Somerfield is investing an extra £200m in its promotional offer this year with its new price cutting tool Megadeals. The chain has promised shoppers £26m worth of discounts in the first two weeks, and a total of £500m worth of cuts during the year, in a move similar to Safeway's local deep cut deals ­ but on a national level. Somerfield is also doubling its leaflet drop effort. Households will now get the new Megadeals brochure every fortnight rather than monthly. (see p36). A £1m TV campaign will use Annie and the strapline: How much will you save?' Megadeals, which replace the chain's PriceCheck initiative which was launched in 1993, has been trialled in Somerfield stores for the last four months and was launched across the 600-plus portfolio this week. Associate marketing director Richard Smith said: "We conducted detailed market research among our customers. They wanted more instant savings at the checkout rather than collecting reward points." Somerfield ditched its loyalty card scheme Premier Points last month. Smith said the promotions would be a sustained effort aiming to build customer loyalty and generate bottom line benefits. Retail analyst Rowan Morgan at Teather & Greenwood, said Megadeals was the "same old story. It's just a small blip on Tesco's radar screen." He said Somerfield would have to work hard to do the volume to make the initiative pay. "They have to do something, but it doesn't make me feel any more positive about them." Safeway said it was flattered Somerfield had copied its flyers. "Our brochures are more sophisticated. We think there is no chance shoppers will get confused between the two as we often call our flyers Sexy Savings' or Wow' deals rather than Megadeals." {{NEWS }}

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