Why Promote?

23 Jun 09

Promotions have been a regular part of the Grocery retailing scene for many years now – maybe 30 or more years. When I was first involved in Grocery, nearly fifteen years ago, this question typically was dismissed as obvious. The theory that was put forward at that time was that a promotion was run so that the rate of sale after the promotion would be higher than that before – in other words one was led to believe that the objective was to gain a permanent increase in the rate of sale. Now that scan data is readily available (sales through the cash register) we realise that this is not something that can be guaranteed, indeed the vast majority of products appear to continue with precisely the same sales pattern as existed prior to the promotion. If it is in a growth cycle, that probably continues, if it is in decline, that also continues. Why then do we promote?

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