New brands for Ocado’s non-grocery digital stores

Ocado, the largest online food retailer in the world, has created whole new brand strategies for its latest non-grocery digital stores.

Online pet store, Fetch, and the recently revealed kitchen and dining store, Sizzle, were both created in collaboration with branding consultancy The Clearing.

Sizzle aspires to the same premium level maintained by the Ocado brand, and its partner Waitrose. Waitrose’s identity as a high-end supermarket, with an emphasis on quality, has been an inseparable aspect of the Ocado brand since it first began trading in 2002. However, the new non-grocery brand is comprehensive enough to stand alone, and is intended to attract new visitors to the Ocado site.

Richard Buchanan, director of consulting at The Clearing, says, “We’ve been working closely with Ocado over the last 2 years to develop several non-grocery businesses, and Sizzle is the second to launch. Our strategy for Sizzle was built on positioning the kitchen at the heart of the home. With competitors focused on the ‘perfect’ table arrangement, we created a more human brand, recognising the importance of the kitchen as the place where we cook, eat, catch-up and connect with those who matter the most – our family and friends. This allowed us to develop clear, defendable territory for Sizzle, building a brand with a strong, memorable identity designed to appeal to an upmarket, specialist audience – people with a passion for food, style and life.”

The Sizzle online store uses photography that shows its products in use. This, and the site’s tone of voice, ensures that the customer, and the way that they use kitchen and dining products in day-to-day life, remains the focus as they navigate around the store. This in turn reinforces the brand concepts of convenience and responsiveness to customer needs that sit at the heart of the successful Ocado brand.