• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, January 11, 2024

It’s unanimous: All Albertsons shoppers say they want to eat healthier. With updates to Sincerely Health, a mobile health platform introduced a year ago, the company hopes to make healthier shopping even more rewarding, giving people a better reason to shop Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco and Shaw's. Francisco Bram, vice president of marketing and consumer insights, tells Marketing Daily what’s changing.

Marketing Daily: First, some background. About a year ago, you helped launch Sincerely Health, the wellness platform within the Albertsons shopping app. Why?

Francisco Bram: When I first joined from Uber, we were tasked to find ways to transition away from traditional retail interactions, which tend to be transactional, like “Here's 10% off your avocados.” We wanted to find ways to build trust and show we care. We talked to more than 10,000 customers about how we can help them.

Of course, they all want to make healthier choices, but it’s hard to make it a priority. We tried to change the perception that leading a healthier life is monumental, when the secret is small incremental changes. So, we created this experience inside the shopping app they were already using, connecting their devices to remove friction.

Marketing Daily: Since the launch, what have you learned?

Bram: Everyone in our surveys has said, "I want to eat more healthy foods." What we've learned is that the definition of healthy varies, and the information out there is very confusing. Is wine good for your heart or bad for your liver? What does “zero cholesterol” mean?

We learned that our job is to make things super simple, adding functionality. You can now shop by filtering if you want to lower the sugar in your food or if you are allergic to peanuts. We take all this information, look at your basket, and even tell you what products you should be replacing to meet those needs. The more we simplify that journey, making it extremely frictionless and almost invisible, the more customers engage.

We also learned that rewards are important, so having a push notification that lets you know you are very close to earning your next reward helps. It's not enough to build a platform. We have to send out nudges frequently.

Marketing Daily: How many people have signed up?

Bram: We don’t disclose that. But results have far exceeded goals. Customers are engaging with the platform, checking their overall health scores, almost like a FICO score, on everything from sleep, activity and nutrition. We're getting great feedback.

Marketing Daily: You’ve just launched a new campaign, doubling rewards for achieving nutrition and activity goals and offering $25 to sign up. Why now?

Bram: New Year’s resolutions are heavily weighted toward health and well-being, sowe wanted to incentivize people even more. By signing up for the platform, you can earn up to $25, and then when you create a goal, like walking 10,000 steps, adding more fruits and vegetables or reducing sugar intake, you will earn double the points. The points keep adding up, and you can exchange them for discounts on groceries.

Marketing Daily: Who do you consider your main competition?

Bram: None of our direct competitors, such as Walmart and other grocery chains, are doing what we do with this app. On average, customers shop at two or three different grocery stores. We want to give them a reason to choose Albertsons over those stores, and we think we can do that by engaging with customers more on the platform. It helps that we partner with Apple and other wearables. For example, you get points when you close the rings on your Apple Watch.

Marketing Daily: What are your goals now that you are into year two of the program?

Bram: First, we want to know if we’re improving people's lives and if we have access to that with the health score. We measure that daily. We want to hear from our customers that they feel  Albertsons truly cares about their health and well-being, so there will be less reason to switch to another grocery store. And we want retention to increase.