SBR 59: How Morrison’s marketing strategy trumps price wars
UK grocery has spent recent years trapped in a price-match echo-chamber. Shoppers certainly notice price, but the messaging din is deafening and has become wallpaper.
This week, Morrisons has chosen to break rank. Its new “Fresh from Market Street” campaign (created by Leo Burnett, launched 27 May) drops unsuspecting customers onto storm-lashed fishing boats and muddy fields before whip-panning them inside a bright Morrisons store where the same produce sits ready—filleted, sliced and bagged. The line: “We’ve already done the hard work for you.”
The counter nobody else can copy
Market Street from Morrisons is their trump card. Competitors can replicate loyalty mechanics or shelf-edge tech; they cannot easily match fully staffed fish, meat, bakery and deli counters in every large store. By making shoppers feel the graft of catching a North Sea mackerel themselves (do mackerel come from the North Sea?), Morrisons turns an operational feature into an emotional benefit.
Why the work lands
Cuts through price-match noise. Showing a fishmonger who will fillet your salmon or make a recommendation for that fish pie (something Aldi can’t offer) creates mental availability that a penny cheaper never will.
Shows rather than tells. Two-thirds of each 30″ spot is set up before the reveal. Freshness isn’t claimed; it’s experienced.
Feels modern, not nostalgic. High production values and a playful rug-pull re-frame counters as contemporary craft services, not a throwback food hall.
Time will tell on this strategy
Kantar’s latest 12-week read (to 18 May 2025) shows Morrisons edging up to 8.4 % share, with sales +1.1 % year-on-year—its second straight period of growth. Hopefully this work will see an increase in momentum.
Turning “only-we” truths into growth
Great advertising is just the final mile though. At BBD we help FMCG brands unfold their distinctive truth into a repeatable growth engine.
If your brand owns a truth the market can’t replicate, don’t whisper it behind a price sticker—hero it so vividly your audience can taste it. And if you need a partner to turn that truth into sustainable commercial growth, we’d love to chat.