Ch. 17 - Advertising and Public Relations

    Unlike many companies, Whole Foods Market does very little traditional advertising. Their strategy instead has always been to use a more grassroots approach and to try to reinvest as many dollars into the local communities and causes instead. The little advertising that they do is on a local and/or regional level. According to Bill Tolany of Whole Foods Market, responses to customer comments make up 85% of all the Tweets the company sends out. 10% of the Tweets are content-based and 5% are promotional. Tolany said customers who are more knowledgeable about food are more likely to be Whole Foods customers. So, the company makes efforts to help people learn more about ingredients, locate recipes and pick up health tips. Notice, this information serves to benefit customers not, blatantly advertise for the company. Whole Foods makes itself more approachable by encouraging customers to interact with them through social networking.