Little Shop collectibles program debuts for a second year this year, CMO says bigger and better offerings in the works
Coles ‘Little Shop’ is making a second-year return, with a fresh array 30 mini replicas and one original favourite available to shoppers from this week.
Coles recently installed CMO, Lisa Ronson, said the supermarket giant has devised an even bigger campaign around the collection of iconic Australian grocery goods after being inundated with requests to bring the collection back for another year.
This time around, 30 collectibles will be available, including a special edition of a first-year favourite, Vegemite, along with Heinz baked beans, Arnott’s Shapes, Tip Top bread, Kleenex toilet paper, a Gillette Razor and Leggos Pizza Sauce. There’s also a Coles delivery truck and replica toy cash register in the mix.
In addition, Coles is offering a new collectors case, and extended the availability of minis to its Coles Express fuel and convenience stores alongside main supermarkets and online. The Little Shop pieces are available to shoppers for free when spending $30 or more.
“The first campaign was embraced by customers of all ages and brought to life the traditional hobby of collecting enjoyed by all generations,” Ronson said. “It’s wonderful how Little Shop brings family, friends, work colleagues and communities together by encouraging them to swap and share their minis to help each other complete their collections.”
According to Coles, last year’s Little Shop offerings were collected by tens of thousands of Australians and led to online swapping networks and physical swap meets. The physical collectibles were complemented with competitions and other prize draws.
“We have worked with our suppliers to make this year’s campaign even bigger and bigger than ever before and we think customers will be excited to find out about the additional surprises we have in store for them,” Ronson added.
However, not all consumers are happy to hear Little Shop products are returning. As reported on Yahoo, a group of individuals are calling for a boycott of the collectables, launching a petition to ban the toys on Change.org due to their detrimental environmental impact. At time of publishing this story, the latest petition on 12 July 2019 had gathered 735 signatures. A similar petition launched in February against the plastic toys garnered more than 108,000 signatures.
Yet in stark contrast, another petition on the site, which has over 1724 signatures, called for more collecting cases to be produced by Coles to cater to high consumer demand.
Follow CMO on Twitter: @CMOAustralia, take part in the CMO conversation on LinkedIn: CMO ANZ, follow our regular updates via CMO Australia's Linkedin company page, or join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CMOAustralia.
In the third and final episode of our 3-part CMO50 video series exploring modern marketing and why it’s become a matter of trust, we’re delighted to be joined by Telstra’s former CMO and now digital services and sales executive, Jeremy Nicholas, and Adobe VP Marketing Asia-Pacific and Japan, Duncan Egan.
Flash back to the classic film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Television-obsessed Mike insists on becoming the first person to be ‘sent by Wonkavision’, dematerialising on one end, pixel by pixel, and materialising in another space. His cinematic dreams are realised thanks to rash decisions as he is shrunken down to fit the digital universe, followed by a trip to the taffy puller to return to normal size.
Why is it there is no shortage of leadership development materials, yet outstanding leadership is so rare? Despite having access to so many leadership principles, tools, systems and processes, why is it so hard to develop and improve as a leader?
As a nation united by sport, brands are beginning to learn money alone won’t talk without aligned values and action. If recent events with major leagues and their players have shown us anything, it’s the next generation of athletes are standing by what they believe in – and they won’t let their values be superseded by money.
