IGA, COCA-COLA TEAM TO FIELD SOFTBALL PITCH

RICHARD TURCSIK

CHICAGO -- IGA here has teamed with Coca-Cola in a major promotion designed to support the Amateur Softball Association. The promotion includes sponsorship of the USA Women's National Softball Team, which will be participating in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

IGA's 15-month partnership with Coca-Cola begins July 1 and runs through September 1996. The promotion includes two separate in-store sweepstakes offering trips to the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games and a third sweepstakes awarding USA Softball-themed merchandise and equipment.

Coca-Cola will also donate to ASA a portion of the proceeds from the sales of Coca-Cola products sold at the 2,500 IGA stores in the United States from October through December 1995. The funds will be used to support the Women's National Team and are expected to reach at least $100,000.

The promotion between IGA and Coca-Cola will fit like a glove, according to George Barkley, a spokesman for Coca-Cola Co., Atlanta.

"The reason we hooked up with IGA is because their slogan is 'Home Town Proud.' They are mostly located in small towns. That skews very closely to the softball community," he told SN.

"There are five different quarters of the promotion. Each quarter we will have different banners as well as special displays. We will have a special Olympics display with Coke and IGA to distribute entry forms and the banners," Barkley said.

The campaign will be supported with in-store ads, as well as television ads in selected smaller markets and on cable channels carrying some of the women's tournaments.

Thomas S. Haggai, chairman and chief executive officer of IGA, told SN the promotion will allow IGA to more effectively compete

against chain-store competitors and alternative formats.

"We can't sit around and wishfully think that alternate formats are going away. They are not. We realize that we've got to cause a lot of excitement in our stores," he said.

Haggai said approximately 40 million Americans play softball, a sport about to make its Olympic debut.

"We think it enhances our image that as the Olympics adds a new sport that IGA is the joint sponsor of it here in the United States. We see this as a fresh approach to reach today's consumer. This promotion is a way to recognize the changing demographics of who our shoppers are, to appeal to them and to reach them where they are," he said.

Haggai said this is the first time IGA has participated with Coca-Cola on such a large-scale promotion, although IGA, Coca-Cola and Louisiana Pacific are working together on a tree-planting program that has been running for five years.

Haggai said Coca-Cola approached IGA about participating in the promotion because of IGA's nationwide presence and extensive network of more than 2,500 stores in 49 states. He noted that IGA plans on re-entering Hawaii, where it operated stores when Hawaii was a territory, by the end of the year.

Haggai said next year IGA will also be sponsoring more extensive promotions in 10 yet-to-be-determined cities where the softball teams will have pre-Olympic tours. Haggai told SN he has no concerns about the extensive promotion eating into sales of IGA private-label soft drinks.

"We always want our private label to be of such a quality that it complements a national brand. For instance, we are very low key in our cola promotion. We have it but we never use any of our IGA cola in our ads. We use our other IGA soft drinks, mainly because we've had such a pleasant experience with the Coca-Cola company, and it would be to our disadvantage, rather than to our advantage," to promote IGA cola, he said.