logo, slogan and messaging built around differentiation in fresh food that is at the heart of CEO Jack Sinclair’s transformative go-to-market strategy for the Phoenix-based natural foods chain.

“Where Goodness Grows” is promoted in a series of short videos released to social media and feature an evolved logo that uses a curling vine marking the “O” at the centers of the Sprouts wordmark. The same logo is now live on Sprouts’ web page.

U.S. trademark records indicate the “Sprouts, Where Goodness Grows” slogan was filed on July 31. The new campaign is kicking off behind an animated video the company published late Aug. 20.

Sinclair, who arrived at the company a little more than a year ago, has spoken extensively about his desire to transform Sprouts’ profile in the market from a retailer known for pricing on fresh foods to one that is recognized for elevated quality and distinction of those items. Among his moves was hiring Gil Phipps, the highly regarded architect of Kroger’s Simple Truth private brand, as the chain’s new chief marketing officer.

In the months since, Sprouts has abruptly changed its merchandising and promotional strategies, abandoning practices of “setting the market” on price for commodity fresh foods and promoting them in a weekly sales flier. Instead, funds that previously supported these efforts are now being devoted to digital marketing and mass media Sinclair has said would be key to attracting a more loyal and profitable customer base in a move some analysts have compared to a fresh-focused Trader Joe’s.

“We’re going to be telling a lot of stories behind the reality of the products that we have in our stores in terms of differentiation, in terms of our fresh produce offer, in terms of our bulk offer, in terms of our vitamins and a lot of the exciting things we've got in our grocery business that are different,” Sinclair said during an earnings conference call late last month, according to a Sentieo transcript. “The team will be telling the story of that in very different ways … and I'm excited about that. I think it'll be very clear that it's targeting the kind of customers that we know will respond to our offer when we put that clearly in front of them.”

Sprouts’ financial results since late last year have already illustrated the potential of new strategy, with sales and profits strongly outperforming expectations beginning with last year’s fiscal fourth quarter.