Think little

Small supermarkets are here to stay. In fact, for most people, it’s hard to remember what life was like before them.

You can’t go too far without seeing an Express (which brings to mind: bus travel, Royally obsessed newspaper), Metro (Parisian underground, free newspaper) or Local (quick pint, bad newspaper). None of them sound like much fun, and food shopping should be fun. Well, not fun fun – it is food shopping after all – but not dull, at least.

Now there's a new kid on the block – Little Waitrose. And that is a good name.

So what’s good about ‘Little’?

Simple. It uses the language the customer would use – it's a wonder nobody thought of it before. Warm, welcoming and just the right side of twee, you can imagine people using it in everyday conversations:

‘Darling, I’m off to Waitrose.’

‘Which one? Big Waitrose or Little Waitrose?’

‘Little Waitrose.’

‘Great. Make sure you pick up some Essential Roasted Artichokes, will you?’

Putting lazy stereotypes aside, the best thing about it is that it doesn’t actually feel like it’s been named. And sometimes, that’s the thing that turns people off – the thought that an expensively assembled team of namers sat around brainstorming ideas that will appeal to the ‘target audience’.

It sounds easy, but it’s not. There would have been a lot of messages to get across in that name: convenience, choice, value for money and all that other supermarket stuff. But they plumped for size and gave people the benefit of the doubt with the others.

It works brilliantly. And above all, it sounds fresh – and that’s got to be a good thing for any supermarket.