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LMG CONFERENCE: THERE'S MORE IN STORE FROM LMG
There’s more in store from LMG
The Liquor Marketing Group held its national conference in Hawaii last month, Andy Young was there to hear about the group’s strong performance and its focus on continuing to be being better than yesterday.
The Liquor Marketing Group (LMG) said “Aloha” and “Mahalo nui loa” to its members last month, as more than 430 members, suppliers and invited guests gathered at the Moana Surfrider in Waikiki for the 2023 LMG National Conference.
Over the course of the week, there were three fundamental messages that everyone at LMG wanted all attendees to understand: members first, attracting one more shopper and be better than yesterday. It’s a triple mantra which has served the group well, and which has served members incredibly well.
I’m confident that we are delivering performance progress that we will look back on in 14 years and be very proud of what this group has achieved.
-Wayne Bayfield, Chairman, LMG
The messaging that LMG is a member-focused group started on the opening night, when Chairman, Wayne Bayfield and CEO Gavin Saunders welcomed all the Hawaiian-shirt wearing delegates to the conference.
“Welcome everybody, 14 years ago we were in Hawaii, and we can reflect on the changes in that time, but also what has remained consistent, and that is that LMG is totally about its members. That hasn’t changed, and won’t change,” Bayfield said to the group.
“I would like to welcome the new members; I am sure you’re going to enjoy yourselves and welcome to the LMG family. It’s this connection and members working together that makes us a great group. We all should feel proud of what we have achieved and the advancements we have made over the last number of years.
“I’m confident that we are delivering performance progress that we will look back on in 14 years and be very proud of what this group has achieved.”
Saunders added: “It is outstanding to have 430 delegates here. We are a business of sociability and we all, on a daily basis, work hard and we will talk a lot about work, but it’s great to take the opportunity to reconnect and have some fun.
“I love that I work for a membership-based group and that all our members are our asset, thank you all for taking the time to come here, and thank you to everyone at the LMG team who has worked hard to put this conference together.”
In simple terms, the conference was of the highest quality, which in turn is reflected in the quality of the group and its members. This was highlighted in the business sessions, which detailed the incredible growth that LMG has delivered for its members.
In opening the business sessions, Saunders said the theme for this year’s conference was ‘Are you Ready?’ and with what was to follow, it’s a well-suited theme, preparing members – and suppliers – for how LMG is looking to build on the strong growth it has enjoyed recently.
We are incredibly proud of the performance of the group and your performance, but one of our key corporate values is ‘better than yesterday’, so while we are proud of the performance, all that does is give us a great platform and great asset to continue to grow.
-Gavin Saunders, CEO, LMG
Saunders emphasised this point saying: “We are incredibly proud of the performance of the group and your performance, but one of our key corporate values is ‘better than yesterday’, so while we are proud of the performance, all that does is give us a great platform and great asset to continue to grow.”
But what does that growth actually mean in real terms, for LMG and its members? Over the last decade LMG and its members have grown from a group that used to compare itself against the performance of other independents, to one that compares with, and now has aspiration, to challenge the majors.
And while that level of growth is very impressive it is clear that Saunders, and the whole LMG team does not want to rest on the laurels of what it has already achieved, it wants to keep on achieving more. It wants to be better than yesterday.
Over the last six years LMG has posted strong growth, the group is now 71 per cent bigger than it was in 2018, and it was already a big group back then. One of the driving factors behind that, and something that Saunders said the whole group was very proud of, is that it has achieved six consecutive years of quarter-on-quarter growth. But it’s not just the group that is enjoying strong growth, like-for-like venues have been growing at 32 per cent over the past four years.
In addition, LMG has added more than 116 new members over the past four years, which breaks down to an average of one new bannered member store every 1.8 weeks.
The growth that LMG has experienced has enabled the group to keep investing in its membership, and that investment in its people and its stores was a continual message throughout the conference, one highlight of this has seen 170 stores refreshed, to help drive ‘one more shopper’.
LMG’s General Manager of Merchandise and Marketing, Damien Page, explained this by saying: “This is a shopperdriven move and making sure we deliver the best possible shopping experience that we can, will continue to enhance the growth in this business.”
Better than yesterday
Looking ahead at how LMG will continue to be member first, to be about one more shopper and to be better than yesterday, Page said the last six years of strong growth in the group began with the ‘Start at Bottlemart’, ‘Start at SipnSave’ marketing platform.
“This was the moment in time where we drew a line in the sand and talked about shopper first with everything we do”, Page said, adding that while the campaign has served the group well and has helped drive growth, it is time for a refresh and so the group has launched a new marketing platform for its Bottlemart and SipnSave stores.
The new platform was unveiled by LMG’s Head of Marketing, Ben Slocombe with the tagline ‘There’s more in store’. But as Slocombe explained, this platform is much more than just a tagline. He described it as an integrated campaign that brings the whole group together, puts members first and tells the story of what the brand promise is for Bottlemart and SipnSave.
Slocombe said: “If we are going to tell people our story, what are we going to say? It is a highly competitive liquor retail world that we live in, it’s a difficult world that we live in, and it can be hard to find growth. So, what’s the most compelling thing we can say?”
He added: “What does ‘there’s more in store’ mean? The new platform there’s more in store rationally says to people that we are going to always have them covered. We are going to have more deals, we are going to have more service, we are going to have more friendly staff, more range and more convenience. Anything you need, we are going to have you covered.
“But it’s also an idiom because it also means we have got more in store coming for the shoppers, we have got something more for you, we are going to be more innovative, there’s something around the corner. There’s more in store is a very powerful message for us.
“For retailers this is also a great message for those important occasions throughout the year – there’s more in store for Christmas, there’s more in store for Mother’s Day, there’s more in store for footy finals, you can see how we can apply it and just how versatile this is for us as retailers.”
After this conference it is also clear that there is more in store for LMG and in particular for its members, with Page highlighting that what LMG is passionate about is “driving our members’ performance every day of the week”. The better the members do, the more LMG is able to invest in its membership, to help them do even better, it’s a perpetual motion model that has proven itself over the past six years and more.
With a new marketing platform in place, strong growth to build on and investment in members a core focus of LMG, one more shopper and being better than yesterday the future looks bright and looks exciting for LMG and its members. There is definitely more in store.
