Retail Marketing News South Africa

Reviewing Hansa promotion

With the introduction of the new 330NRB Hansa Pilsener bottle by SAB, Tradeway Promotions undertook a brand activation across South Africa last year to introduce it to its target market. Across 1000 bars and 100 ShisaNyama outlets, the company engaged with around 40&mbsp;000 consumers.

It targeted 18-34 year old consumers in bars through guessing games and ShisaNyama customers were offered samples.

"In our role as leaders in recruitment, training and managing of resources for our client's brand activation campaigns, we were thrilled with the results that emerged from the introduction to market of the new bottle. We used the face-to-face engagement with the public to secure additional market information for the client and were pleased to report that 82% of customers said that they prefer the new bottle. Given the usual resistance to change, this was a very positive outcome for the brand," said Michelle Francis, CEO of Tradeway Promotions.

Tradeway Promotions recruited promoters in 13 towns nationally, to undergo intense training. Training documentation and tests were developed by its training department, in consultation with the brand team. Promoters had to achieve a minimum of 80% in written tests on brand theory and campaign mechanics and had to participate in a number of role playing exercises to ensure they were prepared for their direct interaction with customers, when introducing the new bottle.

"The brand has a 36 year history in South Africa and it is always a challenge to introduce new packaging to a market that is extremely brand loyal and tends to resist change when it comes to its favourite brands. Tradeway Promotions designed and delivered a highly effective campaign that achieved the objectives of the campaign through its seamless customer activation offering," said Guy Shand, brand manager for Hansa Pilsener.

Let's do Biz