Sainsbury's to trial Catalina Connections couponing
Following the launch of its new colour printer technology last month, Catalina Marketing has announced that the UK supermarket Sainsbury's is expected to become the first retailer in the country to trial the Catalina Connections system in selected stores in the Midlands.
The trial will begin in the first quarter of 2008 and combines the latest colour printer technology from Catalina with the Sainsbury's customer relationship marketing programme, and aims to provide shoppers with targeted communications in-store.
Personalised offers in-store The printed communications will include a variety of offers and promotions, including money-off coupons, special offers, advertising messages, and even recipe ideas or suggestions.
Catalina's system will allow the supermarket to offer its customers printed communications while they are standing at the checkout, based either on the products they have just bought or their past shopping behaviour. For example, customers who currently buy from Sainsbury's Taste the Difference range of foods might be informed about other products in the range, as well as being offered special incentives for their next shopping trip.
The move to colour Until now, these communications have been available only in black and white, but the new Catalina Marketing system prints in full colour. According to Mark Grice, managing director for Catalina Marketing UK, being able to offer full colour customised brand messages presents a fast, cost effective and powerful alternative to the other forms of direct marketing currently available to retailers.
Leigh Rengger, head of loyalty at Sainsbury's, said: "We are excited to be trialling the new Catalina Marketing solution. We are always looking at new ways to provide customers with relevant communications, and printing these at the till will allow us to do this in a very timely fashion. The Catalina system will also enable us to build on our use of Nectar data."
Sainsbury's will be working with a limited number of its suppliers during the trial in order to fully understand how the system will help them provide better targeted offers for the benefit of customers, building on the existing Sainsbury's Connections programme.
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