ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Catalina, a leader in consumer-driven marketing, said that it is expanding its nationwide point-of-sale (POS) media network into convenience stores following a successful pilot program with technology partner Outsite Networks. The Catalina Network is a targeted consumer communication system, currently located at checkout in more than 25,000 retail grocery, drug and mass outlets throughout the United States.
Catalina has been piloting c-store brand-building programs over the past year in nearly 500 stores using a system that was specially designed for the channel. It features a consumer-facing printer that can rapidly issue relevant promotional messages and coupon offers directly to consumers based on their individual purchase behavior.
Pilot data shows that consumers have proven to be highly responsive to relevant marketing programs in this new channel. Brands have been achieving exceptional results in generating trial for new products and volume growth for established ones. Retailers are seeing increased trips and sales driven by the promotion programs sourced and designed by Catalina's team of brand consultants. In a channel with relatively few promotion vehicles, the Catalina Network offers a significant new marketing opportunity, the company said.
"The Catalina Network will offer customers added value during their shopping experience and is a great tool to meet the marketing goals of both retailers and CPG manufacturers," said Joe Vonder Haar, a 28-year former vice president of Anheuser-Busch's convenience store sales and managing partner of at iSee Store Innovations. "The Catalina Network is a plug-and-play system that is fully compatible with all scanner-based c-store POS systems."
Ed Kuehnle, president of Catalina Marketing Services, said, "The convenience channel is an ideal growth area for Catalina, and we look forward to a very successful rollout. We will improve our strategic value by now being able to support our clients' key initiatives in the channel."
The addition of Catalina allows convenience retailers and brands to deliver dynamic promotions and brand-building efforts. Additionally, Catalina has partnered with Outsite Networks to provide additional loyalty capabilities to c-store retailers via CouponNetwork.
With proprietary and integrated in- and out-of-store marketing platforms, Catalina enables brand stewards to deliver the right message to the right audience in the right environment, it said. Outsite Networks, Norfolk, Va., is a leading c-store loyalty provider, with millions of members, a database of more than two billion transactions and hundreds of convenience retail operations as loyalty partners at thousands of locations.
St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Catalina leverages a large, transaction-level shopper-data warehouse to develop, deliver and measure shopper and patient-driven engagements with approximately 90 million households and 130 million patients annually. Media distribution channels include 50,000 food, drug and mass locations worldwide, including 18,000 U.S. pharmacies.
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