JEWEL PROMOTES ITS BRANDS WITH FREE VIDEO RENTALS

PAT NATSCHKE LENIUS

CHICAGO -- Care for a free video rental with your pizza and pop?

Jewel Food Stores here made this offer to customers in a recent promotion. It included the store brands of pizza and President's Choice, a controlled brand from Loblaw International Merchants, Toronto. "We capitalized on the strength of the brand identities of President's Choice, our Chef's Kitchen frozen pizza and Blockbuster Video," said Dianne Maffia, spokeswoman for Jewel Osco, Melrose Park, Ill. "We have had a very positive response and have been very pleased with the results," Maffia said.

Consumers were invited to purchase one 17.5-ounce to 30-ounce Chef's Kitchen Thin & Crispy frozen pizza and a 2-liter bottle of President's Choice pop to obtain a free video with rental of another video of equal or greater value at any participating Blockbuster Video location. President's Choice, a premium brand, is available exclusively at Jewel in its trading area. To announce the promotion, a coupon was published in a Jewel's ad and in an in-store flier. It also was promoted with in-store signs.

The coupon had to be redeemed with a Jewel cash register receipt for the soft drink and pizza as proof of purchase. The offer was limited to one per customer per visit and was valid for Blockbuster members only.

The promotion was in effect for about four weeks. The in-store flier coupon expired Jan. 26, but another coupon was published in Jewel's Feb. 3 ad, which expired Feb. 12.

"This was a joint effort between Jewel and Blockbuster Video. We did a similar promotion [with Blockbuster Video] last year that featured President's Choice Decadent Chocolate Chip cookies," Maffia told Brand Marketing.