Wichita, Kan. – Cargill’s fall 2010 retail ground beef promotion – which runs from Oct. 11 to Nov. 19 – highlights and complements an important trend for both consumers and grocery retailers: private label products. The Souped-Up Suppers promotion pairs Cargill’s ground beef with retailers’ private label soups to provide consumers with cost-effective, convenient and hearty casserole recipes.
The promotion is featured at more than 1,700 retail grocery locations across the country. Demonstrating the importance retailers are placing on marketing and selling their private label products, the Souped-Up Suppers program garnered one of the largest grocer participations since Cargill began offering ground beef promotions.
According to IRI Consulting and Innovation Group, private label programs are influential in winning loyalty with shoppers. This trend is echoed in data from the Food Marketing Institute, which shows that 66 percent of shoppers purchase private label products on a regular basis. Cargill’s promotions and marketing support closely track and address consumer demand and trends, leveraging the company’s awareness and knowledge of the latest shopper desires and preferences. It is one of many ways Cargill works with its customers to enhance their success.
“Cargill continues to provide support for its retail customers through consumer ground beef promotions. This fall, we’re promoting not only our products, but the retailer’s private label brand as well,” said Elizabeth Gutschenritter, Cargill brand manager. “We developed the Souped-Up Suppers promotion based on consumer trends and in response to retailer demand for customized promotions that help sell not only more ground beef but also other complementary products, especially their own. As we design promotions, it’s about listening to and being responsive to our customers, focusing on their business strategy and supporting those retailers from a marketing perspective as well.”
In-store Souped-Up Suppers materials encourage consumer interaction and include large posters, 90-degree signs, on-pack stickers and recipe brochures. Convenient and hearty meal recipes, featuring ground beef and retailers’ private label soups, allow consumers to “soup up” their mealtimes with selections including:
- Creamy Italian Pasta Bake
- Southwestern Cornbread Casserole
- Beefy Biscuit Casserole
The SoupedUpSuppers.com website offers store-branded ground beef coupons and access to other recipes featuring ground beef and soup as well as entry for a prize giveaway. The promotional prize giveaway allows consumers to enter to win a cart full of store-branded private label groceries, driving the winning shoppers back to the retail location.
To further support retailers in the promotion, Cargill is providing a variety of additional promotional tools including pre-written content for Facebook and Twitter, CDs containing promotional materials and web banners. In an effort to encourage employee engagement in the promotion and display of the point-of-sale materials at the individual store level, Cargill is offering an employee incentive sweepstakes in which participating retailers submit photos of the Souped-Up Suppers materials displayed in their store and as a result, meat department employees are entered into a random sweepstakes drawing.
About Cargill
Cargill is an international producer and marketer of food, agricultural, financial and industrial products and services. Founded in 1865, the privately held company employs 131,000 people in 66 countries. Cargill helps customers succeed through collaboration and innovation, and is committed to applying its global knowledge and experience to help meet economic, environmental and social challenges wherever it does business. For more information, visit www.cargill.com.
Source: Cargill