Ramsay Son & Parker

Supermarket & Retailer - March 2006

Highlight the strength of their magazine offer to the male consumer and displace their rivals and gain better display on the magazine racks

Was your first reaction to this ad "Mmmm - so what!"? You can be forgiven, it was our reaction too.

However, if you were a supermarket operator and had experienced the flak they get from customers for displaying male interest 'girlie magazines' with near naked females on the covers in the magazine racks, it would have a very powerful message. It tells supermarkets that they can boldly display these magazines at eye level, create a magnet for male shoppers and not antagonise an important customer segment.

You may note how powerful a consideration this is to retailers from the fact that many of the more extreme of this genre of magazine only get onto some magazine racks and only if they are wrapped in plastic. And then, they only get onto the highest most remote shelves.

The scramble for display for magazines is no less than for any other fmcg product category in-store. While publisher Ramsay Son & Parker's first objective in their brief to ad agency Ogilvy Cape Town was to highlight the strength of their offer to the male consumer, in discussion, the opportunity to displace their rivals on the racks was also identified.

The creative from Ogilvy does both. It is powerful and subtle and opens up the way for Ramsay's people to negotiate better display in-store.

Imana Soup

Supermarket & Retailer and C-Store - June 2005

Introduce revamped pack design to existing stockists and stores that had yet to list it

Marie Pelser, brand manager at Imana, says that they have had their Imana soup 'for ever'. When they revamped their pack last year they needed to let both the bottom end stores and the chains know about the pack change and indeed to let many of them know that the product existed.

Marie chose Supermarket & Retailer and C-Store magazines and developed a full page ad that had a sample pack stuck on it. Since the appearance of the ads their sales doubled, then quadrupled and then doubled again.

Its a mixture of the trade knowing about the pack change and learning about the product, says Marie. They had calls from both Spar and Pick ‘n Pay who as a result of the ad listed the product for the first time. From the time the ads appeared their sales have just snowballed and show no signs of slowing - they’re really looking forward to winter this year.

Marie says Supermarket & Retailer and C-Store were good choices and she plans to use them again.

Procter & Gamble brands

Progressive Grocer - July 1974

Trade stocking and promotion of Procter & Gamble's "National brands".

All marketers know the cost and importance of winning new customers. So do retailers. There are probably three occasions when most consumers confirm or form an allegiance to a store or store brand or, switch. One is when they move out of the home and set up house for themselves. Another is when their needs change dramatically, such as when they become mothers or parents. The third is when they move into a new neighbourhood. This a major opportunity for a store to win new customers.

Purina Puppy Chow

Progressive Grocer - February 1977

Get stores to list and promote puppy food in the big pack (10kg equivalent).

Puppy food was traditionally sold in smaller packs as in catering for the new born and small puppy. New varieties targeting the slightly older puppy carried this small pack inheritance. This ad gives a straightforward motivation to stock the bigger pack size: " the average puppy eats more per day during his sixth to twelfth month than he will when he's a normal adult dog." Makes sense

Proctor & Gamble brands

Progressive Grocer - February 1977

Develop buyer and store support for the brand leaders

From a retailer's point of view promoting brand leaders and known value items is good business sense - customers love them.

But there is a big downside - brand leaders seldom come with deep promotional and display allowances and co-op ad support. Also, day to day, stores have to keep the price of these KVI's very competitive. At best there are low margin items for the store.

Certainly, the incentives the #2 and #3 brands offer to stores and the margin they make on housebrands leads them to get a lot more special display and shelf space than they "deserve".

Shout laundry stain remover

Progressive Grocer - September 1976

Get stores to open up on their Shout displays and also give it special display during the laundry stain season.

Many products have a peak season. A season when good display will drive sales even higher. This ad provides a timely reminder to the trade that the peak season for Shout is coming up and uses it as an opportunity to increase facings and to suggest special display.

The motivation to the trade is to be a knowledgeable or smart retailer" via this visual of a proud US grocery clerk and his display of Shout.

Diamond Walnut

Progressive Grocer - October 1973

Get impulse mass displays for Diamond Walnuts for the Christmas cake baking season

How do you get supermarkets to give your products special mass displays? Pay a lot of money? Or, can you persuade them of massive sales gains and other sales and profit building benefits for their stores?

This is one in a series of multi-page fold-out ads run in October for over 30 years in Progressive Grocer for Diamond Walnuts' Christmas baking season display drive. It is a very simple and brilliant use of testimonial advertising. The same format was repeated every October year after year. It has got to have worked well. The format is simple. Photographs of past displays, in different stores around the country, naming the store, where in the store the display was located, the amount of product displayed and the amount sold as well as the time frame it took to sell. It shows displays in the front of the store, on gondola ends and displays in the aisles.

What the supermarket operator sees is that other stores put their faith in these mass displays and generated big sales. He'll know that that he can do likewise. And perhaps even better than the stores featured? Simple. It works.

The Foldout 's pages then show successful displays all over the store. Captions give details of the store, the display and the results.