South African retailer Pick ‘n Pay is set to introduce 200 000 new Proudly South African shelf labels into its stores as a way of helping consumers keen to contribute to the local economy identify those products.
Unveiling its initiative on Monday, Pick ‘n Pay said its pilot project will encompass 37 of its stores based in Gauteng, with products featuring the Proudly South African campaign’s well-known “tick” logo and the message “A lekker local product”. The logo is only used on quality products approved by the campaign.
Proudly South African campaign CEO Martin Feinstein congratulated Pick ‘n Pay on being the first major retailer to launch an in-store product-branding project to support quality local products.
“Pick ‘n Pay is helping the consumer, they are helping the campaign, they are helping local manufacturers and they are helping South Africa,” he said.
“This project will create a new level of awareness and may increase sales of Proudly South African products.
“We know from extensive research that consumers support the campaign but find it difficult to identify products. This helps consumers who want to do so to make a conscious decision to support local quality products.”
Paul Connellan, food director of Pick ‘n Pay, said the project underpins Pick ‘n Pay’s support of Proudly South African products.
“Proudly South African has undertaken an enormous task to promote job creation in South Africa by promoting the support of local products.
“A crucial vehicle to success is to expose Proudly South African products to consumers at point of purchase, where nine out of 10 decisions on products purchased are made in the store, and educate them on which are local.”
He added that the shelf-edge labels will be placed next to the price labels to ensure maximum consumer attention.
“We will trial this concept in Gauteng to reach a broad spectrum of customers and to achieve maximum exposure. Our support of Proudly South African is in line with our philosophy of consumer sovereignty and social responsibility. It also provides our customers with an opportunity to support a truly South African initiative.” — I-Net Bridge