Sex and the c-store by Peter KnappSeptember 2008

Peter Knapp is executive creative director of Europe and the Middle East at Landor Associates.

© 2008 Landor Associates. All rights reserved.

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Sex and the c-storePeter KnappSeptember 2008

Sex and the c-store,or getting the toilets right

Even if you’ve never watched Sarah Jessica Parker and her coterie of Prada-wearing, cocktail-swilling best mates on a shopping expedition in downtown Manhattan, you’ll be well aware of the twenty-first-century woman’s dedication to the art of shopping. Women in Europe and the United States control 70–85 percent of consumer goods spending, according to various estimates, but it’s not an indiscriminate spend.1 While retail outlets relating to the three F’s—fashion, food, and “farmaceuticals”—are favourite shopping haunts for women and are places to linger in and enjoy, traditional male enclaves, such as do-it-yourself (DIY) stores and petrol stations, have historically been seen by women as necessary evils to be endured rather than enjoyed.

Despite their longevity (the first petrol station was built in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1905) and forays into convenience shopping and coffee bars, petrol stations have never been embraced by women as wholeheartedly as by men. Indeed, despite the input of designers and brand managers, many are

still hard featured, with lacklustre facilities and a predictable retail offer consisting of little more than snacks, newspapers, and motoring acces-sories. Not surprisingly, “hurry in, hurry out” has been the female customer’s mantra, and pray she doesn’t have to use the toilet!

Ironic then, that with petroleum companies the world over struggling to make a profit on petrol alone, many have now become dependent on their convenience stores for survival. In Sweden, for example, ongoing petroleum price wars, since 2005, have seen retail petrol sales profits fall to almost nothing. In fact, for the country’s largest oil company, Preem Petroleum, the situation escalated to the point where margins on a chocolate bar were significantly higher than for a litre of petrol.

Preem, in addition to substantial refinery opera-tions, also operates a retail petrol and convenience store (c-store) offer throughout Sweden. However, with increased competition from local and global petrol retailers, not to mention supermarkets and DIY specialists, their c-store operations were facing price pressures, failing to realise significant profit

1 Matt Adams, “Best Practice in Marketing to Female Consumers: How to avoid gender stereotypes in an increasingly feminized society,” Datamonitor (3 July 2006).

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Sex and the c-storePeter KnappSeptember 2008

margins, and struggling to meet customers’ needs. Clearly, these market conditions represented an unsustainable position for the company. Closing stations was not an option due to the prohibitive costs involved in adhering to environmental guidelines, and finding a buyer in an oversaturated margin-tight market would be challenging. Taking into account the potential of the convenience store and the example of other successful petroleum companies’ retail offerings, Preem saw its future salvation and only hope of retail profitability in its c-stores.

Research reveals that petrol retailers worldwide are developing their c-store concept. In Denmark and the United Kingdom, Shell’s c-stores are demonstrating 40–50 percent nonfuel share of profitability, with Austria and Holland showing a massive 70–80 percent.2 Inspired by this success, Preem decided to focus on its c-store offering in Sweden. The challenge? To transform itself from a petrol retailer with a c-store offer to a c-store retailer with a petrol offer. The retail objectives were ambitious: to increase overall revenue by 40 percent, shop margins by 35–40 percent, and to increase footfall and encourage higher sales per customer.

Always up for a unique challenge, Landor Associates was brought in to execute and drive Preem’s transformation. The team’s brief was an extensive one: to review Preem’s retail offer, reposition the brand, create a distinct look and feel based on the existing identity, and redesign the forecourt and c-store environments. Furthermore, we were to act as brand guardians to ensure the brand promise was integrated throughout the customer experience from the pumps to the checkout.

Having analysed the market, the consumers, and the brand’s position, the team came up with a radical and audacious segmented proposition—instead of trying to grab a larger part of the total consumer cake, Preem should focus on attracting and appealing specifically to women—a hitherto untapped consumer segment. It was a brave and radical move. Preem’s retail petrol and c-store already had a largely female audience in place and was perceived by customers to be more “caring” and “friendly” than competitor brands. Sweden has one of the highest populations of working women in Europe (approximately 75 percent according to the Swedish Institute). They are often time-poor,

2 Market overview research conducted by Accenture for Preem (2005–06).

The new Preem: c-store retailer with a petrol offer.

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Sex and the c-storePeter KnappSeptember 2008

juggling the responsibilities of work, home, and family. The new brand concept and ensuing design did not mean that men’s needs were to be ignored but rather that by delivering what women wanted, Preem would be raising the bar for all its customers.

Refurbishments on a retail outlet like a petrol station are traditionally done from the canopy signage downwards. Landor took a more radical approach—to focus on the most potent points of interface, the areas where customers would really notice a difference and those that would reflect the radical market segmentation of women. The number one most potent point of interface for women had to be the toilets. Consumer insights told us that women will judge the credibility of the promise on very different criteria than men and we knew the toilets needed to be akin to those in a restaurant or department store in order to deliver the new positioning and to exceed traditional expectations. Trust the toilets, trust the produce—live the segmentation. Charged with the task of finding a clean, user-friendly petrol station restroom, most women would have more luck locating Lord Lucan or happening upon

the proverbial needle! It was essential that we got the toilets right—they were emblematic, a manifestation of Preem’s whole approach.

And the result? Preem’s toilets have become a talking point, a genuine point of differentiation and something for women to tell their friends about. Featuring full-length mirrors, framed pictures, liquid soap, hand cream, baby-changing facilities, and softened lighting, they have transformed consumer ideas about what a petrol station restroom looks and feels like. Focus groups conducted amongst women about the new design prior to launch revealed positivity in spades and plaudits aplenty:

“The toilets are bright and colourful.” “They’re very special.” “I’ve never seen anything like it in a petrol station before and it makes a big difference!”

Having cracked the toilets (with not a cracked cistern or seat in sight) the new brand positioning further separated “carbohydrates from hydrocar-bons” through the use of colour, and transformed the station forecourts and c-stores to be more in keeping with women’s shopping motivations—the magic three-F formula. The utilitarian and

By appealing specifically to women, Preem has improved services for all its customers.

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Sex and the c-storePeter KnappSeptember 2008

stark forecourt design was replaced by softened, curvaceous architectural features, and brighter lights were added to facilitate a safer, more user-friendly environment. In a country with such long winters it was vital that Preem petrol stations felt like a safe environment for all its customers and in particular women.

Whereas the old Preem offered a typical male petrol station merchandise mix, such as fast food and meat-based products, the new Preem is all about making the merchandise more relevant to women. A glass fascia invites customers into a new coffee-bar area, a cool place to hang out and a destination in its own right, and the snacks are fresh and healthy. Plus, there’s now a great choice of personal and beauty products, last minute gifts, cards, and fresh flowers, and the counter service and till area are warm and tactile with subtle references to home. The old petrol station mantra for women of “rush in, rush out” has been replaced by “browse, buy, and bond,” and it has become a destination that women drive towards as opposed to drive by. They can now enjoy rather than endure.

Initially implemented in two pilot sites, the female-focused strategy has paid off and virtually all of Preem’s five-year objectives have now either been reached or surpassed when comparing January–May 2007 (postrefit) with the same period in the previous year (prerefit). There’s been a 30 percent increase in overall revenue and a 20 percent increase in customer numbers, and Preem’s market share on petrol became its highest in four years.3

3 Research conducted by Statistiska centralbyran (SCB) for Preem (March 2007).

Buoyed up by these results, Preem is currently investing in a refit of 37 other retail sites. Furthermore, Landor’s brand strategy and design solutions are now filtering through to every decision Preem petrol stations makes about its business from actions to behaviours to communica-tions. A holistic approach to brand repositioning, it has been wholeheartedly embraced by both the customer and the client. It was a radical transfor-mation of a struggling brand in an oversaturated margin-tight market that needed to deliver, and with a gaggle of awards. And as for SJP and her pals? It’s all about the c-store. ■

01 Preem’s toilets have become a genuine point of differentiation and something for women to tell their friends about.

02 The new Preem is all about making the merchandise more relevant to women.01

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