Our new branding, 'Try Something New Today', is much more than a slogan. The spirit and success of the campaign has inspired our entire business, and customers love it too.

The idea for 'Try Something New Today' came about because we wanted to encourage people to visit their local store to experience the improvements we had made. The insight behind the campaign was that although an average supermarket stocks around 30,000 products, customers tend to purchase from around the same 150 products each week and often don't notice what's going on around them in the store.

We tested this idea by reworking research originally carried out by Harvard University. We dressed someone in a gorilla suit and sent them into store. We then asked customers if they had noticed anything unusual while doing their shopping. The vast majority had not and the concept of 'sleep-shopping' was born.

So 'Try Something New Today' aims to inspire customers to think beyond their normal range of products. The campaign provides simple ways to make small but significant changes to the food we buy and eat. The campaign has been incredibly well received by colleagues and customers.

Our advertising, featuring Jamie Oliver, has publicised the campaign to an even wider audience, and sales of whole nutmeg increased from 1,400 jars to 6,000 a week after Jamie used it as seasoning for pasta. Colleagues now get to try products and recipes so they can experience them first hand and recommend ideas to customers. More than seven million customers are collecting our 'tip cards', and we've given out more than 100 million cards so far.

Clearly, the relationship between colleagues and customers can make an enormous difference and we take it very seriously. Every store colleague received new customer service training last autumn.

My Board colleagues and I also piloted a two-day training course focused on embedding new ways to lead our business, and helped to then deliver that training to 1,000 of our managers from stores and central teams. They, in turn, are delivering that training to a further 9,000 managers.

Fresh ideas

We've applied the thinking behind 'Try Something New Today' to the way we work. For example, we now have an 'email free day' in our Store Support Centre, to encourage colleagues to get up from their desks and communicate in person.