Shoppers in the south are to be wooed by Morrisons, which is planning a major marketing campaign extolling the virtues of its stores and ranges.
Morrisons is expected to launch a full-on media blitz in the south east towards the end of summer - mirroring a similar campaign run in Scotland.
The 11-week, £1m brand-building exercise in Scotland used TV, radio and press ads.
Although figures relating to
how the campaign has driven sales are not available, store operations director Mark Gunter hailed it as a success and said it had helped win back business from Tesco and Asda.
He said the Safeway brand had suffered in Scotland in recent years, but claimed the More Reasons campaign, which is familiar to customers in Morrisons’ northern heartland, was helping to halt the decline.
The marketing drive in the
south east will probably start eight weeks before the end of the store conversion process.
And it will follow similar lines to the Scottish campaign - which was designed to raise awareness of Morrisons’ ranges and the value of its offer in areas where it has no heritage.
The activity in the south east could be the precursor to Morrisons’ first-ever national marketing campaign, which would make sense once it had a national presence.
Gunter also hit back at recent criticism from analysts and the media that Morrisons does not stock a sufficiently exotic range to appeal to southern tastes. He said: “We ask all our managers to tell us exactly what will and won’t sell in their stores, no matter where they are. They tell us what they want in their stores and we deliver. We are always developing ranges.”
The retailer has expanded The Best range of premium products, for example, and has also extended its sandwich ranges to include wraps.

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