NEWS: Clarion trumpets the convenience of Spar stores

Grocery chain Spar is planning to entice shoppers back to the corner

store with a new PR campaign set to launch next week.

Clarion Communications presented credentials along with eight agencies

and pitched against Harrison Cowley and Spar’s incumbent firm Tenet PR

to win the account.

The pounds 100,000 campaign will position Spar as the convenient

shopping option, focusing on the company’s three new store formats:

Supermarket, Express and Neighbourhood.

Clarion will also launch a trade campaign targeted at Spar’s wholesalers

and 2,400 UK store owners and promote Spar’s own-label products.

Commenting on the campaign, Clarion Communication MD Shirley Soskin

said: ‘We plan to position Spar as a professional operator in the retail

trade, ensure shop owners are loyal to the Spar brand and raise

recognition and reassurance among customers.’

Soskin said the programme will not attempt to ‘take on’ supermarkets but

emphasise the neighbourhood aspect of Spar shops to a wide audience

whether it is ‘a student buying a sandwich late at night or a mother

stocking up on food’.