Combining Kinds of Retailer Promotions: Effect on Sales of Selected Food Products

Summary : When newspaper advertising, price reductions, and special displays were used together to promote retail sales of food products covered in this report, gains in sales were greater than the sum of the gains associated with the three promotional methods used separately. Likewise, use of any two of the methods together was accompanied by larger increases in sales than use of the same two methods separately. When the three techniques were used in combination to promote a single brand of a product, total sales of the product group increased though sales of the nonpromoted brands in some instances declined to a moderate degree. These findings were the result of observations in 12 food supermarkets operating under normal conditions. Thirty promotions using one of the selling techniques or various combinations of them were observed over a 10-month period. The promotions were retailer conceived and directed and were not influenced in any way by the researchers. The food products observed were mayonnaise and salad dressing; canned tomato, grapefruit, and pineapple juices; canned cut wax beans, sweet peas, fruit cocktail, applesauce, yellow cling and Elberta peaches; and ground meat.