Strength2Food researchers have been working with grocery retailer KONZUM to trial in store strategies to increase sales of local fruits and vegetables. Dubravka Sinčić Ćorić from Zagreb University presented the results at the 47th Annual European Marketing Academy (EMAC) conference.
The Department of Marketing, Strathclyde Business School (Glasgow), hosted this year’s conference, which took place between the 29th May and 1st June. Around 950 participants attended the conference.
The Strength2Food research with KONZUM involves Ružica Brečić, Dubravka Sinčić Ćorić and Andrea Lučić (Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb), Matthew Gorton (Newcastle University) and Jelena Filipović (University of Belgrade). To promote sales of local fruits, the researchers piloted textual and pictorial based point of sale materials in stores. Research focused on apples and cherries, in supermarkets in Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia, comparing sales against cheaper imported fruits of the same variety. Analysis of sales and loyalty card data reveal that the likelihood of purchasing the local version is significantly higher when shoppers are exposed to either the written or picture based point of sales materials. Sales of the more expensive, local version are biased toward consumers in the healthy market segment and negatively related to the just affordable (low income) market segment. Overall, the results indicate that in store point of sale materials can be a low-cost and effective strategy for improving sales of local foods.
