Winn-Dixie Goes 'Local' in Ads

ELLIOT ZWIEBACH

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Winn-Dixie Stores here launched a major marketing campaign last week in parts of Louisiana and Mississippi based on the tag line, “Local flavor since 1956.”

Winn-Dixie’s new ads emphasize its local connections.

The campaign — directed at consumers in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Lafayette, La., and Biloxi and Gulfport, Miss. — will focus on the chain's use of local produce, local vendors and local people for more than 50 years.

Using newspaper inserts, radio and billboards, the Winn-Dixie campaign features chain employees, including long-time butchers talking about the quality of the chain's closely trimmed beef; local citizens, including a school principal from Metaire, La., talking about the chain's assistance in supplying school computers; as well as a local jazz singer and a crawfish farmer attesting to the “fresh and local” qualities of Winn-Dixie.

The campaign steps squarely onto the turf of Thibodaux, La.-based Rouses Markets, the 35-unit operator that has long emphasized its local heritage and offerings.

Winn-Dixie said versions of the initial campaign will be expanded to other regions beginning later this summer.