The company’s own brands ALDI, namely Gutbio , lake Treasures of the Sea and BakeOff, were chosen as the best by consumers in the categories of “Biological Products”, “Facial Products”, “Preserves” and “Pastry and Bakery”, respectively, winning the “Consumer Choice 2024” Award, awarded by ConsumerChoice – Consumer Satisfaction Assessment Center.
We spoke with Ricardo SantosManaging Director Marketing and Communication at ALDI Portugal, and we’ll tell you more about the company’s DNA now.
Currently, a brand does not sell a set of products, but rather experiences and solutions that respond to customer needs and all this combined with a unique brand identity and the construction of an emotional connection between the consumer and the brand. And it is this entire set that can be said to be the biggest challenge in winning over consumers today, the perfect balance between all these elements. This is where ALDI has been working, so that consumers, when entering our stores, feel familiar with our concept. That when trying our brands you can recognize their quality and understand their relevance throughout the process, as we constantly seek to listen to our customers in order to meet their needs.
A ALDI created the Discount concept for more than 100 years and this DNA is very present in our daily lives. In this sense, the superpower that the ALDI brand gives to the consumer is the “savings superpower”, since, through our own brands, customers are able to have differentiating and high-quality items at always low prices, being able to have a cart full of experiences and flavors, without having to empty their wallet.
We frequently receive various questions and requests about places to future stores and new products. However, taking into account that we are talking about consumer satisfaction, one of the most important points to highlight is the first contact, interaction and attention we give to our customers. In this sense, there are countless compliments we receive from our store colleagues and I would like to share two of them:
I want to praise the employee “Luisinha” at the Póvoa de Santa Iria store, very polite, friendly and always smiling, you cannot remain indifferent. The day she was in the box, she managed to make me smile, when I was quite sad”.
“I went with my mother to the Mealhada store. My mother is already elderly and felt very welcome and attended to by a girl, very friendly, smiling and polite. It was my first time at this store, but I would like to express my gratitude and praise for their service.”
Attention to the customer, making the customer feel welcomed and well received is, without a doubt, a key factor in ensuring that consumers continue to trust ALDI to be part of their daily lives.
Our Bread with suckling pig, for example, was a suggestion from one of our colleagues who, while traveling around the country, came across several restaurants and cafes whose specialty was “sandwiches”, something that is quite typical in Portugal. In this sense, he thought how great it would be if he could always have “on hand”, in any ALDI, a bread with freshly baked suckling pig meat and, thus, our Bread with Piglet was created, one of the star products of our Bakery and Pastry Shop. .
ALDI’s strategy involves investing in offer of own brands, which allows us to control the entire supply chain. Therefore, processes are analyzed to be as efficient as possible and the selection of items in the store is planned so that the customer can find what they need quickly, simply and easily. All this focus on efficiency, control and speed allows for a constant cost optimizationthus enabling ALDI to have low prices for efficiency and not by reducing quality.
In this sense, the factors that will contribute to us being a brand of the future are in our genesis, in who we are and want to continue to be: efficiency, control, quality, speed and response. It is through the implementation of these five key points that ALDI will continue to make a difference and grow, year after year.