SPAR Zimbabwe has celebrated its ten-year participation in the national Buy Zimbabwe campaign with instore promotions of local goods. Zimbabwe has a rich heritage of manufacturing, along with a wealth of creative, hardworking people who believe in working together for the greater good – in line with SPAR’s ethos of ‘Better Together’.
At SPAR, we believe in strengthening local supplier partnerships to shorten the supply chain, guarantee freshness, and foster a mutual understanding based on community and trust. This local approach has been especially relevant in Zimbabwe during the COVID pandemic when borders were closed and cross-border transportation was severely limited.
SPAR has been a member of the national Buy Zimbabwe campaign since its inception in 2011. Its objective is to promote local sourcing and to encourage consumers to consider local options whenever possible.
Alois Burutsa, General Manager of Buy Zimbabwe, says, “Consumers play an important role in the success of the Buy Zimbabwe campaign, and the Retail/Wholesale sector is the link that connects manufacturers to the consumers.”
Promoting local
The Buy Zimbabwe campaign has now been running for ten years. To celebrate, retailers and wholesalers from all sectors throughout Zimbabwe ran a six-week national campaign to promote the production and consumption of Zimbabwean goods and services. This year, the campaign coincided with Zimbabwean Independence Day (18 April).
SPAR Zimbabwe ran a national instore promotion featuring locally sourced and manufactured goods. Each of the participating 39 stores was encouraged to feature locally sourced produce, creating Landing Zone displays to showcase everything Zimbabwean. The organisation focused primarily on locally-manufactured own brands, all of which feature the Buy Zimbabwe logo on their packaging.
SPAR also ran advertisements on local broadcasting network ZTV, while social media posts encouraged shoppers to Buy Zimbabwe. In addition, regular jingles on the SPAR instore radio promoted the campaign. These jingles were also the first in Zimbabwe to feature the new SPAR Mnemonic logo.