It’s playtime again for Dutch consumers: supermarkets in the Netherlands have launched yet another season of promotional campaigns. Shoppers can save points for every set amount they spend in exchange for stickers, puppets and collectible cards.

The campaigns are all directed at children. In the weeks ahead it’s the kids who decide where mum and dad do their shopping. Behind the fun and games of Muppets and football cards a ruthless supermarket war is raging.

The Dutch are fervent collectors, especially when it doesn’t cost them anything. That makes two good reasons why the supermarkets’ promotional campaigns are such a resounding success. So successful in fact that the Netherlands is in an almost permanent state of supermarket euphoria says Joop Holla, Director of Consumer Research Agency Gfk. He has observed a big increase in the number of campaigns, to the extent where we roll from one to the next with hardly a moment to catch our breath.

For supermarkets, the campaigns are a real moneyspinner. While the promotion lasts, they can increase turnover by around five percent. For market leader Albert Heijn, Mr Holla estimates that this equates to approximately three million euros a week in additional turnover. “That’s not peanuts.” In the midst of such frantic consumer activity, it’s hard to believe we’re in the throes of an economic crisis.

Battle for the playground
With the aim of getting their hands on our hard-earned extra euros, marketing specialists are engaged in all-out warfare behind the scenes: a battle for the hearts and minds of schoolkids. It’s the children who urge their parents to go to the shops that feature their favourite promotion. And so, indirectly, they determine which supermarket generates the biggest boost in turnover.

The kiddie loot, whether in the form of football cards, action figures, card games or stickers, becomes the object of widespread adoration and barter on a daily basis in the school playground. There the kids display their latest prize possessions – ideally ones that no one else has – and proudly show off how their collection is progressing.

Joop Holla agrees: “The success of the promotion depends on children. They fire up each other’s enthusiasm in the school playground and that’s what makes the difference: the hit factor among kids at school. And that’s the message they bring home.”

Supermarkets don’t have the luxury of opting out of this promotional war. Hundreds of thousands of customers flock to rival supermarkets if they have an appealing promotion. Little wonder then that most promotions run simultaneously. Yet the enormous pressure to keep coming up with something exciting and new is all too familiar to Sjaak Kranendonk, Managing Director of Spar supermarkets.

“Of course we participate. Customers don’t like it if you don’t. They want to feel something special is happening in the store. So we give them the chance to fill up an album over an eight-week period.”

Gone too far
The campaigns follow a tried and tested formula: the customer receives the promotional item free when they buy groceries worth a certain amount or when they purchase a particular product. But there are also campaigns where the customer first has to collect a number of saving stamps. They can leave the customer considerably out of pocket.

At Albert Heijn for example, customers have been able to save up for Muppet hand puppets since the start of this week. But they come at a pretty price. Anyone who wants to own all eight Muppets will have to spend 728 euros on groceries in a four week period. That is 182 euros a week. The customer also has to pay one euro for each puppet, in addition to saving the required stamps. Supermarket expert Gerard Rutte believes that in this particular promotion Albert Heijn has gone too far, underestimating the consumer in the process.

“Albert Heijn thinks its customers are crazy. They make you spend 90 euros in the store for a Muppet hand puppet. Then they make you pay an additional euro. All this for a puppet they bought from China for 50 cents. So first of all Albert Heijn is earning money on the shopping you do and then again on what you pay for the puppet. They mustn’t kid themselves: customers still have some sense left.”

Something for nothing
Time will tell whether Albert Heijn’s Muppet campaign turns out to be a success. Dutch consumers are certainly up for some promotional fun but they’re not crazy. And Dutch hearts beat a little faster when they’re told that they are getting something for free. It’s this last point that’s the key to the huge success enjoyed by these promotions, Gerard Rutte believes. “Whether it’s stickers or Muppets or something else: it’s always nice to feel like you’re getting something for nothing.”
 

(dd/imm)