Born Social: A Talk With Jim Hiller of Hiller’s Markets

 

Almost four years ago, I was sitting at my desk working on a project for a client and stumbled across area grocer Jim Hiller’s blog, A Message From The Helm. As a copywriter and recent college grad, I’d certainly heard of blogs before, but I’d never seen one attached to a business’s site written from such a personal perspective. 

This was before terms like social media marketing and transparency were regular parts of our vernacular. It was also before I’d ever shopped in a Hiller’s and experienced the culture of genuine community and small-town hospitality that comes with every purchase. Now I do daily and every time I fall more in love with my market. Sometimes the wonderful gentleman in the produce section encourages me to try something new. "You always buy the purple grapes. Try the green this time. Live a little." Over the holidays I was baking some Creme Brulee French Toast and needed a loaf of Challah. After the woman in the bakery and I searched high and low without success and I'd moved on, she tracked me down four aisles away, giddy, holding a loaf she'd just gotten off the truck. "Tell me how the recipe turns out," she said.

Some of the shrewdest people “selling social” these days understand that in order for it to work, the company must behave socially in their DNA, not just online. Even six-year-olds know when people are being friendly just to get something. And I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s discovered that some companies knew this before we sent them a Tweet telling them so. I had the very real pleasure of speaking with Jim Hiller in attempt to learn more about the uncannily social behavior of his company that seems to run much deeper than online platforms and into the core of the Hiller’s philosophy. 

In 1941 Sidney Hiller, Jim’s father, opened his first market at Michigan and Central Ave in the heart of a Polish neighborhood in Detroit. “There he was, a Jewish man learning to speak Polish. He became part of the community and he hired people from within it. He set the path for us and that ethos has stayed with us,” said Hiller. 

As for how that path lead to using social platforms in their marketing, Hiller explained, “I think this term we call social media is simply a euphemism for person-to-person marketing.” And though that may seem like a simple analogy, I believe that it is his ability to see the very human side of what many companies are approaching as “new technology” that has made Hiller’s social media foray mirror the success he’s had in his seven stores. “We listen to people. We listen to every person.” 

Though we often claim that social media has opened opportunities for businesses to actually listen to their customers, Hiller’s has always built their business around the customer. Their Commerce Township location services Detroit’s Japanese community by stocking a large number of Japanese products and produce and hiring Japanese-speaking employees to serve as cultural guides. Hiller’s is also the nation’s largest carrier of gluten-free products due to their quick response to customers asking for it when they couldn’t find it anywhere else. 

As for the social media mantra of “helping other businesses is good business,” again, nothing new to the Hiller's philosophy. If he loves a business, he gets behind it. Just ask Garden Fresh Salsa and Velvet Peanut Butter about the Hiller’s Touch.

When I asked him what prompted him to begin living out loud by starting a blog on his company’s site, he said simply, “I’ve always loved to write.” Not a marketing ploy. Not an attempt to increase SEO. But like his stores, just another way to connect with his community around something he loves. If you visit his blog (and I highly recommend you do), you’ll find a fabulous recipe for building a community —one part great food, one part passion for helping others and one part being real. 

For a girl who spends her days preaching the merits of Social DNA, it’s nice to spend some time talking to someone who could teach me a thing or three. I look forward to watching one of our most socially savvy businesses continue to grow community, online and off.

Jen Wright, Yaffe Social Media Strategist and Daily Hiller's Patron