Sprouts Farmers Market 2014 Annual Report Download - page 14

Our Pricing, Marketing and Advertising
•Pricing. We are committed to a pricing strategy consistent with our motto of “Healthy Living for
Less.” As a farmers market style store, we emphasize low prices throughout the entire store, as
we are able to pass along the benefits of our scale and purchasing power to our customers. We
position our prices with everyday value for our customers with regular promotions on selected
products that drive traffic and trial. We typically have about 25% of our approximately 17,500
products on sale at any given time.
•Marketing and Advertising. We supplement and support our everyday competitive pricing strategy
through weekly advertised specials, a weekly e-circular, online coupons and special promotions.
We send over 13 million weekly advertisement circulars to encourage customers to shop at our
stores. These circulars focus on product education and offerings and aim to engage the customer.
We use sales flyers distributed through direct delivery or inserted into local newspapers as our
primary medium for advertising. These sales flyers include representative products from our key
departments. In addition, we have a customer database of over 697,000 customers as of
December 28, 2014, many of whom receive electronic versions of our weekly circulars or monthly
newsletters.
We tailor our advertisements to specific markets, which provides us with greater flexibility to offer
different promotions and respond to local competitive activity. In addition, we advertise our sales
promotions and support our brand image through the use of local radio, as well as targeted direct
mail in specific markets. We also maintain our website, www.sprouts.com, on which we display our
weekly sales flyers and offer special deals and coupons and continue to expand our social media
platform. The inclusion of our website address in this Annual Report on Form 10-K does not include
or incorporate by reference the information on or accessible through our website herein. As of
December 28, 2014, we had approximately 1,170,000 Facebook fans, up from approximately
324,000 at the end of 2013. In 2012, we also began launching Facebook pages for each new store
opening, which we believe helps build awareness and excitement around our new stores.
We believe our lead time for weekly print advertising is significantly shorter than many of our
peers, thereby providing a competitive advantage for Sprouts. This shorter period affords us
flexibility in our promotional offerings which can result in our ability to purchase perishable
inventory at greater volumes with better pricing from our sourcing partners and thus deliver
exceptional value to our customers.
In addition to the weekly circulars, the table below describes a few of the numerous other saving
opportunities for our customers, all of which are meant to reinforce our value offering and are
designed to appeal to specific target customers. In 2014, we had approximately 29 department-
wide promotions at each store throughout the year.
Promotional Activity Description
Double-Ad Wednesday As weekly ads run from Wednesday to Wednesday, on each Wednesday
there are twice as many items on sale
Vitamin Extravaganza Every vitamin, supplement and body care product is 25% off regular retail
pricing
Frozen Frenzy 20% off any frozen item a customer can fit into a Sprouts grocery bag. These
products include natural and organic entrees, side dishes, and frozen
vegetables and desserts
Gluten-Free Jubilee 25% off thousands of gluten-free products in all departments
72-Hour Sale On select Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, stores run special ad prices on
popular meat, vitamins, bulk items and everyday groceries
Incredible Bulk Sale 25% off all bulk bin items, bulk spices, and bulk coffees
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