Wholesalers and suppliers increased their activity in support of National Independents' Week NIW) beginning on June 2. Nestle and CCE were notably active, the latter by distributing a My Shop Is Your Shop (MSYS) presenter with NIW price promotion information to 40,000 independent retailers throughout the UK.
CCE will also deploy more than 300 sales people in retail shops involved in NIW - many of them senior executives. Nestlé's national field force of 200 will wear the special 'Local and proud of it' T-shirts and head office staff will join in the celebrations.
Nestlé sales people visiting cash and carries have also been "talking up" NIW to depot managers and staff. The company has been promoting NIW as the centrepiece of the MSYS campaign.
Landmark Wholesale members featured NIW champions in 50 depots nationwide and 50 'star retailers' were identified and supplied with special NIW T-shirt kits to give their celebration a special boost.
Managing director Martin Williams, with marketing director Ian Davidson, trading director John Searle and retail controller Raj Krishan, will be working in shops during the week.
MSYS chairman Alan Toft explained the impact that NIW could have on their footfall when he addressed 150 retailers at a Bestway seminar held at the headquarters of P&G in Weybridge. Best-One controller James Hall incorporated the principles of MSYS into his presentation at the event.
Every retailer at the event was signed up for a free NIW kit containing 'Local and proud of it' T-shirts, caps, balloons and POS.
Londis retailers were briefed in the group bulletin on a MSYS colouring competition for children at local schools and urged to participate in National Cuppa Day on June 3. Londis also included guidance on how to invite the local MP to the store in NIW.
Kraft Foods' staff were briefed on NIW and will be working in shops helping retailers to mark the occasion. GSK and Walkers were also planning support activities.
Costco and Buxton Water were co-operating in NIW promotions with prizes of football kits for local junior teams and sets of training goalposts.
MSYS hopes that newsagents are alert to the May 30 issue of the Daily Mirror and the Daily Record (Scotland), which will contain a special NIW feature including money-off coupons on 11 big grocery brands.
These give the consumer a total saving of £3.10 when they shop at independent stores. The feature includes editorial covering independents who are involved in good works for their local communities.
The products featured in the money-off coupon promotion in the tabloids - which will be seen by more than five million readers - are featured on the reverse of the NIW T-shirts.
The campaign website is offering a guide on how independents can make the most of National Cuppa Day on June 3 with free product available from wholesalers under a 6 for the price of 5 offer on Tetley 80s tea bags and a 4 for the price of 3 or equivalent on McVitie's leading biscuit brands.
The MSYS guide 'How To Host A Street Party' has been re-launched following retailers' comments from their NIW street party and fun day events in 2007.
Toft said there are a number of detailed actions to which retailers must be alert. The guide can be downloaded from the MSYS website.
"If they follow the guide - and the weather is good - they will have a great event for NIW," he added.
The original '50 MSYS Ideas For Community Marketing' has been re-written and is also now available from the website.
"We are constantly receiving new ideas from retailers and we are constantly involved in including as many of them as is practicable in this document.Some ideas are very simple and many of them will already be in the retailer's armoury, but it's a useful checklist," Toft added.
The MSYS campaign newsletter for April has been published and is also available from the website: [http://www.myshopisyourshop.co.uk]
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