368 CHAPTER 11 SPONSORSHIPturned into one of the most important and – according to its
fans – best festivals in the world. It receives 107 000 unique
visitors, 60 000 of whom stay on the camping grounds.
All these visitors have to eat, drink and camp, and thus
form a gigantic and largely unserved audience for a con-
venience store with a well-adapted product mix. In 2008,
Carrefour decided to develop tailor-made points-of-sales
at these festivals.Carrefour festival shops: tapping into a
unique point-of-sales opportunity
The Belgian fast-moving consumer goods retailing industry
is dominated by three major players with nearly equal mar-
ket shares: Delhaize, Colruyt and Carrefour. Carrefour was
perceived as stuck in the middle: its image was unclear if
not negative. At the end of 2006, it was apparent to
Carrefour that it had an image problem. Delhaize was known
for its quality products, Colruyt was the cheapest retailer
for manufacturer-branded products and Carrefour was big,
cold, distant and very French. In terms of communications mix,
the company used advertising campaigns and sales pro-
motion brochures, but very little, if any, PR and sponsorship.
In 2007, the whole marketing management was changed and,
by the end of 2008, it was decided to reposition Carrefour
using the slogan ‘ The power to choose’. It was also decided
to use sponsorship and PR more intensively to carry over
an image of warmth, cosiness and ‘close to the people’.
One of the first ideas that came to mind was to be pre-
sent at one or more of the many music festivals that take
place annually in Belgium. However, the management felt
that it would not be sufficient to have a logo on the festival
billboard or to be visually present at the festival venue, but
better to link its presence to a cost-efficient, innovative and
fun experience in a way that could generate many contacts
with young customers and potential customers, not so much
to build brand image, but to build experiences that would
enhance brand image. The idea arose to install a shop at
selected festival camping grounds. The weak point of music
festival camping lots is that people have to survive in basic
conditions and accommodation is not very sophisticated.
Of course, people can buy beer, soft drinks, hamburgers and
sausages, usually at high prices, but festival attendees want
more. Providing a shop would give them the opportunity
to buy food and other convenient products at fair prices,
consistent with the slogan of ‘ The power to choose’.
The selection of music festivals was based on two criteria.
First of all, the festival should be large enough and enough
people should stay for a number of days on the camping
ground to make it worthwhile. Secondly, there should be
enough variation in the public to reach customers and
potential customers. Eventually, three 2008 festivals were
selected: Graspop (25–28 June), Rock Werchter (2–5 July)
and Pukkelpop (19–22 August).At each of the festival camping grounds a 100 m^2 (10 m
× 10 m) convenience shop was set up with two checkout
counters each with a capacity of 1000 checkouts per day.
The shops were open the evening before the start of the
festivals, and during the festivals every day from 8 a.m. to
10 p.m., and the morning after the festival. The shops
were positioned as ‘Express festival shops’, Carrefour’s
convenience store label. Conventional Express shops are
open on Sundays and offer mainly an assortment of food
products. It was decided to apply normal shop prices
and not add a ‘festival premium’ like most other drink and
food stands usually do. Also, private labels are becom-
ing increasingly popular. The company therefore decided
to use the opportunity to promote its own private label
‘Carrefour’ under which a wide assortment of about 3000
products are sold, and to offer as many Carrefour products
as possible. The assortment of 280 products was adapted to
what camping goers need: tents, batteries, toilet paper, tape,
toothbrushes, sleeping bags, camping gas, deodorant,
shaving cream, sun block, condoms, tooth picks, disinfectant,
bottle openers and food and drink items such as rice,
spaghetti, ketchup, fruit, vegetables, yoghurt, milk, mineral
water and, every morning, freshly baked bread. Express
shops are renowned for their fresh products. Baking fresh
bread in the shop creates a more genuine real shopping
experience. At Graspop, barbecuing is allowed, so barbecue
material was also sold. Pack sizes were small and adapted
to what people would need for one weekend. No alcohol,
soft drinks and cigarettes were sold, because a substantial
part of the festival’s profit comes from selling these products.
Festival organisers are very wary about guerrilla marketing,
and they see to it that if, for instance, Coca-Cola is an official
sponsor, no Pepsi is sold on the festival grounds. Where Coca-
Cola was an official festival sponsor, Carrefour sold only
Chaudfontaine water, a Coca-Cola company brand, in order
to blend in with other festival sponsors. The shops were
operated by students, but shop management was entrusted
to Carrefour staff, selected after an internal call for candidates.
The response, both from its own employees and from external
people interested in shop keeping at the festivals, was massive.
Also internally, the initiative led to a lot of ‘rumour around
the brand’. The cost of setting up these stores at festivals,
including the festival sponsorship fee, logistics, shop keepers’
salaries, stands and transportation, was significantly lower
than that of a main festival sponsor, and in the latter case
no real experience is provided and main sponsors still have
to provide sampling and animation at an extra cost.A cost-effective marketing
communications project
Obviously, there was a direct return on investment. The festival
shops realised a significant turnover. Sales per customer
per purchase were similar to what is sold in an averageM11_PELS3221_05_SE_C11.indd 368M11_PELS3221_05_SE_C11.indd 368 3/6/13 4:07 PM3/6/13 4:07 PM