PIGGLY WIGGLY NATIONAL ADS SET TO PREMIERE

ELLIOT ZWIEBACH

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Piggly Wiggly Corp. here said last week it plans to launch its first national advertising campaign to its franchisees Sunday night as the first step in an ongoing effort to revitalize the 81-year-old company.

Larry Wright, president of the 700-store group, told SN Piggly Wiggly hopes the ad campaign -- and a concurrent effort with vendors to promote national programs -- will boost sales for franchise operators 8% to 12% this year.

Wright said he will reveal details of the campaign Sunday at the National Piggly Wiggly Operators Association convention in Nashville that runs July 20 to 22.

The organization also plans to unveil its first-ever mission statement at Sunday's meeting, Wright said. The statement reads: "To provide the vision and leadership for growth and expansion of our network by offering our franchisees support services and programs designed to strengthen and enhance Piggly Wiggly's image."

What the mission statement does, Wright told SN, "is it brings focus to what our operations are all about in terms of our support for the franchisees' success."

That support, he said, takes several forms under the company's revitalization effort, including the following:

The TV commercials, which are the centerpiece of the program.

Related radio and print campaigns.

Tie-ins with national manufacturer promotions.

A search for ways to operate more efficiently.

"This is not an overhaul of Piggly Wiggly, but more of a renewal of what we've stood for for 81 years and a way or saying there is still power in the Piggly Wiggly franchise," Wright explained.

"We're already well known in the markets we're in -- our task now is to revitalize our image."

Wright said Piggly Wiggly is investing $1.5 million in the TV ad campaign, which will begin Aug. 25 and run intermittently through the end of the year.

He said the TV spots will emphasize the convenience and friendliness of Piggly Wiggly stores -- two attributes consumers ascribed to the network in research conducted last spring, he noted.

The ads, which were filmed here, include some voiceovers and some people talking directly to the camera about convenience, friendliness and hometown involvement by franchise owners, Wright said.

He declined to tell SN the tag line that will unify the campaign, saying he preferred to reveal it during Sunday's presentation at the convention.

The initial campaign will consist of three different 30-second spots and will run on four cable networks -- The Family Channel, Lifetime, TBS and The Nashville Network -- at a rate of 24 spots per week, Wright said. After the first group of ads runs, seven additional flights are scheduled through year's end on a bi-weekly {every other week??}basis, he added.

The TV effort will be supported by in-store point-of-purchase programs, radio spots containing the same audio and a print campaign geared to both trade press and local newspapers, he said.

Complementing the ads will be an effort by Piggly Wiggly to encourage national manufacturers to offer programs during the last quarter of 1997 and throughout 1998 that will augment various local and regional promotions already in place, he said.

In addition, during the next few months, Piggly Wiggly intends to work with various wholesalers to find ways to improve efficiencies in the members' operations, particularly in the area of store brands, Wright noted.

According to Wright, the themes in the ad campaign reflect the findings in a series of focus groups that were conducted for Piggly Wiggly between late April and early June by Wirthlin Worldwide, Chicago.

The research was conducted in Memphis, Tenn.; Birmingham, Ala., and Charleston, S.C., as well as various cities in Wisconsin -- including Milwaukee, Sheboygan and Green Bay -- "because we're often viewed as a Southeastern company, although we do have many stores throughout the Midwest," Wright pointed out.

"The results were very encouraging and virtually identical in all sections of the country. What we learned is that people choose where to shop for convenience and price and that consumers believe Piggly Wiggly is price-competitive and more convenient than many other operators.

"And consumers also said tradition is a good thing and they like the Piggly Wiggly tradition, which goes to the heart of our company's involvement over the years with customers, their families and our employees.

"They said they don't believe the larger chains are as much a part of the community as Piggly Wiggly has been, and while they often felt that the larger stores offered good deals and more variety, they said they felt we had a home-grown, local image that contrasted with the impersonal, almost intimidating service at most other supermarkets.