The 21st annual Customer Day took place in Belgium on 27 September, a day that saw independent retailers showering their customers with gifts, including this year 400,000 copies of a health-oriented supermarket magazine and an educational card game that gave consumers the opportunity to win gift vouchers and a family package trip to the Efteling theme park in the Netherlands.
The magazine widely promotes the Belgian quality label, Flandria, offering a particular focus on the importance of health. For younger readers, Flandria-branded fruit and vegetables are represented as colourful soldiers that protect their bodies from attack, ensuring that they remain strong and healthy. For older customers, the focus was on the care and attention that is given to producing Flandria-branded fruit and vegetables, as well as the care and attention that is paid to consumer health.
In order to take advantage of the event, Flandria revealed plans to provide independent food stores and supermarkets in Belgium with an assortment of promotional material, including posters, floor stickers and recipe leaflets, as well as conduct in-store culinary events, such as free wok demonstrations.
Separately, Flandria is once again an official partner of the Start to Run campaign this year. Start to Run is a successful initiative that attempts to encourage people to get back into sport and exercise.
Maarten De Moor, executive director of LAVA, the group comprising the six main auctions in Flanders, commented: “The promotion campaigns of the past are beginning to bear fruit. The Flandria name is becoming more and more well known. Until now, we have put the emphasis in our consumer campaigns on taste, freshness, environmentally friendly production and culinary uses. But fresh fruit and vegetables are also important for our health. Through Start to Run, we can reach a lot of people – and above all women – who want to actively improve their health.
“We can get them off to a good start by providing information about a healthy diet and recipes with plenty of fruit and vegetables. This will give them an opportunity to radically change their lifestyle. We opted specifically for Start to Run because running, or jogging, is a low threshold sport. It costs almost nothing and you can do it everywhere. Moreover, it enables us to reach our target group. Among female sales managers, jogging is one of the five most popular sports, together with fitness, cycling and walking.”
The third Dwars door Mechelen, an annually organised fun run through the town of Mechlen, in the province of Antwerp, took place on 28 September. The programme included a 5km Start to Run race, as well as the 10km Dwars door Mechelen event. Following the run, participants relaxed in front of live performances in the town’s market square. Proceeds from the event went to the “Projecten voor Afrika” association, which supports a number of healthcare and education initiatives in Africa.
