Retailers win big with T&A's Iceberg promotion
Retailers win big with T&A's Iceberg promotion
Rick Antle, chief executive officer of Tanimura & Antle Inc. in Salinas, CA, gave his marketing department a tall order this spring: He wanted Tanimura & Antle to own Father's Day.
So the company launched one of its more successful retail promotions ever, the "Hit A Home Run This Father's Day" retail promotion, which took the dad- friendly sport of baseball and combined it with Iceberg lettuce and the iconic Iceberg wedge salad.
The company redesigned the Iceberg lettuce packaging to look like a baseball, provided baseball-themed artwork to participating retailers for in- store displays and ads, and even added splashy flash-animation to its corporate web site showing a head of Iceberg being hit out of a ballpark. And it turned into a home run of a promotion as T&A saw an incremental lift of more than 22 percent. The company's actual sales volume shipped exceeded original plans greatly, with over 400,000 cartons of Iceberg shipped during the weeks immediately preceding and following Father's Day.
One store, part of a large East Coast grocery chain, saw a 70 percent increase in Iceberg sales. In fact, retailers expressed appreciation that one promotion could generate so much involvement at the individual store level -- since all participants would be awarded a prize, produce and store managers alike partnered to create effective, attention-getting displays and submit their entries. Resoundingly, customers said that this was one of the more innovative marketing programs ever seen in the produce category, and expressed an overwhelming interest in participating in future promotions.
In addition to sales results, public relations efforts were rewarded with nearly 900 newspaper and on-line placements thanks to a consumer press kit mailing that included recipes, photos and facts about Iceberg lettuce.
"I have to say, I thought it was a good idea, but I never anticipated such a huge increase in sales," Mr. Antle said in a statement. "I have to give it to our retail customers. They really 'stepped up to the plate' to make it happen."
So the company launched one of its more successful retail promotions ever, the "Hit A Home Run This Father's Day" retail promotion, which took the dad- friendly sport of baseball and combined it with Iceberg lettuce and the iconic Iceberg wedge salad.
The company redesigned the Iceberg lettuce packaging to look like a baseball, provided baseball-themed artwork to participating retailers for in- store displays and ads, and even added splashy flash-animation to its corporate web site showing a head of Iceberg being hit out of a ballpark. And it turned into a home run of a promotion as T&A saw an incremental lift of more than 22 percent. The company's actual sales volume shipped exceeded original plans greatly, with over 400,000 cartons of Iceberg shipped during the weeks immediately preceding and following Father's Day.
One store, part of a large East Coast grocery chain, saw a 70 percent increase in Iceberg sales. In fact, retailers expressed appreciation that one promotion could generate so much involvement at the individual store level -- since all participants would be awarded a prize, produce and store managers alike partnered to create effective, attention-getting displays and submit their entries. Resoundingly, customers said that this was one of the more innovative marketing programs ever seen in the produce category, and expressed an overwhelming interest in participating in future promotions.
In addition to sales results, public relations efforts were rewarded with nearly 900 newspaper and on-line placements thanks to a consumer press kit mailing that included recipes, photos and facts about Iceberg lettuce.
"I have to say, I thought it was a good idea, but I never anticipated such a huge increase in sales," Mr. Antle said in a statement. "I have to give it to our retail customers. They really 'stepped up to the plate' to make it happen."
