WEIS PROMOTION HUNTS DOWN STORE BRANDS AT HOME

Liza Casabona

Sunbury, Pa. -- Weis Markets here has launched a unique $10,000-a-week sweepstakes giveaway to enhance shopper awareness of its extensive private-label brands.

The Weis Weekly Treasure Hunt, executed through the Weis Preferred Shoppers Club Card, is being run chainwide in 163 stores for a total of seven weeks, May 6 to June 23. "We have one of the strongest private-label programs in the country," said Dennis Curtin, Weis Markets spokesman. With 2,600 products in all of the chain's categories, the new promotion seeks to "take an already excellent program and increase its brand awareness," he said, as well as create excitement for consumers and drive in-store traffic.

Every week during the promotional period a winner is chosen from a pool of club cardmembers. Weis customers are automatically entered into the sweepstakes when they purchase a Weis private-label branded item using their card. Qualifying items can come from any one of the Weis brands, which include, Weis Premium, Quality and Choice brands, as well as Big Top, Carnival, Total Pet and sub-brands like Weis Quality From the Field produce.

The Weis Brands Treasure Hunt Team goes to the home of the drawn club cardmember. Winners receive $500 for showing the team their club card and an additional $100 for every Weis private-label brand item found in their home. The team will give away $10,000 every week for the duration of the promotion, and winners are chosen until the full amount of money has been given away each week.

Weis has begun to focus heavily on product quality in recent years, Curtin said, upgrading private-label packaging and insuring that consumers get store brands that are competitively priced. The natural extension of this "ramping up," he said, is the Treasure Hunt promotion. Weis brands are distinctive; consumers are unable to find them anywhere else, he said, and this promotion plays into that. Although Curtin declined to give specifics on the impact on Weis brand sales, he said, "We're convinced it has greatly increased brand awareness."