Metro Is Leading The battle of Chains on Facebook
Facebook is by far the most powerful social media on the Internet and its use continues to grow worldwide with more than two billion users.
Fully free and easy to use, it allows convenience stores, supermarkets and others to communicate directly with their customers and build a community.
We looked closely yesterday at how the four major Quebec food chains that are Metro, Sobeys, Loblaw and Couche-Tard, are faring on Facebook and in particular, which one has the most audience.
Here is a summary table as of yesterday.
| Likes | ||||
| Follows | ||||
| Language | ||||
| Content | - Culinary Tips & Health Advices - New Products - Promotions - Reward Program | - Culinary Tips - New products - Promotions | - Charitable Initiatives | - Promotions |
| Description |
There are several key highlights that stem from this review:
- Metro is by far the chain that counts the most “Like” and follow-ups, but IGA Vive la Bouffe is not too far behind.
- The Metro and IGA pages are very much alike in terms of content. IGA stands out by integrating its advertising campaign and spokespersons.
- Loblaw‘s main channel, Provigo, is remarkably absent from Facebook on a corporate basis: it is only represented by its various stores, unevenly and individually. This unfortunately reinforces the impression that the chain is not very close or interested at the Quebec market.
- Maxi is Loblaw‘s exception: it has a nice Facebook page but we realize on review that it is more the extension of an advertising campaign and the creative outcome of an agency than a real conversation between the chain and its customers. This is probably why the audience is lagging behind, the latest campaign being relatively new. However, the popularity and talent of humorist spokesperson Martin Matte are such that the page records fantastic audience already. Matte is certainly not stealing his pay on this one.
- Between a chain of convenience stores like Couche-Tard and a supermarket such as Sobeys or Metro, the communication needs are different: a supermarket has a lot more products than a convenience store and can meet all food needs, while a convenience store is essentially a proximity service. Thus, Couche-Tard does not do any culinary education or provides recipes, but rather insists on its promotions and charitable actions.
The absence of Provigo and, conversely, the presence of Maxi, represents a surprise. When we see that nearly 400,000 people are following the Metro facebook page and considering that this means of communication is, unless you add options, completely free, it is difficult to understand why Provigo does not take advantage from this opportunity and speak directly to their customers.
Both Metro and IGA / Sobeys do their utmost to interest and educate their customers in order to integrate harmoniously their promotions, sales and discounts.
This content-focused approach is really the right way to succeeed in this era of social media and both look quite on the right track!
Here are the links to each page referred in this article:
