Digital Storytelling & Branding: Dave's Fresh Marketplace Proposal

9-1 Final Project Submission: Digital Storytelling and Branding Proposal Matthew Berard Digital Marketing Master’s Program, Southern New Hampshire University MKT 665: Digital Storytelling & Brand Professor Timothy Cigelske November 19, 2023

Brand Narrative Origin and Purpose The origin of Dave’s Fresh Marketplace began in 1960 when 13-year-old Dave Cesario began working at Vic’s fruit stand in Providence, RI. Dave’s time working at the fruit stand taught him many things; he learned how to be a salesman, how to negotiate the best prices for produce, the value of honesty and integrity, and he gained a passion for the produce business (Dave’s, 2023). In 1968, Dave had saved enough money to open his own produce business in Warwick, Rhode Island named Dave’s Fruitland, which would later become Dave’s Fresh Marketplace. The fruit stand had a reputation for selling the freshest produce at fair prices (Dave’s, 2023). In 1972, Dave hired Bill Hogan, a bright young boy who shared Dave’s passion for the produce business. Over the next 18 years, Dave and Bill would work to expand the business. The roadside fruit stand proved so successful that in 1976 Dave’s expanded to a new store and Greenville, RI, and then another in Warwick, RI in 1978. The new store in Warwick added a deli, seafood, butcher, and groceries section (Dave’s, 2023). As the years passed, Dave's Fresh Marketplace continued to flourish, spreading its roots across the state of Rhode Island. From North Kingstown to Wickford, Cumberland to East Greenwich, Quonset to Smithfield, Coventry to Cranston, Dave's stores began to dot the Rhode Island landscape. Today, Dave’s Fresh Marketplace stands as the quintessential local grocery store throughout much of Rhode Island (Dave’s, 2023). The name Dave's has become synonymous with trust, reliability, and the guarantee of finding the freshest, best-quality products for a fair price. Dave's Fresh Marketplace has not only endured but thrived, thanks to its founder's vision

and the dedication of its staff to the values that have defined it for decades. Today, they proudly uphold their mission of "providing exceptional quality products, outstanding variety, and friendly customer service," ensuring that Dave Cesario's legacy continues to flourish in the hearts and homes of Rhode Islanders (Dave’s, 2023). Competitors Dave’s Fresh Marketplace’s major competitors are grocery store chains such as Stop & Shop and Aldi as well as large superstores such as Walmart and Target. The first thing that sets Dave’s apart from its competitors is its commitment to providing Fresh, high-quality products. From produce and deli items to meats and seafood, Dave’s always ensures they provide fresh, high-quality options across all ten locations (Dave’s, 2023). Additionally, unlike its competitors, Dave’s holds true to its local roots by partnering with and supporting several local businesses, providing consumers with fresh local products. Lastly, Dave’s separates itself from its competitors with its focus on exceptional customer service. By instilling passion and generosity Dave and Bill have cultivated a loyal, hardworking, brilliant, and friendly workforce that is focused on ensuring customer satisfaction (Dave’s, 2023). Mission Dave’s dedication to its company mission is clear throughout the many facets of the business. The name of the business “Dave’s Fresh Marketplace” highlights the company’s commitment to providing fresh quality products. This commitment resonates not only in its name but also in its slogan which can be found all over the company website “Dave’s is fresh. Dave’s is local. Dave’s is Rhode Island.” (Dave’s, 2023). This slogan encapsulates Dave's dedication to its mission, proudly displaying the brand’s dedication to its local roots and its promise to offer

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nothing but the freshest goods to its customers. Furthermore, Dave’s logo which can be seen on all the company’s physical locations includes the word “fresh” and the phrase “Locally Owned & Operated” which are both important messages that Dave’s wishes to convey to its consumers (Dave’s, 2023). Finally, Dave’s marketing efforts consistently emphasize the fresh, high-quality, locally made products they provide, reinforcing the company’s commitment to its mission. Dave's commitment to its mission does not stop at its physical locations. When it comes to engaging with its customers; they have crafted a digital presence that enhances the consumer experience and shares its brand's story, furthering its mission in a compelling way. Beginning with the company website Dave's goes above and beyond to keep its customers informed. Weekly specials are prominently featured, allowing consumers to plan their visits while keeping an eye on savings (Dave’s, 2023). Moreover, Dave's highlights its commitment to supporting local businesses by providing a comprehensive list of these businesses. Each listing is linked to the respective local company's website, offering customers a deeper insight into the community connections Dave's fosters. To bring their fresh and high-quality products to life, the website incorporates videos that highlight what sets Dave's apart across its ten locations. The digital experience doesn't end there. Dave's Fresh Marketplace leverages the power of social media to stay in touch with its audience. Their social media pages serve as a hub of information and engagement. Whenever new products hit the shelves, followers receive updates, creating a sense of anticipation. The brand goes a step further by providing a plethora of recipes that can be crafted using ingredients available at Dave's locations, making meal planning and preparation a breeze for its customers (Dave’s Fresh Marketplace, 2023). Additionally, Dave's uses its social media platforms to spotlight and support its local vendors, further strengthening the brand's ties to the community (Dave’s Fresh Marketplace, 2023). All these elements are

carefully implemented to reinforce Dave's mission and story across its various digital platforms. From its physical locations to its company website and social media, Dave's Fresh Marketplace ensures that customers not only get the best products in-store but also have a rich and engaging digital experience that keeps them connected to the brand and the community it proudly serves. Marketing Approach Blog

The focus when formatting this blog post was readability and understanding. The easier a blog is to read the more likely it is that Dave’s will get its message across effectively. To ensure readability white space was used. The use of white space makes the content significantly easier to read as it helps prevent brain fatigue (Hesterberg, 2022). Relevant images were also added to help increase understanding while simultaneously making the blog more visually appealing keeping the reader interested (Loktionova, 2022). Finally, section headers were used as a means of breaking up the content making it easier to follow and understand (Ghost, 2023). These elements along with the content help Dave’s effectively convey its brand message of freshness and community. Social Media

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When creating social media posts the focus was on conveying a consistent message while making the posts visually appealing, easily searchable, and shareable. The content, both the image and the caption, focuses on Dave’s brand message of freshness, community, and local pride. The visual content used is relevant to the brand message and makes the post more appealing increasing the likelihood that the posts are liked and shared (Tamble, 2023). The posts also utilize hashtags making the posts easily searchable, increasing engagement (Tamble, 2023). In combination, these components will significantly increase Dave’s brand exposure on social.

Emails

When creating the emails brand messaging, clarity, and engagement were the focus. Both the visual and textual content are relevant to Dave’s brand message of freshness, community, and local pride. The visuals were used to highlight the focus on fresh high-quality produce while also making the emails visually appealing for consumers. The subject line and content within the

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email were aligned to ensure clarity for consumers, as subject lines should be a snapshot of what the emails deliver (Cox, 2023). The emails also include actionable language guiding the reader to engage with Dave’s and read the blog post (Cox, 2023). The emails include hyperlinks and buttons that provide another method for consumers to engage with the brand, increasing traffic to the company website. Finally, the content of both emails is clear and consistently conveys Dave’s brand message helping Dave’s retain its email subscribers (Cox, 2023). Digital Market Analysis Consumer Engagement Understanding a company’s current level of consumer engagement is integral to understanding how to improve a business’s digital presence. This is no different for a local grocery store like Dave’s Fresh Marketplace. Dave’s utilizes several different channels to encourage consumer engagement including organic search, paid search, social media, and email. Dave’s monthly average web visits currently sit at about 64,000 visits (SimilarWeb, 2023a). This is a fairly good figure, however when analyzing where most of this traffic originates it becomes clear that Dave’s is far too reliant on direct traffic and organic search traffic. In fact, Dave’s organic search traffic makes up about 35% of the total traffic to the website while its traffic from its social media platforms only accounts for about 4% of its total traffic (SimilarWeb, 2023a). This extremely low percentage of traffic originating from social media shows a clear need for improvement across all of Dave’s social platforms. When taking a closer look at Dave’s social media pages the reasons for the low percentage of traffic becomes apparent. For example, several of the posts on Dave’s Social Media pages receive little engagement, especially the posts that do not utilize any hashtags, do

not contain a call to action, and are not Dave’s original content, such as posts that include recipes from other websites but do not utilize hashtags or call to actions. These posts also lack any link to Dave’s website which is hurting its traffic and engagement. The posts that perform the best are posts that include original content and hashtags, such as the recent posts of employees who dressed up for Halloween (Dave’s, 2023). However, even these posts could be improved as they utilize far too many hashtags which can make posts appear untrustworthy and spammy to the consumers and the algorithms used to rank the posts (Rechberg, 2021). Social media posts across all platforms should use between 1 and 5 relevant hashtags (Macready, 2023). The textual content of Dave’s posts is well-written and relevant to the brand but frequently lacks clear calls to action and links to the company website hurting its web visits and overall engagement. Using calls to action and links to the company website is integral to increasing engagement and web traffic (Johnson, 2018). Dave’s does a decent job of replying to comments on its social media posts specifically on Facebook and Instagram where they see the most engagement. However, Dave’s only seems to reply when a question is asked which is sparingly. Instead of just replying to questions Dave’s should attempt to engage with its audience more often whether the comments are good, bad, or neutral. Responding to comments will make consumers feel engaged with the brand and will cultivate brand trust among Dave’s audience (West, 2021). Through analyzing Dave’s consumer engagement efforts, across its many digital platforms, it becomes clear that Dave’s biggest issue is the formatting of its posts. Dave’s posts do include relevant content that resonates with the brand message; however, they lack integral components necessary to increase engagement and reach including the correct use of hashtags, calls to action, and links. By fixing these issues and increasing the rate at which they reply to

comments across all social platforms Dave’s should be able to significantly increase engagement and brand exposure. Initiatives Of Competition Dave’s Fresh Market’s main competitors are Brigido’s Fresh Market and Seabra Foods. Brigido’s Fresh Market’s digital presence includes its company website and Facebook page (Brigido’s, 2023). The company also has X and Instagram pages but has not used either in quite some time. The company website is extremely minimal and mainly highlights its online shopping options and its store brands. Savings on store-brand items seem to be the focus. The content on its Facebook page focuses mainly on the products and sales offered in its stores. Unlike Dave’s Brigido’s does not post recipes or content that includes its employees. The content does not seem to convey any specific brand message and feels generic. With a name like Brigido’s Fresh Market, one would expect a focus on fresh and local products to be a priority but that is simply not conveyed through its digital initiatives. Seabra Foods' digital initiatives include a company website as well as several social media platforms including Facebook, X, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and TikTok (Seabra Foods, 2023). Seabra Foods' brand messaging on its website is a little confusing as it uses words like fresh and local, yet it mainly focuses on marketing its imported Portuguese products. Seabra’s social media content is quite like that of Dave’s including posts about product offerings, recipes, and posts that include employees. The main difference between Seabra’s content and Dave’s content is that much of Seabra’s content focuses on Portuguese products. In fact, many of the company’s posts are even written in Portuguese showing the company's commitment to targeting the Portuguese community.

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After analyzing the competition's digital initiatives, Dave’s can easily differentiate itself. Dave’s message of providing fresh and local products from local vendors across Rhode Island stands out from its local competitors. Dave’s should continue to promote its links to the Rhode Island community and the fresh, local products it offers in its stores. Dave’s can also differentiate itself by highlighting the healthy and organic products it offers in its stores as neither of its competitors are targeting consumers looking for organic products. Dave’s has a clear competitive advantage over its competitors when it comes to fresh, local, Rhode Island produce and products. Appropriate Keywords Utilizing appropriate keywords can be integral to the success of any digital initiative. Choosing the correct keywords for a campaign can be difficult as there is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Keywords are something that will change and evolve based on the brand message and content. In the case of Dave’s Fresh Marketplace selecting relevant and appropriate social media hashtags will be integral in increasing reach and engagement across its social platforms. For a local business such as Dave’s, it is recommended that the business use a mix of general business hashtags and local hashtags. This allows you to reach a large audience with more general hashtags while reaching a more niche audience with your local hashtags (Carmon, 2020). For example, on Instagram Dave’s could use popular hashtags such as #shoplocal which is currently being used in 85 million posts. Dave’s could then couple this with #RhodeIsland which is used in 3.8 million posts. Finally, Dave’s could combine these into one hashtag #shoplocalri which has only been used in just over 35,000 posts. Dave’s should also use hashtags related to food in the same way such as #localfood (4.5 million posts) and #rhodeislandfood (36.1k posts). A solid mix of general hashtags and local hashtags related to the brand and its content will help Dave’s increase brand exposure and engagement over both the short and long term (Carmon, 2020).

Within its blog content, Dave’s should utilize long-tail keywords. Longtail keywords such as “Rhode Island local supermarket” will help Dave’s rank higher in search results and will help local consumers find exactly what they are searching for (Subel, 2018). However, Dave’s will need to be careful not to overuse long-tail keywords as this can appear spammy to search engine algorithms leading to lower rankings. As for keywords used in SEO, Dave’s should focus on using keywords that rank well in average monthly searches but are still localized and relevant to the brand. These keywords include but are not limited to; dave’s marketplace, organic food stores near me, dave’s market, local grocery store, dave’s fresh marketplace, and local groceries near me (Google Ads, 2023). These keywords are general enough to reach a large audience but are also localized enough to target local Rhode Island consumers. Implementation Plan Strategic Implementation The creation of a strategic implementation plan will be integral to the success of Dave’s new storytelling and branding campaign. This implementation plan will break down the first two weeks of the campaign which will serve as a blueprint for the campaign going forward. The types of content the brand will be sharing across its platforms include blog posts, social media posts, and promotional emails. The blogs will be posted to Dave’s website every Monday at 8:00 am which is an optimal time to publish as people are looking to read interesting content before going to work (Owen, 2022). Week 1’s blog post will explain the benefits of shopping at your local grocery store while Week 2’s Blog will highlight the history of Dave’s Fresh Marketplace here in Rhode Island. Subsequent blogs will focus on similar content as well as Dave’s original recipes and information on the local brands Dave’s partners with.

Regarding social media, Dave’s will post content to all its social media pages including Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, and TikTok. The content will include posts and videos that promote the weekly blog, recipes that can be made using products Dave’s offers, weekly sales, and content including Dave’s employees and customers. Content will be posted 1-5 times a day depending on the platform (Hill, 2023b). Therefore Week 1’s posts will include posts focused on the benefits of shopping locally as well as Thanksgiving recipes and any Thanksgiving sales Dave’s is offering in its stores. Week 2’s posts will focus on the history of Dave’s Fresh Marketplace and any black Friday sales as well as recipes for the upcoming holidays. All posts should include relevant calls to action with links to either the Dave’s homepage or the content that is being referenced in the post. Some relevant calls to action would be: Learn More about shopping local at (Link), Read More Here (Link), Visit Us in person or at davesmarketplace.com for more details, or even Sign up for our Email list here (Link) (Litscher, 2022). Regarding emails, Dave’s will be sending 2-3 emails per week (Campaign Monitor, 2022). These emails should consist of repurposed blog content which will promote the brand and the blog itself as well as any sales or promotions Dave’s is running in-store. Week 1’s emails will include 2 unique emails which highlight the benefits of shopping local to promote the brand and the blog and 1 email announcing the Thanksgiving promotions for the week. Week 2’s posts will include 2 unique emails focused on the History of Dave’s Fresh Marketplace and 1 email regarding the promotions for that week. These emails should always contain links to the website as well as links to any other relevant content such as the company blog. Monitored and Managed To effectively monitor and manage this campaign it is important to understand the goals for this campaign. Dave’s three main goals for this campaign are to increase engagement by 20%

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over the first 6 months, increase brand awareness by 25% over the first six months, and increase brand loyalty by 5% over the first 6 months. Given that these are the goals that are set for the campaign there are several key metrics that Dave’s will need to monitor to ensure that the campaign is functioning as intended. Some of the most important metrics Dave’s should track are social media reach, impressions, likes, comments, shares, mentions, click-through rate, and post engagement rate as well as net promoter score (NPS), email click-through rate, website visits, conversion rate, and bounce rate (Hill, 2023a). These metrics will give Dave’s a good understanding of how effective the campaign is at increasing brand engagement, brand awareness, and brand loyalty. As monitoring these many metrics can be a daunting task, Dave’s should implement the use of a marketing platform such as HubSpot. HubSpot will help Dave’s monitor and manage all its marketing content across all platforms including the company website, social media platforms, and email campaigns helping ensure the campaign's overall success (HubSpot, 2023). Consistent Message Several aspects of this approach will ensure Dave’s will be able to promote a consistent message and customer experience across all its digital platforms. First Dave’s will ensure that all its digital content relates to the company mission to provide fresh and local products with exceptional customer service. Secondly, Dave’s will create synergy across its different digital platforms by repurposing its blog content into social media posts and emails keeping the messaging across all its platforms consistent. Lastly, by implementing the use of a marketing platform like HubSpot Dave’s will be able to organize, monitor, and manage all its content on one platform allowing them to ensure consistency for each post across all its platforms.

References Brigido’s. (2023). Brigido’s Fresh Market . https://www.brigidos.com/ Campaign Monitor. (2022, August 2). How often should you email your list . https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/knowledge-base/how-often-should-you- email-your-list/ Carmon, N. (2020, February 12). How to use small business hashtags to promote your brand – DBI . Digital Branding Institute. https://digitalbrandinginstitute.com/small-business- hashtags/ Cox, L. K. (2023, September 4). How to write a marketing email: 10 tips for writing compelling email copy . HubSpot Blog. https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/32606/the-9- must-have-components-of-compelling-email-copy.aspx Dave’s. (2023). Dave’s Fresh Marketplace . Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/davesmarketplace Dave’s. (2023). Dave’s is different . Learn More About What Makes Dave’s Fresh Marketplace Different. https://www.davesmarketplace.com/DavesIsDifferent/ Dave’s. (2023). The history of Dave’s . History of Dave’s Fresh Marketplace RI’s Supermarket. https://www.davesmarketplace.com/History/ Dave’s Fresh Marketplace. (2023). Dave’s Fresh Marketplace . Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/davesmarketplace

Ghost. (2023). How to format a blog post that Readers love . Ghost Resources. https://ghost.org/resources/how-to-format-a-blog-post/ Google Ads . (2023, November 5). Google Ads Keyword Planner . Google Ads. https://ads.google.com/aw/keywordplanner/ideas/new? ocid=93052051&euid=89967451&__u=1916920899&uscid=93052051&__c=7538746299 &authuser=0&sf=kp&subid=us-en-awhp-g-aw-c-t-kwp-hero%21o2 Hesterberg, K. (2022, August 26). What is whitespace? 9 websites to Inspire Your Web Design . HubSpot Blog. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/whitespace-web-design Hill, C. (2023a, October 30). The social media metrics to track in 2023 (and why) . Sprout Social. https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-metrics/ Hill, C. (2023b, November 1). How often to post on social media . Sprout Social. https://sproutsocial.com/insights/how-often-to-post-on-social-media/ HubSpot. (2023). Why choose Hubspot? https://www.hubspot.com/why-choose-hubspot Johnson, P. (2018, April 3). The Importance of Using Links on Social Media to Increase Website Traffic . Digital Marketing Blog. https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/pj79/2018/04/03/the- importance-of-using-links-on-social-media-to-increase-website-traffic/#:~:text=Without %20links%20on%20social%20media,product%20(Krasinski%2C%202018) Litscher, E. (2022, November 11). 5 ctas to increase engagement on your website . The Loop Marketing Inc. https://theloopmarketing.com/5-ctas-to-increase-engagement-on-your- website/

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Loktionova, M. (2022, October 6). How to format your blog post: 7 effective tips for 2023 . Semrush Blog. https://www.semrush.com/blog/how-to-format-a-blog-post/ Macready, H. (2023, July 19). How to use Hashtags in 2023: A guide for every network . Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard. https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-to-use- hashtags/ Owen, J. (2022, September 10). Best time to publish a blog post you want to go viral . SEO Design Chicago. https://seodesignchicago.com/content-optimization-blog/best-time-to- publish-a-blog-post-you-want-to-go-viral/ Rechberg, A. (2021, December 16). How many hashtags is too many? . Digital Marketing Agency Orange County CA | Your Marketing People. https://yourmarketingpeople.com/blog/can-you-ever-have-too-many-hashtags/ Seabra Foods. (2023). Seabra Foods . https://seabrafoods.com/ SimilarWeb. (2023). Website Analysis. https://pro.similarweb.com/#/digitalsuite/websiteanalysis/overview/website-performance/ */999/3m?webSource=Total&key=davesmarketplace.com Subel, M. (2018, October 4). How to integrate keywords in blog posts for Maximum Seo Value . Two Wheels Marketing. https://twowheelsmarketing.com/blog/how-to-integrate-keywords- blog-posts-seo/

Tamble, M. (2023, August 18). 7 tips and tools to create perfect social media posts . Social Media & Influencer Marketing Speaker, Consultant & Author. https://nealschaffer.com/7- tips-and-tools-to-create-perfect-social-media-posts/ West, C. (2021, May 28). Your guide to social media comments: How to post and respond . Sprout Social. https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-comments/

MKT 665 Final Project Submission

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