1. Why Trader Joe’s (and You) Should
Be On Pinterest
A Whitepaper
Holly Fuller
Social Media as Mass Communication
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2. Executive Summary
It’s easy to forget about Pinterest. In a sea of perceived “big names” like Facebook,
Twitter, and LinkedIn, Pinterest is often forgotten or deemed unworthy of a fraction of the social
media budget. What most people don't realize is that Pinterest records more traffic than YouTube,
Google+, and LinkedIn combined. Pinterest holds the record for the fastest social site to garner
ten million visitors per month in the history of social media (Lutrell, 2015). Pinterest users
follow an average of 9.3 retailers and spend an average of 90 minutes per month on the site. It’s
obvious this social network has been severely underestimated.
One company who is guilty of minimizing the validity of Pinterest is Trader Joe’s, a
California-based, privately held chain of grocery stores. Trader Joe’s is considered a market
leader in organic and fresh food groceries in the United States. Although Pinterest is a very
popular medium for users to share and discover recipes and food inspiration, Trader Joe’s has
abstained from creating an account, instead allowing fans to rule the Pinterest social sphere.
Whole Foods, another organic foods giant, is a similarly-sized chain
that has taken a completely different approach. Whole Foods is widely
praised for its Pinterest account, which is often cited as a perfect
example of a brand presence on Pinterest. Using the platform as an
extension of the brand, its core values, and as a communication tool,
Whole Foods has achieved a lasting connection with its customers,
something that all organizations strive toward.
Introduction
Launched in 2010, Pinterest has become a social media
powerhouse in its few years. Described by their CEO Ben Silbermann as a
“catalog of ideas” that inspires users to “go out and do that thing”, Pinterest
records more traffic than YouTube, Google+, and LinkedIn combined. Additionally, Pinterest
holds the record for the fastest social site to garner ten million visitors per month in the history of
social media. People use Pinterest to visually share, curate, and uncover new interests by
“pinning” images and occasionally video to their own virtual pinboards. The network expertly
connects people and triggers them to share and communicate. Something important to note is
that Pinterest is an overwhelmingly female environment, with 97% of Pinterest’s Facebook fans
identifying as female.
In the process, Pinterest has become a significant tool for marketers and advertisers, with
hundreds of brands registered on the site currently. Pinterest for Business allows a company to
receive analytics on their account, including which posts are engaging the audience most and
audience demographics. Pinterest also offers Promoted Pins for business accounts, which are just
like regular pins, but are financially backed to ensure they are seen by more people. These tools
can help brands reach the audience they want to reach, and the evidence suggests that Pinterest
users are worth the effort. The average user follows 9.3 retailers and spends an average of 90
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3. minutes per month on the site (Pinterest, 2016). Even more exciting for brands is the fact that 93
percent of pinners use Pinterest to plan or make purchases. While Pinterest is a place where
people go to curate ideas and get inspired, they end up getting inspired to shop, a testament to
Pinterest’s power at facilitating discovery.
Background Information
Trader Joe’s is not your typical grocery store. Founded in 1958 in Pasadena, California,
the nationwide chain describes itself as “your neighborhood grocery store”, with products
including organic foods, vegetarian foods, gourmet foods, and unusual frozen foods. While a
typical grocery store may carry 50,000 items, an average Trader Joe’s stocks about 4,000 items.
The chain currently operates 457 stores, with approximately half located in the state of
California. The brand is a leader in the organic foods movement, and has stated that its private
label products contain no artificial flavors, preservatives, MSG, or trans fat (Trader Joe’s, 2016).
This fact, and the surprisingly low prices, prompts many people to visit their local Trader Joe’s.
Fans are very vocal, sharing their favorite Trader Joe’s products online, creating recipes
incorporating Trader Joe’s brands, and building shopping lists for how to shop at the store for the
week.
Shockingly, Trader Joe’s does not employ any traditional advertising methods. They don’t
purchase television or print ads, they do not use an advertising agency, and all of the artwork
featured in stores is made in-store, by hand. The occasional radio ad that is
played is read by a company employee, rather than a paid voice actor.
This also means that Trader Joe’s does not have a single social media
presence. The only connection that the chain has to the outside
world is their website. Their philosophy is that spending money on
paid advertising means that customer prices would need to
increase, which they are not willing to do. Therefore, the brand
relies almost solely on customer loyalty to stay in business.
The Problem
At first glance, it might seem that Trader Joe’s is doing just fine
without traditional advertising, social media, or Pinterest. But in August
of 2013, Trader Joe’s had to confront its lack of social presence when it filed
suit against Pirate Joe’s, an unaffiliated, unauthorized re-seller of Trader Joe’s products in
Vancouver, British Columbia. The owner of Pirate Joe’s, Michael Hallatt, described himself as
“Trader Joe’s best customer”, having spent more than $350,000 on product in a two year time
period, and then hauling the product back to Canada to resell at a higher price (Kim, 2013).
The level to which this situation is problematic can be debated. Trader Joe’s sells a lot of
product, much of which is sold to Hallatt. Hallatt makes a small chunk of change by reselling in
his home country. However, Trader Joe’s decided to sue on the grounds of trademark
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4. infringement and false advertising, claiming that the existence of Pirate Joe’s is a threat to Trader
Joe’s brand image. The result was a social media firestorm that met the lawsuit with boos
directed at Trader Joe’s, and fans siding heavily with Pirate Joe’s. Hallatt responded to the
lawsuit by dropping the “P” from his storefront, altering the display to read Irate Joe’s.
Here’s the real issue: Trader Joe’s had no clue that backlash even existed. Because much
of the conversation was occurring over social media, and because Trader Joe’s refuses to
participate on any platform, the company remained oblivious to the damage being done on the
very thing the lawsuit was trying to protect: their brand image. In this age, where social media
reigns supreme, if a company does not control its own message, someone else will.
And, unsurprisingly, someone else has. Despite, or perhaps because of, Trader’s Joe’s
nonexistent social media presence, fans have taken to social networks to generate and share
Trader Joe’s-related content. One fan in particular has taken it upon herself to stand in for Trader
Joe’s on social networks, promoting herself as a kind of brand ambassador. Natasha Fischer is
the name behind Trader Joe’s List, an account that can be found on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr,
Instagram, and yes, even Pinterest. The consistency that Fischer’s content maintains, as well as
the frequency in which content is published, creates customer confusion. Many people mistake
the Trader Joe’s List account for an account owned and operated by Trader Joe’s, which is the
same sort of error that Trader Joe’s felt should be addressed in a lawsuit. With Fischer quite
literally managing Trader Joe’s social media fanbase, she has a significant amount of power over
Trader Joe’s, even though she has never been endorsed by them.
The nonexistent online presence problem also surfaces on a local level, albeit in a
different way. A few years back, a customer posted a picture of a broken wine display inside a
Trader Joe’s on the location-monitoring app Foursquare, along with a complaint. The post
received a number of comments, most of a negative nature. Trader Joe’s, of course, offered no
response. These types of situations, which occur more often than the chain might be comfortable
with, slowly chip away at the brand’s carefully cultivated image. Trader Joe’s is also missing out
on valuable opportunities to engage with its customers by addressing customer service concerns.
These are efforts that can improve operation processes and customer experience.
The bottom line is that Trader Joe’s anti-advertising model promotes a one-way system of
communication. With the company only disseminating information via their website, Trader
Joe’s has set up an environment where they can talk at customers, but customers are unable to
talk back. Any modestly well-read public relations practitioner knows that this is a mistake. A
company simply cannot engage with its fanbase by spitting information at them; in order for
engagement to exist, there must be the opportunity for conversation. At this point in time, Trader
Joe’s is not offering this opportunity to its customers, and they are worse off because of it.
The Solution
In today’s digital mobile world where consumers make purchasing decisions based on
local searches, Trader Joe’s strategic avoidance of social networks has become impractical.
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5. While Trader Joe’s would greatly benefit from adopting all of the most popular social media
accounts, even just claiming the Trader Joe’s name on Pinterest would be a good place to start.
Hundreds of brands are currently using Pinterest to generate traffic to their websites,
which often results in sales. The site hosts 100 million monthly users who are looking to take
actions based on posts. A user might search the keywords “cool jacket” and a jacket made by
Patagonia might appear in the search results. What happens next is truly a marketer’s dream:
they literally pin their interest in the product. This makes it incredibly easy to determine which
products or services are resonating with consumers and which are not. Pinterest is also home to
over 60 million shoppable posts, which Pinterest reports are bringing in new customers that a
brand might not have reached otherwise.
Trader Joe’s could use Pinterest to take control of their brand image in the social sphere
for a relatively low cost. Signing up for a business account on Pinterest is free, with the only
costs coming from the use of any Promoted Pins the brand might decide to purchase. Even
without the extra cost, Trader Joe’s would have everything they need to finally interact with
customers by cultivating creative and interesting boards, liking and commenting on other
people’s pins, and drive traffic to their website by including the URL in their “About” section.
Carefully choosing keywords in the descriptions of their pins will allow Trader Joe’s to be found
by pinners conducting searches. Making sure each of Trader Joe’s original content pins have a
“Pin It!” button at the bottom will help readers easily share the brand’s content. Pinterest also
grants its users capabilities to find out who pins their materials. Trader Joe’s would be able to see
which of their posts and images are resonating with users the most, and therefore gaining insight
on how to modify their content strategy (Johnson, 2015).
However, debatably the greatest impact that could be gained from Trader Joe’s utilizing
Pinterest would be the extension of the brand that Pinterest can build. Creating a board that tells
the story of Trader Joe’s and communicates its core values would begin to solidify who Trader
Joe’s is as a brand, which has clearly been an issue of legal consequence in the past. Pinterest
would transform Trader Joe’s outdated method of one-way communication into a two-way
model, which is the ideal model for business communication. Simply stated, customers of Trader
Joe’s will finally be able to engage in conversation with the brand, instead of the brand just
disseminating information at its customers.
Communication on Pinterest can take many different forms. Users have the ability to re-
pin posts that they enjoyed to their own boards, which can then be seen by other users.
Additionally, a user has the option to follow a particular board, therefore receiving updates from
Pinterest any time that board is added to or changed. Trader Joe’s could carefully monitor these
behaviors to find out which topics their customers are interested in and which ones they are not.
Even greater, perhaps, is the ability for users to comment on posts in Pinterest. This would be
quite literally the first opportunity for customers to directly speak to Trader Joe’s, and the first
opportunity for Trader Joe’s to listen to and truly interact with its fans.
This listening element is exactly what has been lacking from Trader Joe’s business model,
and Pinterest seems to be a perfect solution. Customers would have the opportunity to directly
address Trader Joe’s in the overwhelmingly positive atmosphere that is Pinterest. Trader Joe’s
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6. previous excuse about financial investment in advertising affecting store pricing would no longer
be viable, as Pinterest is a free alternative if you choose to keep it that way. Lastly, Trader Joe’s
could take control of their brand image by cementing itself as the real representative of their
brand on Pinterest, instead of allowing fans to masquerade as the brand itself. Pinterest has the
ability to really transform into a brand that embraces the change of technology, which is the
mindset of many of its competitors.
The Payoff
One of these competitors is Whole Foods Market, which
upon comparison, is a brand much like Trader Joe’s. Each chain
clocks in with around 440 stores, and each is known for their
dedication to organic and fresh foods (Whole Foods Market, 2016).
However, Whole Foods Market has taken a completely different
approach to social media than Trader Joe’s, and is widely
considered a leader on Pinterest.
Whole Foods adopted Pinterest quickly, and was one of the
first brands on the network when they established their account in
July of 2011. Today, the company boasts 282,500 followers on
Pinterest, and has pinned a total of 4,700 pins onto 36 boards. Within
those 36 boards, however, a user would find it difficult to find a pin of an actual Whole Foods
product. That’s because the company’s strategy on Pinterest is not to promote product, but to
create a lasting connection with their audience by communicating the lifestyle that Whole Foods
aspires to. This lifestyle includes themes of sustainability, recycling, do-it-yourself projects, and
of course, healthy eating. By creating aspirational lifestyle, Whole Foods can gradually nudge
casual pinners to become brand enthusiasts without making people feel like they are being
marketed to (Washenko, 2012).
The brand brings this lifestyle to Pinterest via a series of strategic boards. Whole Foods
currently showcases boards about gardening, the Whole Planet Foundation, and a board titled
“Save The Pollinators”, displaying their brand’s commitment to sustainability and preserving the
environment. There are also boards offering seasonal or holiday-oriented decorations and
recipes, proving that the company is staying current in order to engage with their audience. In
fact, they have already been pinning for Mother’s Day and Easter. They have also localized their
approach, including a board of things to do in Austin, Texas, where the company was founded.
Because Whole Foods has decided to veer away from product promotion and instead
focus on lifestyle engagement, these themed boards have the opportunity to attract consumers
who might not be fans of the brand yet, but are interested in one aspect of what makes the brand
unique. If someone is remodeling their kitchen and types “kitchens” into the Pinterest search bar,
Whole Foods “Dreamy Kitchens” board is likely to come up. This user is free to follow this
singular board without having to subscribe to all of Whole Foods interests, and the follow still
makes a valuable connection to a potential customer. This type of scenario seems to have a high
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7. frequency, as 35 of Whole Foods’s 36 boards have over 190,000 followers (Whole Foods
Market, 2016).
Another big part of Whole Foods’s incredible success on Pinterest is its regular presence
on the network. While this may sound obvious, maintaining a consistent stream of pins will
allow your brand to retain a position in the forefront of followers’ minds. This also optimizes the
engagement process. Too many brands create a Pinterest only to have it sit on the back burner, or
to visit it once in a while in order to bulk-pin to boards. These strategies simply don’t work, as
audience members do not respond to these tactics.
The time spent pinning has paid off, according to Michael Bepko, the global online
community manager for Whole Foods. Utilizing Pinterest as part of Whole Foods’s social media
strategy has increased traffic to the Whole Foods website, as well as opened up another medium
for dialogue with devoted fans and customers.
Conclusion
Trader Joe’s is currently missing out on valuable opportunities to engage with their
audience, relying on a one-way model of communication to run their business. In today’s digital
world, this concept has become both impractical and ineffective, as people are constantly on-the-
go and rely on social media to help them make purchasing decisions. They use social media to
give feedback on their experiences. They also use social media as a sounding board to discuss
any wrongdoings they feel that a company has engaged in. Trader Joe’s has had to deal with all
of these things poorly because they aren’t listening to their audience. There are also facing brand
confusion online because of their lack of presence.
Pinterest is a fine candidate to fix this issue, giving users a platform to give feedback to
Trader Joe’s, and giving Trader Joe’s a platform to engage with its fans. The brand taking control
of just one social media network would lead to less consumer confusion, and strengthen its
marketing strategy by providing valuable metrics on who is viewing posts and which posts are
performing the best. Pinterest is also a low-cost network for businesses, which makes it a viable
selection for Trader Joe’s, a company who has expressed concern over how an advertising budget
would affect store prices.
Whole Foods, a direct competitor of Trader Joe’s, has used Pinterest to much success,
becoming a case study on how to effectively use the social platform. By consistently pinning,
engaging with other users, and focusing on lifestyle instead of direct brand promotion, Whole
Foods has managed to increase traffic to their website, as well as cultivate a loyal following on
Pinterest.
If the strategy worked this well for Whole Foods, it would certainly be successful for
Trader Joe’s. The only thing left for the brand to do is take the leap.
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8. Sources
Johnson, Lauren. (2015, Nov. 9). How Pinterest Has Gotten Ad Agency Execs’ Full Attention.
Adweek. Retrieved from http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/how-pinterest-got-
full-attention-ad-agency-execs-168029.
Kim, Susanna. (2013, Oct. 7). Trader Joe’s Loses Vancouver Pirate Joe’s Lawsuit. ABC News.
Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/Business/trader-joes-lawsuit-canadians-pirate-
joes-vancouver-store/story?id=20492833.
Lutrell, Regina. (2015). Social Media: How to Engage, Share, and Connect. London, United
Kingdom: Rowman and Littlefield.
Pinterest for Business. (2016). Retrieved from https://business.pinterest.com/en.
Trader Joe’s. (2016). Retrieved from http://traderjoes.com.
Washenko, Anna. (2012, May 3). Why Whole Foods Sets the Example for a Pinterest Presence.
Sprout Social. Retrieved from http://sproutsocial.com/insights/whole-foods-pinterest/.
Whole Foods Market. (2016). Pinterest. Retrieved from https://www.pinterest.com/wholefoods/.
Whole Foods Market. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com.
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