A news feature caught our attention this past week involving a supermarket and a program they are promoting. Seemed pretty straight forward.  The supermarket rates the products in their store and awards either 1, 2, or 3 stars based upon the value of the product for their customers.  The statistic that caught our attention was the increase of sales of skim milk versus whole milk since the star program was begun. Skim milk sales for this supermarket have increased by 4% since it received 3 stars, while whole milk sales actually decreased by 1% during the same time period.  That is a 5% swing between the two products!

What if we were to award stars for our own products in order to draw our prospect's attention toward something that can be of great benefit to them?  Wouldn't that help increase the sales of "earmarked" products while generating interest in all products in order to examine the differences in "perceived value" of each due to the star designation attached to the entire line?  It seems pretty straight forward.  Challenge the prospect to inspect, examine, and judge the merits of each product based upon our pre-determined rating system. 

The name of the business with the three star rating system is Hannaford.  They also award no stars to certain products.  In order to receive stars, the product must meet specific nutritional criteria as set by their panel of medical and scientific experts. The stars are not just awarded to products, the products must earn the stars.  If you want to know more about their program, go to www.hannaford.com and read about their "Guiding Stars" program under their Healthy Living icon on the main page.  Thank you, Hannaford!

We need your help.  We have just added a new product that we believe deserves a three star rating amongst our products.  One of our partners, Richard Legg, has just released "Succeed in 30 Days". You can review this product by clicking on that icon under the "Our Partners" category on our blog page.  Let us know what you think about this new offering.  Does it rate "Three Stars"?  We await comments from you, our panel of experts!

The Plain Page Prophets