Asda recorded its best business results for two years following the launch of ‘Just Essentials’, with the value brand attracting 400,000 new shoppers from rival supermarkets within six months.
The country was sliding into the cost-of-living crisis and Asda’s sales were in decline. Aiming to win back market share from discounter competitors, the supermarket was replacing two existing value brands with a single proposition. The new ‘opening price point’ range would need to move away from connotations of ‘cheap’ and ‘poor quality’ and shake-up the category through a distinct design that budget stretched customers would be proud to shop.
Launched in May 2022, Just Essentials’ joyous identity, packaging and point of sale design by Our Creative reassures on quality, while providing easy aisle navigation and distinction from Asda’s mid-tier offer. Standing out from typical value category design cues, the vibrant, sunny look shines off shelf and online, helping shoppers ‘feel good’ about buying into the range’s 300 SKUs.
As a result of redeveloping the range, Asda saw a sales uplift of +114% year-on-year in the first year, outperforming market growth versus the big four supermarkets by +60%. Just Essentials won over shoppers and took the internet by storm. Positive sentiment spread across social media and videos tagged #JustEssentials had 6.7million views. Like-for-like sales increased 4.7% year-on-year, with 70% of Just Essentials’ spend coming from new customers. Asda moved into second position in the market, increasing share by 5% to 19.1%.
