Kaufland

1. The client

Kaufland is a hypermarket chain that belongs to the German Schwarz Group, the same group behind Lidl, with roots in the wholesale distribution business the Schwarz family started in the first half of the 20th century [1]. The chain entered the Romanian market in 2005, with a first store opened in the Colentina district of Bucharest [2], and grew steadily in the years that followed: from 44 stores in 2009 to 100 in 2014 [1] and to more than 190 outlets nationwide by its 18th to 20th year on the local market [3]. Today it is one of the largest retailers in Romania, part of a group with over 1,600 stores in eight countries [4].

A player of that size allocates consistently large communication budgets: in the month analysed by Media Trust in 2023, the company ranked third nationally by estimated advertising investment, with television as its highest exposure channel, thousands of TV spot airings in a single month, alongside radio and print [5]. The company’s brand communication has passed through several agencies and creative concepts over time, from campaigns built strictly on price to positioning aimed at above average income shoppers, not only the discount sensitive buyer [6]. The slogan “Ieftin și bun” (“Cheap and good”) remains the main anchor of its brand communication today [7].

In a grocery retail market where the fight for attention happens simultaneously on TV, in the weekly leaflet, in digital and in store, a brand of this scale needs a steady supply of visual content and a targeting strategy that can support media investment across several channels at once, exactly the kind of project we ran for Kaufland.

2. Context of the engagement

Alucard Group worked with Kaufland on a project with the same structure as the one we ran for Glovo, elsewhere in the agency’s portfolio: photo and video content, TV commercial strategy and targeting strategy. The project sat within the agency’s more than 12 years of activity, over which it has worked with more than 200 clients across different industries.

3. What we did

The engagement covered three connected components of the client’s brand communication.

Photo and video content. We produced visual materials, stills and footage, for use in campaigns across multiple channels: TV, digital and internal network communication materials. This kind of content supports both the television spots and their extensions online.

TV commercial strategy. We worked on the concept and narrative structure of the TV spots: how the message is built, what sequencing makes sense for a retail brand with frequent, repetitive communication, and how the airing plan is coordinated with the rest of the communication mix (leaflet, radio, digital).

Targeting strategy. We defined the audience segmentation and the targeting approach for the client’s media investment, so that a communication budget allocated across several channels at once, as public data on the company’s advertising spend also shows, reaches the relevant shopper segments rather than a generic mass audience.

The three components were designed together, not separately: the photo and video content fed the TV spots, and the targeting strategy set out who the content reaches and how.

4. Results

The project notes contain no figures for this engagement, so the results are described qualitatively. The project gave the client a flow of visual content ready for TV and digital airing, a communication structure for the TV spots aligned with the high frequency rhythm typical of a retailer this size, and a targeting strategy meant to make the media investment more efficient, that is, to direct budget toward audience segments with real relevance to the offer rather than toward undifferentiated broadcast. For a brand running constant campaigns across several channels, the value of a project like this lies in the coherence between content, message and audience, not in a single isolated campaign.

5. Services involved

Photo and video production as a standalone service is no longer part of the agency’s current offering. The strategy components of this project do, however, correspond to services we offer today:

• Strategy & positioning, for the underlying thinking behind a long term communication strategy, applicable to any brand with a constant market presence.
• PR & offline visibility, for the offline communication component, campaigns and advertising that today include OOH and print, the category closest to the logic of a TV commercial strategy.
• Paid Search and Paid Social, for today’s digital equivalent of the targeting strategy: audience segmentation and efficient allocation of media budget across paid channels.
• Growth & scaling, for the thinking behind scaling communication budgets across several channels, similar to the logic behind media investment of the scale described above.
• Creative for marketing, for the creative campaign assets (banners, static materials, adaptations), today’s equivalent of the visual component, without video production.

Sources

1. Istoricul Kaufland, despre.kaufland.ro
2. Când a apărut primul magazin Kaufland, de fapt, Money.ro
3. 20 de ani de Kaufland: de la prima deschidere la o rețea națională de peste 190 de magazine, HotNews.ro
4. Kaufland de 18 ani, cu România pentru România, despre.kaufland.ro
5. PENNY, Lidl și Kaufland în top 3 investiții în publicitate în luna august 2023, Retail-FMCG.ro
6. Kaufland, „România știe să gătească“, Case study, IQAds
7. Kaufland România relansează sloganul de brand „Ieftin și bun”, printr-o campanie dedicată, despre.kaufland.ro