The news haunts grocers like a bad dream, causing more than one sleepless night: Seven of every 10 shoppers carries two or more grocery frequency cards ... 2003 was the worst year for grocery stores since 1992 ... Supermarket sales decline 25 percent when a Super Center opens in the area ... Even discount giant Wal-Mart has been forced to reduce its sales forecast, confessing that it was “too optimistic.”

While some of the bad press can be blamed on the economy, recent research points the finger at flagging loyalty among consumers. Less than 50 percent of consumers are considered truly loyal — meaning that they plan to continue the relationship and continue to buy from their retailer of choice, according to a Walker Information Group study. And 43 percent claim to be “trapped,” biding their time until a better offering presents itself.

So how, then, can supermarkets cultivate loyalty with shoppers so they’ll buy more products, more often? Segment shoppers into distinct groups and cater different offers to each. In other words: give ’em what they want. Recent Forrester research advises offering preferred services to retain satisfied shoppers, promoting your product assortment to sway product enthusiasts, delivering saving incentives to keep frugal families and capturing deal junkies with perks beyond price.

This comes as no surprise to CCG VP of National Retail Sales Sallie Burnett. “In any retail environment, building relationships by identifying, understanding and communicating with customers on their terms is the best way to deepen the relationship,” she explains. “This is something most grocery frequency programs aren’t currently doing. They focus on price rather than value.”

That’s part of the reason why Baltimore-based Super Fresh came to CCG. Its current card program was focused mostly on discounts and offered no real incentive to use the card — a compromising situation considering 81 percent of customers actively participate in frequent shopper programs, according to AC Neilsen research.

To help Super Fresh differentiate itself and drive store traffic, CCG masterminded Club Fresh, a tiered loyalty program designed to cement relationships with high-value customers. The only program of its kind in the Super Fresh marketplace, Club Fresh focuses on best customer segments and those most likely to become best customers. A combination of soft and hard benefits keeps the program from cutting into margins and becoming just another discount card. These benefits — and what’s required to earn them — are consistently communicated to customers through in-store signage, direct mail, POS messaging, mass advertising and on the front line by store associates. By keeping the program top-of mind with customers and offering targeted benefits, Super Fresh is effectively able to drive store traffic, increase usage of the card and increase average basket size.

“The real challenge for the grocery industry is to do more than just keep customers satisfied,” says Burnett. “Customers must feel like they’re appreciated and that they get more than the average shopper in return for their loyalty.”

Indeed, the Walker Information study warns, “Many shoppers are satisfied wherever they go. They may look at two comparable stores and say, ‘both are great retailers and meet my needs, and I don’t see any difference in them.’ But truly loyal customers say, ‘that’s my favorite store’ and refuse to consider buying from a competitor.” And with the launch of Club Fresh, that’s exactly the kind of loyalty Super Fresh hopes to snare.