COMPUTER GIVEAWAYS BOOTS SCHNUCK SALES

JOEL ELSON

ST. LOUIS -- Schnuck Markets here met its goal of vastly increasing sales for a group of health and beauty care products by offering free software and a drawing for a home computer system.

In a three-week back-to-school promotion that ran in conjunction with a local radio station, consumers who purchased three HBC products from a group of designated items were also able to choose one of three Microsoft packages valued from $45 to $57.

According to the chain's scan figures, Schnuck moved eight to 10 times the normal amounts of the featured HBC products during the promotion period, said Padi Salamone, director of sales development for FM radio station KSHE 94.7.

The participating HBC brands included Kimberly Clark's Huggies, McNeil Consumer Products' Tylenol and children's Mylanta, Johnson & Johnson's No More Tangles shampoo, Band Aid adhesive bandages and cotton swabs, and SmithKline Beecham's Oxy 10.

These products were prominently displayed at all 90 Schnuck locations in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Kansas on back-to-school endcaps and floor shippers with point-of-sale signing.

The radio station received approximately 2,000 entries for the free home computer package drawing, valued at $2,000. The computer comes from Best Buy, the electronics retailer headquartered in Minneapolis. The computer winner was Dena Schneider, aged 39, who lives in St. Louis.

About 800 Schnuck shoppers who purchased three featured HBC items received free Microsoft software, including Microsoft Encarta 96 Encyclopedia, for children 10 years and up; Microsoft Bookshelf 1996-1997 edition; and The Magic School Bus editions of Explores the Ocean, Explores the Human Body and Explores the Earth, geared to children ages 6 to 10.

To obtain the free software, shoppers with a valid register receipt for three qualifying HBC products filled in a special form available in stores and mailed it to KSHE, along with $3.95 to cover mailing and shipping costs.

The first-time promotion went over so well that Schnuck is thinking of repeating it next year right before back-to-school, according to Salamone.

The mainstream rock station approached Schnuck and the participating manufacturers with the idea for the event and ran spot messages to support it.

"It was an enormous win-win situation for Schnuck, the manufacturers and the consumers," said Salamone. "Schnuck benefited from the exclusivity -- consumers could only go to Schnuck to get this offer. The manufacturers benefited because they saw eight to 10 times increased sales, and the consumers won because they received up to $57 in software packages by spending as little as $6."