SCHWEGMAN FRESHEN-UP PLAN GETTING RIPE RESULTS

EILEEN COURTER

NEW ORLEANS (FNS) -- Schwegmann Stores here has made a stringent fresher-by-the-hour product-rotation campaign work in its meat and produce departments, and is expecting to roll it out into baked goods, seafood and deli, said chain officials.

The program is hinged on an advertising campaign promising that, at least once every hour, the produce and meat managers in all 32 Schwegmann's units will "straighten the cases and take away anything that's not as fresh as you'd like to buy or we'd like to sell."

In place since September, the program has already reaped improvements in fresh product presentation, as well as in the work performance and pride of store-level employees, said chain executives.

Bill Burge, director of produce, said perception was a key issue behind Schwegmann's decision to put freshness on the line in produce and meat.

"We have not had the best reputation, although I felt we have certainly been as good or better than anybody in the market," Burge said. "So much of perception is store appearance. You can take the most beautiful product in the world, and if you don't handle it properly, you can give the wrong impression."

Burge admits he was "very nervous" about the new campaign.

"It put a lot of pressure on me and on the buying side, and also on the store-level performance," he conceded. "But I think it has worked out well."

Donald Ortego, director of meats, said meat and poultry products were already coming in on virtually a just-in-time basis, with a lot of cross-docking.

"We took [the program] to the meat market managers personally," Ortego said. "We made it a personal challenge to them. Their reputation is on the front line. We didn't go through the usual channels, funneling it down through the merchandisers and so on. It was direct, and didn't lose meaning."

To spur employee support, which chain officials considered vital for this program, all produce and meat managers and store managers were invited to a kickoff meeting, at which they previewed the ad campaign's television spots.

"Follow-through at the store level is absolutely critical for this," said company spokeswoman Susan Burge. "The biggest challenge is a clear understanding of what's acceptable on the shelf."

She agreed that, to be successful, the program had to define what was below perfection but well above tired-looking product. "The initial tendency was, if there's a shadow or a blemish on a pear or a banana, you have to pull it. Consumers want perfect products, but we know the exterior of the item doesn't have to be completely blemish-free for the product to deliver excellent taste. "

The second challenge, she said, was establishing a pattern of constant checking. Once established, it became routine.

The campaign took root after chain officials, convinced they were buying top-quality perishables, found through focus groups that public perception didn't support that idea. Schwegmann's created the promotion in concert with its advertising agency, Berger & Reed here.

Sid Berger at Berger & Reed said consumer dissatisfaction was targeted at the maintenance of displays in the store.

"We found Schwegmann's wasn't getting the respect it should in meat and produce," Berger said. "It was primarily due to bad experiences people had encountered over a number of years. Being the oldest chain in town and dominating the market, they simply had more people having more exposure over a greater number of years. A single unpleasant instance would stick in a consumer's mind.

"In creating an ad campaign that explained an operational procedure and the time intervals involved, 'fresher by the hour' was just a natural way to express it," Berger said. "It became an operational standard they could throw out to set themselves apart from other stores, as well as an advertising theme. It ultimately became a challenge to the employees."

Advertising buys covered print, radio and television. The television spots feature actual department managers from four Schwegmann stores. Point-of-sale materials include fresher-by-the-hour hanging medallions, plus employee logo buttons and aprons.

Store representatives said the program may have affected shrinkage, but not as much as was first expected because the new guidelines have encouraged better planning.

Rather than two layers of meat, there may be one. Meat may be cut multiple times during the day instead of once in the morning. Price stickers on meat now include the date and name of the department manager.