Eduardo Telles talks about the partnership with Gilberto Gil and his granddaughter Flora
Po de Acar established an important partnership with Gilberto Gil and his granddaughter, Flor, to bring back the brand’s musicality, which guided other retail chain campaigns.
It was our consumers who guided this campaign and they are the ones who will co-create the brand’s new music with us, says Eduardo Telles, marketing director at GPA, which owns the company.
He refers to the music contest that the network is promoting to choose the song that will pack the brand’s communication this semester, when Po turns 63 years old.
See below.
You consider that the Sugar Loaf is experiencing a special moment.
Why?
This is a very important year for Po from an operations and brand point of view. On the operations side, we resumed our expansion plan and have strengthened our Po de Acar Mais app as the main omnichannel channel. Now, we are working on a brand communication front that rescues strategic pillars, such as musicality, and reinforces our territory, happiness, starting with a great campaign that Nova Msica do Po, alongside Gilberto Gil and Flor Gil. Po is an iconic brand that has marked the history of food retail in Brazil and also the memory of consumers, and it is they who are always at the center of all our decisions, including our communications. This is precisely why we are focusing on rescuing pillars that the public already knows and identifies with, such as musicality, after all, who doesn’t remember a song from Po de Acar? It was our consumers who guided this campaign and they are the ones who will co-create the brand’s new music with us.
What’s the strategy?
We want to write, together with those who relate to Po, a new chapter in the history of this beloved brand and it has already been a success! There are many participations, registrations and the engagement of consumers and employees. We believe in the potential of this new chapter of our brand and we are very happy to be able to build the next steps in our history side by side with consumers who are passionate about the Po brand.
Was the partnership with Gilberto Gil important for the launch of the contest?
Certainly! This year is important for Gilberto Gil, who turned 80 in June, and he is a fundamental and important artist in the history of music, which also has a long-standing relationship with Po. In 2002, for example, he played at Po Music, a festival held by the brand. Furthermore, we also brought to the campaign Gil’s granddaughter, Flor, who has also been experiencing a very special moment, launching her solo career, with great success ahead.
Why did the choice fall to Gil and his granddaughter Flor?
Together, Gil and Flor bring very important aspects, which are the happiness and affection of the grandmother and granddaughter relationship. We have happiness as the territory of the Po de Acar brand and they embody that feeling. And the two also represent Po, since Gil has his history in music, which is related to the history of Po, and Flor brings the freshness and novelty of a new artist launching, which Po also has with the fronts of innovation. This is a genuine partner, who has everything to work out. Po believes in the role of relationships and real happiness and this legitimate exchange of affection, smiles and experience between grandmother and granddaughter contributes a lot to the values that the brand believes in and pursues.
Why did the company choose musicality as a pillar in its marketing strategy?
Po has always been musical, with outstanding songs such as O que faz você feliz?, with Clarice Falco, or Felicidade, with the interpretation of Anavitoria, participation and realization of music festivals, such as Po Music, and support for Rock in Rio 2019. Music inspires and generates exchanges, generates relationships and creates bonds and memories, no wonder, listening to our consumers, we realize the need to return to music as strategic pillars of the Po brand. Now, we are in a moment of retaking this pillar and in a new way because of co-creation. We want it to become a great conversation with consumers, for the campaign to capture the public’s attention without being expository, but one of exchange and connection. It will be very interesting to know, through the eyes of our customers, the songs that they believe have to do with the brand. After all, we have happiness as a brand territory and music is a form of happiness, of connection with our consumers.
What other strategies will the brand adopt in the second half of the year, as it celebrates its 63rd birthday in this period?
The second half of this year will be busy for the Po de Acar. On the 63rd anniversary, we will have brand activations and promotional dynamics in stores, website and exclusive benefits in our app to celebrate with customers, in addition to a great Black Friday and important seasonal actions for the end of the year. And we will also have important brand news, such as the new music from Po, which will be announced at the beginning of the second semester, already in the voice of Flor Gil, in the same period in which we will be as supporters at Rock In Rio 2022, the largest music festival of the world, of which we are supporters.
Does Po de Acar have expansion plans?
Yup. Last year, we announced an expansion plan for 100 new stores by 2024. We are in full swing with the new stores and, this July alone, we will have three openings in three different states, and we have already opened another two in the same period.
Has the pandemic changed any strategy? Where did you advance and where did you retreat?
When we talk about operations, we know that the pandemic has accelerated digital a lot. Po de Acar was a pioneer in Brazilian food e-commerce and was the first network to launch a loyalty program, Po de Acar Mais, which is now our main omnichannel platform. So, we had an in-house structure, but in fact, we had to accelerate digitization processes to continue serving our customers with excellence. Today, we have the strategy of serving customers wherever, however and whenever they want, a thought that we already had and gained strength with the pandemic, especially with omnichannel strategies.
What is the main transformation?
The pandemic transformed the relationship of people with brands in general, how they relate to and see brands. In these years, we saw that consumers were looking for identification and connection of their values with companies, but that brands would meet their needs and, on our side, this is transmitted through communication. All brands needed to pay attention to this and show their relevance in people’s lives, we all had to adapt, prioritize what was relevant to people at that moment.
And, internally, how did the process take place?
There were two very important moments: the first was to convey serenity and confidence to our consumers, both in operations, keeping stores supplied and creating health protocols, and in communication, it is important that people feel safe to enter our stores and confident to online shopping; then, we entered a moment of reinforcing that we are together with customers, sending a message of hope.
How was communication planned in this period?
All the time, our communication sought to convey confidence and security, because of the moment we were going through. Our campaigns were guided by changes in consumer behavior, from preferences of where and how to buy (in stores, e-commerce or via last millers), how to create a family shopping list and personalized discounts, for example. At the same time, the campaigns brought out the values of our brands and reinforced that we will be there to serve our consumers wherever, whenever and however they prefer. Also, we focused a lot on digital, which was where our consumers were.
The pandemic caused the change in consumer behavior. What is the main one?
Consumer behavior has changed in the pandemic for several reasons, from having to focus their purchases in fewer places, buying online, economic crisis and even changes in routine. As the main and our greatest learning, however, we see that this change of scenario highlighted companies that work based on their purposes and we believe that this will be a value that will increasingly strengthen the connection with consumers from now on. I’m sure consumers will continue to pay attention to brands that connect with their values, so the presence of the brand’s purpose and pillars in communications was very important in this period and will continue to be.
What is the consumer’s perception?
They want to feel like they know the brand, and the brand recognizes their specific needs and wants. The happiness of our customers and employees is, and has always been, at the heart of the purpose of Po de Acar. During the pandemic, we understand that this purpose was reflected through our mission, as transforming agents of society, to work to keep stores open, stocked and safe for our consumers and employees and to invest in our ability to deliver at home through of our e-commerce and James. We have been working every day to fulfill this role and we will continue to do more and more for our customers when all this is over.
