Brookshire's Joins Facebook, Promotes on YouTube

JESSICA ASSIMON

TYLER, Texas — Brookshire Grocery Co. here recently began utilizing Facebook and YouTube to communicate with customers and stream Web-exclusive promotional and instructional videos. Because the retailer recently converted store brands, it wanted to promote and communicate the changes to customers through YouTube video sketches, which are posted on the company's website and new Facebook page.

The retailer highlighted milk and yogurt in the sketches, “because of the industry-leading product that we put out,” said Philip Aldredge, marketing director, Brookshire's.

In the video sketches, a personified Brookshire's Food Club milk carton talks to a generic milk carton, boasting of the standards behind the brand and the seven All Star Dairy Association's “Best Dairy Plant” awards that the company has received. At the end, the tagline, “Same great milk, new label” appears.

In another video, a talking peach yogurt cup explains, “We're Food Club adopted. You know, sometimes you just want to change the outside, but inside you stay the same.”

Other than a Facebook icon on Brookshire's website directing customers to its Facebook page, the company hasn't heavily promoted the accounts.

“We have plans to promote it in the future, but as of right now we have just relied on the viral aspect of Facebook to move customers to be our ‘fan,’” said Rebecca Pitts, electronic marketing supervisor for Brookshire's.

So far, the viral approach to marketing these sites has resulted in a “steady increase” of fans in the first two weeks, according to Pitts. Since joining Facebook in June, the company already has over 400 “fans.” Its YouTube account launched in October 2008 and holds 45 videos, some of which have hundreds of views.

The grocer initially joined YouTube last fall as a low-cost way to host videos, said Pitts. The account primarily offered cooking tip videos to supplement Brookshire's magazine, Celebrate Cooking. In January, the grocer added the new milk and yogurt videos.

Other grocers on Facebook include Publix, ShopRite and Wegmans.