DALLAS – Texas-based specialty food retailer Central Market has launched a robust new website, www.centralmarket.com, with foodies in mind. Concepted and developed by Dallas independent The Richards Group in coordination with its digital and design arms – Click Here, Inc. and RBMM – the site is a digital playground with interactive content, expert how-to advice and culinary inspiration for those passionate about food.
“We’ve created a really fun, dynamic space to make our customers’ mouths water,” said Cory Basso, Group Vice President of Marketing and Advertising for H-E-B, the parent company of Central Market. “This is not your typical grocery store website – we wanted to extend the personalized experience of shopping in our stores to online. We’ve created easy access to weekly specials, recipes, entertaining inspiration and our cooking school. It reads like a foodie’s paradise full of ideas and news.”
To provide maximum functionality of the site without compromising the integrity of the creative, developers used “smart widgets” to create a customized content function that lets users select their neighborhood Central Market store and see only relevant information for that location, such as weekly promotions, “Dinner for Two” specials, store events and cooking class schedules. Users also can access more than 1,500 recipes, searching for dishes by keyword, meal type, season or cuisine. Built using HTML5, the site showcases new animation that lets visitors “play with their food” and interact with various ingredients.
Also part of the new site is the official Central Market “More, Please!” blog, which features daily posts on everything from seasonal ingredients to party-planning tips. The blog offers practical cooking tips for food like seafood, vegetables and fresh herbs.
“This site clearly communicates the brand personality of Central Market and what makes the brand so special to customers – it will appeal to the foodie in everybody,” said Dale Hruby, principal at The Richards Group. “From a creative and technical standpoint, this is one of the most ambitious sites the agency has done in years.”
The website launch follows a new creative campaign that broke in February 2012. Titled “Really Into Food” and inspired by Central Market’s own customers, the campaign includes radio spots, print ads, online and mobile ad units, in-store and environmental signage, and even a new catering van.
About Central Market
Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Central Market is known for its open, serpentine-flow, full-view European-style layout that offers a completely new food shopping experience. A bountiful produce department with unmatched quality and variety, an 80-foot seafood case with selections from throughout the world, hundreds of cheeses, 2,500 wine labels, stupendous specialty grocery aisles with delights from every continent, and a world-class cooking school featuring hands-on instruction are among the features that make the Central Market experience unique. Visit www.centralmarket.com for more information.
About The Richards Group
The Richards Group, located in Dallas, is the largest independent branding agency in the nation. Agency clients include the standard-setting brands of Advance Auto Parts, Bridgestone, Chick-fil-A, Fruit of the Loom, GameStop, The Home Depot, MetroPCS, Motel 6, Orkin and The Patrón Spirits Company. Total billings for the agency were $1.29 billion in 2011. The Richards Group can be found at richards.com. #
Source: Central Market
