Unilever’s ‘Summer of Ice Cream’ kicks off at Jewel-Osco
Groupon and Incentive Targeting Inc. are partnering with Supervalu and Unilever to bring social buying to grocery shopping in Groupon’s home city of Chicago.
With this announcement, Unilever, one of the world’s largest consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies, becomes the first global CPG company to allow consumers to buy its products through Groupon and pick up their deal at their neighborhood grocery store.
Through Unilever’s “Summer of Ice Cream” program, shoppers buy $15 worth of their favorite Ben & Jerry’s®, Popsicle®, Good Humor®, Breyers® and Klondike® products for only $9 on Groupon.com—a 40 percent discount—and then select and pick up their items at any Jewel-Osco location.
The company, a leading grocery retailer in the Chicago area, is the first grocery chain in the Supervalu family of stores to offer in-store redemption with Groupon. Jewel-Osco also is the first Chicago-area grocery retailer to participate in the program, which became available on www.groupon.com/chicago July 28.
“We think this is a fabulous deal and a great way to let our consumers bring home a selection of their favorite ice cream in the heat of the summer, as well as to introduce new consumers to our products,” said Marc Shaw, director of shopper marketing for Unilever North America.
For this Unilever offer, shoppers purchase the deal on Groupon.com and enters their Jewel-Osco Preferred Customer Card® number. If the shopper does not have a Preferred Customer Card, he or she is immediately invited to sign up online. Once the Groupon purchase is complete, the deal value is digitally loaded onto the shopper’s loyalty card. When the shopper purchases ice cream at a Jewel-Osco store and scans his or her Preferred Customer Card at check-out, the deal is automatically credited on the bill.
“Jewel-Osco has been serving the Chicago area for over a century, and we are thrilled to begin testing Groupons for grocery in Groupon’s hometown,” said Kat Kozitza, Supervalu’s director of interactive and direct mail marketing. “As one of the leading retail grocery chains in Chicago, Jewel-Osco offers an extremely convenient way for shoppers to pick up their Groupon deals, which will offer great savings and value to our loyal shoppers.”
“We are excited to partner with Unilever and Supervalu to bring this ideal summertime option to shoppers in the Chicago market,” said Darren Schwartz, SVP of sales at Groupon. “We look forward to continuing to work with Incentive Targeting to introduce the Groupon model to new partners across the grocery industry and pass on these unbeatable deals to our subscribers.”
“We are very pleased to continue working with Groupon to bring social buying to the grocery retail market, now with our second chain,” said Win Burke, president and CEO of Incentive Targeting. “Using the combined Groupon and Incentive Targeting system, CPGs like Unilever and grocery companies like Supervalu can deliver great offers to their shoppers, measure the effectiveness in real time, and follow up with highly desirable shoppers with attractive targeted programs.”
