GENUARDI'S REDEFINES ITS RECIPE FOR FOOD SERVICE

ROSEANNE HARPER

LIONVILLE, Pa. -- Genuardi's Family Markets, Norristown, Pa., has gathered its food-service programs under one marketing and merchandising umbrella -- The Kitchen at Genuardi's -- and has unveiled a unifying logo at a new store here.

The Kitchen at Genuardi's food court here also has been configured to make it a more well-defined, separate part of the store than any of the chain's other food courts. "The Kitchen at Genuardi's" brand is carried throughout.

"Everything in the food-service category, everything prepared fresh on the premises, including pizza and sandwiches, is uniformly merchandised and marketed under The Kitchen at Genuardi's label. We did this to bring everything together, to make it one thought process for the consumer," said Alan Tempest, director of marketing services for the 34-unit chain.

Both Tempest and Jim DeGilio, the chain's food-service director, stressed that the changes are aimed at creating more of a restaurant-like ambiance.

"Technically, we're not a restaurant, but we've come as near to that as we can in this environment. We've changed the look, the focus and the way the food is presented. Food shines here," DeGilio said.

Genuardi's made restaurant-quality food a goal because it is an image that has not been pursued to any great degree by the retailer's supermarket competition. As a strategy, it creates destination status for consumers, and "makes it easy for them to remember us very specifically," DeGilio said.

He stressed that "The Kitchen" designation and the logo are particularly important because they inspire confidence.

"When I hear the word 'kitchen,' I think of quality, fresh food, comfort, and home -- or homestyle, anyway." And it lets consumers know the food is Genuardi's own and that it's prepared fresh, he added.

"All our packaged food in the [food-service] department has The Kitchen at Genuardi's label. It's our private brand and we'll be aggressively promoting it."

DeGilio said just putting such a sharp focus on food is a definite differentiating factor in the chain's marketing area.

"I look at some of our supermarket competitors, and frankly, food isn't the focal point with them. It's either equipment or signage or both. We're thrusting food forward and making the other parts secondary," DeGilio said.

On the new logo, underneath "The Kitchen at Genuardi's," a subtitle says, "Food for Here and There," underscoring that the fare is available for eating on the premises and also for takeout.

The logo, which got its debut at the 48,750-square-foot store's grand opening Aug. 9, is "chef-centered." A graphic illustration depicting a chef -- the chef's hat prominent -- is the centerpiece of the logo. The chef figure is surrounded by graphics of various items of food.

The Kitchen at Genuardi's food court here, in a departure from the chain's other food courts, is specifically designed to set it apart from the rest of the store. It looks like a separate entity. The flooring and lighting are distinctive. So are the colors.

"We've created a lighting effect that is product-specific. Our spots, for example, have been strategically located to emphasize different food displays," DeGilio said.

Overall, softened lighting in the food court and earth tones give the area a warm and homey feeling, Tempest pointed out.

"Just in talking to customers over the last week, we keep hearing them say the The Kitchen at Genuardi's is friendly and warm and comfortable. We're getting tremendous playback. The word 'comfortable' keeps coming up, from so many people," Tempest said. "We also want to create in them the mind-set that the food is prepared by chefs and culinary experts, that it comes from a restaurant-type concept."

Toward that end, the chain has assembled a team of chefs and culinary-trained individuals at corporate that has been charged with taking the quality of Genuardi's prepared foods to a higher level, Tempest said.

DeGilio explained that the culinary team will develop and refine recipes, create standards and put procedures and systems into place in an effort to assure consistency from store to store. With the exception of a small percentage of items sourced from outside, all prepared foods at each store's Kitchen are made on-site.

All elements of the food court here had been launched at other stores, notably the E. Norriton Crossing, Pa., store that opened in 1999 [see "Full Court Press," SN, April 19, 1999], but selected programs have been expanded in order to offer customers more variety.

The rotisserie-chicken program, which has been the linchpin in Genuardi's food courts, has been cultivated here to include roast loin of pork and barbecued baby back ribs. The variety of hot side dishes offered in conjunction with the rotisserie program also has been increased.

"We now have 12 sides that we rotate. Six to eight are offered each day, and two of those are rotated each day. That's so the customer doesn't see the same thing every day," DeGilio said.

The salad bar, too, features more variety, and a very successful olive bar has been expanded and rechristened an antipasto bar, because in addition to olives it features other items such as crumbled feta cheese, oven-roasted tomatoes and stuffed grape leaves, DeGilio noted.

The roster of signature items -- which already included a successful cornbread program -- has been bolstered, too. The most notable, a line of artisan breads bearing the proprietary brand Sunset Mills Breads, was unveiled here. So were buttermilk and cheddar biscuits.

The decision to bump up the quality, and in some cases, the variety, to enhance a restaurant feel at The Kitchen at Genuardi's is a natural extension of what the chain has been doing over the past few years, DeGilio said.

"It's a continuation of our strategy to keep up with people's changing eating habits. There's more emphasis placed on prepared foods today. The consumer is demanding that, and part of the reason we built this store as we did is to emphasize [freshly prepared foods] and to allow us to do it extremely well."

Two pages of the grand-opening ad circular at this store were devoted to The Kitchen at Genuardi's, and that's just the beginning of a blitz of advertising that will be launched this fall to alert consumers to the newly cohesive concept.

The advertising and promotional efforts will include newspaper ads, ads on the polybags that newspapers are delivered in, and signs on the backs of city buses.

"Those are moving outdoor billboards. They'll be on several dozen buses in our marketing area," said Tempest.

He explained that this is the first time such a concerted effort has been launched on behalf of Genuardi's food courts, but he pointed out that the chain has made good use of multimedia advertising for other new products and "we consider this a new product."

The words, "The Kitchen" get the most prominent spot in the logo and in ads.

"We want to create the mindset that the food is prepared by chefs and culinary experts, that it comes from a restaurant concept, not just a supermarket. When people think about where they're going to pick up food for dinner tonight, we want them to think The Kitchen at Genuardi's," said Tempest.

The Kitchen at Genuardi's unveiled here will be the prototype for the next two years for all new stores and remodels, and the next is right over the horizon. Set to open Oct. 11 in Wynnewood, an upscale suburb of Philadelphia, The Kitchen at Genuardi's there will be even more extensive because it will include a large variety of kosher items, Tempest said.

That'll be the first of 14 new stores set for opening within the next 16 months, he said.