Wakefern Food Corp. teams with SAS for unique marketing solutions

ShopRite upgrades with state-of-the-art SAS® Marketing Automation

NRF 99th Annual Convention and EXPO, NEW YORK  (Jan. 11, 2010)  –  In 2009, Wakefern Food Corp., a retailer-owned cooperative grocery wholesaler based in New Jersey, began an initiative to connect with customers more frequently and relevantly. To reach that goal, the company looked into upgrading its reporting and campaign management technology infrastructure to enable automation and analytics. Wakefern began searching for marketing technology with the help of consultants at Willard Bishop. Together, they identified SAS^® Marketing Automation software as the key to Wakefern’s marketing technology needs. SAS, the leader in business analytics, offers a rich portfolio of retail technology and customer intelligence products that includes SAS Marketing Automation.

“The solution we needed had to be automated, intuitive, secure and maintainable in order to sustain a lights-out, set-it-and-forget-it environment that would allow us to find opportunities in our sleep. We wanted to automate our customer outreach to make it more relevant and to easily evaluate our success on the back end. SAS Marketing Automation will help us execute sophisticated campaigns and measure their effectiveness,” said Cheryl Williams, Wakefern Vice President of Marketing. “In addition to improving communication with customers, we’re also intent on improving communication and collaboration within Wakefern, with our store owners, and with our vendor community in order to increase customer retention, acquisition and market share.” 

Food retail consulting firm Willard Bishop LLC connected Wakefern to SAS. “When Wakefern told us what they needed, I immediately thought of SAS Marketing Automation,” said Jim Hertel, Managing Partner at Willard Bishop. “The relationship clicked from the very beginning, SAS quickly had answers to Wakefern’s automation questions. That depth of knowledge from the SAS Retail team was impressive.” 

SAS recommended IBM’s System-p Rebate Program, reducing Wakefern’s total cost of hardware acquisition. 

What does SAS® Marketing Automation do?

SAS^® Marketing Automation provides flexible and proactive consumer-based marketing, vendor-friendly reporting and intuitive tools for marketing campaign support from conception through execution. Its efficient, self-service environment supports continuous process improvement to increase a user’s marketing effectiveness which can boost return on investment and the bottom line. Marketers can quickly create and manage marketing campaigns that range from simple customer outreach to complex multichannel campaigns. With SAS Marketing Automation, users easily define target market segments, prioritize selection rules, select preferred communication channels, schedule and execute campaigns, and perform advanced analyses to predict and evaluate success with customers. 

Other SAS retail customers include Aeropostale, AutoZone, Bakers Footwear, Brooks Brothers, Burger King, Cabela’s, Carrefour, Casino, Casual Male, The Children’s Place, Eddie Bauer, Family Dollar, Hallmark, Hudson’s Bay Company, JCPenney, Kohl’s, Luxottica Retail, Macy’s, Mark’s Work Wearhouse, Marks & Spencer, Northern Tool & Equipment, Office Depot, Sainsbury’s, ShopKo, Sport Chalet, Spiegel Brands, Staples, Tesco, Tilly’s, Tween Brands, Waitrose, Williams-Sonoma and 1-800-FLOWERS.COM. 

For more information about SAS^® Retail Intelligence solutions and SAS Customer Intelligence solutions, visit http://www.sas.com. SAS is demonstrating its solutions at the NRF 99^th Annual Show and EXPO in Booth 1337.  

About Wakefern Food Corp.

From a small, struggling cooperative with eight members – all owners of their own grocery stores – Wakefern Food Corporation has grown into the largest retailer-owned cooperative in the United States and one of the largest employers in New Jersey. The cooperative is comprised of 45 members who individually own and operate supermarkets under the ShopRite banner. Today, Wakefern, the merchandising and distribution arm of the company and more than 200 ShopRite stores located throughout New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland employ more than 50,000 people.

About Willard Bishop LLC

Willard Bishop LLC is a food retail consulting firm which helps clients by solving their critical business problems and identifying opportunities for profitable growth. For over 30 years, we have helped clients improve top-line sales and bottom-line profits. We go beyond research to develop strategic insights and actionable recommendations for supermarkets and other food retailers in North America and the suppliers of products and services to those retailers.

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