WAKEFERN TO SAMPLE FAMILY CIRCLE AD ITEMS

JOEL ELSON

ELIZABETH, N.J. -- Wakefern Food Corp. here is participating in a promotion during which it will offer in-store sampling on products advertised in Family Circle magazine.

Slated for Saturday, March 18, the event, called "Sample This: Easter Extravaganza," will take place at 180 ShopRite stores and will mark the fourth joint promotion between the publication and the retailer. Previous "Sample This" programs featured hand-outs of health and beauty care, general merchandise and food products plus information on videos and coupons.

The cost of distributing the product samples and coupons will be underwritten by Family Circle, said an official from Wakefern, the ShopRite retailers' buying arm, who wished to remain anonymous.

"ShopRite stores are eager to participate in a promotion like this again because it benefits the magazine and the retailers," said the Wakefern source. She explained that "studies have shown in-store redemption from a coupon handed out at the point of sale is higher than [when it is distributed through an] FSI. Handing out a coupon in-store and getting it right into the customer's hand as they enter the store is a powerful sales-building method."

The products included in the "Sample This" program will be distributed as part of the retailers' weekly sampling program calendar, said the source. She added ShopRite retailers will tout the event through store circulars, in-store signs and in-store radio while Family Circle will promote the event in full page, four-color, regional ads.

According to the source, the retailers will also be working closely with Wakefern buyers to assure adequate supplies of advertisers' products are on hand in their stores on the day of the sampling. Past "Sample This" occasions have involved trial sizes of Aqua Fresh toothpaste, displays and promotional literature for home videos from Buena Vista Home Video, and products from brands like Dove Beauty Bar, Hemdale Home Video and Dixieplates as well as analgesics and paper products, said Renee Lewin, vice president of marketing services at Family Circle. The magazine is published by Gruner & Jahr USA Publishing, New York.