The Dealmaker: Jon Wendel

Jan 25, 2010 12:00 PM, By MARK HAMSTRA

Jon Wendel took the top marketing post at Hy-Vee in late 2008 just as the entire economy took a nosedive and the country was mired in recession.

Because of his success in growing Hy-Vee’s sales and his shift toward more advanced electronic marketing, SN has named Wendel its 2010 Marketer of the Year.

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Online Marketing

 While Wendel took Hy-Vee more heavily into the online marketing world in 2009, the best is yet to come, he told SN.

 “In 2010, Hy-Vee will make drastic moves in the ways customers receive information — from Hy-Vee.com, Facebook, Twitter, TV and radio,” he told SN. “Forever in our industry it has been about sticking an ad out there on Wednesday and leaving it there, but that generation is moving on, and uses things like Facebook and Twitter.

 “We are going to move pretty quickly on this,” he added. “Starbucks is pretty awesome in the way they do this, rewarding their customers daily with different things, and Hy-Vee is going to move that way fast this year.”

 To accommodate the changes, Wendel has also been beefing up the marketing staff. A year ago, the company had one staffer handling the website, and that person was also handling other responsibilities in graphic design. Now there are two people working on the site, and Wendel said he thinks the company might add more.

 “I think we might need three or four just to stay up with HyVee.com so it is fresh and cool and sexy every day that somebody wants to go see it,” he said.

As part of the transition, the company has shifted 50% of its weekly print ad to the website, and the print ad refers readers to the website to find additional deals.

In one two-day promotion the company conducted earlier this month, Hy-Vee used no print media at all and instead promoted the event entirely through electronic media: TV, radio, the website, Facebook and Twitter.

 In 2009, as Hy-Vee shifted a large portion of its print-ad budget into TV and into the redesign of the website, the company saw a 40% increase in Web traffic, a Hy-Vee spokeswoman told SN. In addition, subscriptions to the company’s electronic newsletters more than doubled.

 “In my opinion, leveraging the power of online communication and social media is the next big idea to strengthen communication and drive trips,” said Hauptman of Willard Bishop.

 Hy-Vee also recently began looking into a rewards-card program — Hy-Vee does not use a loyalty card — and is eyeing further testing around the middle of 2010.

 “Instead of rewarding with lower prices on particular items, it will reward you for shopping at Hy-Vee in other ways,” Wendel said. “It will reward you with gas and other things.”

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