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Spar flaunts buy local

Proudly Namibian got another boost recently when the Spar retail group opted for highly visible billboard advertising stating their Namibian procurement credentials.

Proudly Namibian got another boost recently when the Spar retail group opted for highly visible billboard advertising stating their Namibian procurement credentials.

The Spar Group Limited, an active Team Namibia member, is the latest retailer promoting the buy-local concept. It has started an aggressive campaign to bring the benefit of local procurement to the attention of its customers. This campaign is run through all 27 Spar and SuperSpar stores spread across the entire country.
In their current “Proud to be Namibian” campaign, Spar recognises that Namibians are passionate about their country and gives their consumers the opportunity to celebrate being Namibian through buying local.  The campaign rewards consumer loyalty of Namibian products through an SMS competition giving consumers the chance to win vouchers worth N$24,000 plus the prospect of a grand prize – a holiday to any Namibian destination worth N$20,000.
Mr. Tarah Shaanika, Chairman of Team Namibia commented: “Team Namibia would like to commend Spar Namibia on taking the initiative to motivate loyalty for local products, and offering a prize to consumers to explore Namibia.” However in the same vein, Mr. Shaanika advises retailers to clearly highlight Namibian products and make them easily identifiable to consumers in their advertising materials. He re-iterates that Team Namibia members share the common purpose of economic sustainability and should therefore enable consumers to make informed decisions about what products are Namibian.
Johan Mostert, Regional Buyer of Spar Namibia agrees, and said that they have taken some key learnings on board based on their inaugural buy-local campaign: “Spar Namibia understands the importance of promoting our Namibian values through supporting Namibian products.  The idea behind the campaign is to position Spar as a proudly Namibian company promoting the Fast Moving Consumer Goods. However, we realised that in some cases the advertisements may have been misleading to consumers when Spar ‘own label products’ were associated with the Proudly Namibian iconology. Based on this feedback, we subsequently consulted with Namibian suppliers offering similar products in these categories that will be considered for future campaigns.
Lizette Foot, General Manager of Team Namibia said “Team Namibia is about to embark on a market analysis and stakeholder perception survey to get a clear understanding of the parameters in which Namibian retailers operate.”

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