Tesco sets up charity to drive new brand
Tesco has set up a not-for-profit organisation to raise money for women’s health charities to be funded by sales of its new feminine care range Halo.
The supermarket has pledged to donate 15p from every sale of Halo branded feminine hygiene products to a recently set up Halo Initiative charity and claims the product range is a “feminine care range with a difference – the femcare range with a heart”.
Halo is the latest in Tesco’s expanding portfolio of “venture brands”, as revealed by Marketing Week in December.
The range of tampons, sanitary towels, and liners and the charity initiative, which are both non-Tesco branded, launch this month with the strapline: “Halo – Protects women every month, womankind every day. Halo will also launch a “playful” marketing campaign dubbed “Show us your knickers!” to raise awareness of the product range and charity initiative.
It invites women and men to customise a pair of knickers or pants and enter their efforts into a competition to win £500 worth of Tesco vouchers. Entries will appear on the halo Facebook page and the halo-Protects.com website.
The Halo Initiative, recently set up by Tesco and registered to its head office address, will distribute the money raised to a range of charities working towards the advancement of physical, mental and social wellbeing and the relief of illness amongst all women, specifically ovarian and gynaecological cancers, mental health, domestic violence and teenage pregnancies.
The charity is wholly independent from the supermarket and run by trustees including Baroness Julia Neuberger, Professor Gwyneth Lewis, Baroness Margaret Jay, Pinky Lilani, Tesco responsibility and communities director Ruth Giradet and Sidonie Kingsmill, brand development director at Tesco.
The organisation hopes to plug the funding gap many charities are facing and will give “particular consideration” to underfunded charities with a strategy in place to use the funds.
Tesco hopes to rival FMCG brands such as Bodyform and Procter & Gamble’s Always, with a range that is “just as effective as other leading femcare brands, whilst priced just below the competition so that economically, they are kinder to your purse strings … and get that inner satisfaction feeling, knowing that the money you have to spend every month is being put to good use and supporting womankind.”
Women in the UK spend more than £20m on feminine care products each month.
