The recent survey HiperCom undertook on Market Intelligence has provided some fascinating insights into the current promotional audience whether retailer or FMCG.

First and foremost, let's compare the results of the impact of retailer promotional leaflets on retailer's market share and brand's market share. Interestingly it is clear that the results for both are significantly similar with in both cases almost half believing that the impact on market share is strong. 

The survey results confirmed that the promotional catalogue remains the spine of the marketing plan for the majority of retailers (with the exeption of a few cases in Russia, Ukraine and Romania). 

The impact for all stakeholders also remains strong. However, it is weighted by several parameters such as; quality of leaflet, country, the different impacts region-to-region, total stores and offers/prices and of course market share through customer loyalty. 

Although a clear stand-point from the retailers perspective for brands, opinions are more divided, as the marketing mix of brands is much broader. The point-of-view tends to be dependent on many factors for example if it is a big brand...

If it is a big brand who is working on building its reputation and market share on several levels (advertising activities, PR activities for example), additional sale promotion might contribute on some levels. On the other hand, some brands are focused only on sale promotions and in this case, if the brand's market share is low then sale promotion like promotional leaflets will have significant impact. It generally depends on the total stores in which the promotion takes place and then on offers/price decrease.

When asking what is the most relevant figure for price benchmarking in a category we were presented with the below statistics. 

The modelling of the price level, for a collection of promotions, (in a category, in a promotional catalog or in an analysis) is a delicate excercise. Each statistical approximation provides information yes, but is inherently reductive. The weighted average price and the modal value are the most successful here.

It is clear that the price remains the most important KPIs for marketing professionals. Other indicators are shared in a similar way, with a small advantage for the share of voice of the retailer that edited the promotional catalogue.

The final question related to the most relevant price for a performing price perception. The promotional price as shown on the catalogue gives the best information on the perceived price level of the advertiser. It is important to remember that the shadow price indicates the mechanism which led to calculate the net price of all benefits.

Thank you very much to those who participated in the Q1 Market Intelligence survey with HiperCom. Your co-operation in helping us establish trends for the retail promotional market is highly valued and we look forward to expanding in Q2.