Sales Promotion Preferences: A Demographic Analysis

It would be a significant understatement to say that sales promotion is enjoying a dominant role in the promotional mixes of most consumer goods companies. The 1998 Cox Direct 20th Annual Survey of Promotional Practices suggests that many companies spend as much as 75% of their total promotional budgets on sales promotion and only 25% on advertising. This is up from 57% spent on sales promotions in 1981 (Landler and DeGeorge). The reasons for this unprecedented growth have been welldocumented. Paramount among these is the desire on the part of many organizations for a quick bolstering of sales. The obvious corollary to this is the desire among consumer groups for increased value in the products they buy. Value can be defined as the ratio of perceived benefits to price, and is linked to performance and meeting consumers' expectations (Zeithaml 1988). In today's value-conscious environment, marketers must stress the overall value of their products (Blackwell, Miniard and Engel 2001). Consumers have reported that coupons, price promotions and good value influence 75 80% of their brand choice decisions (Cox 1998). Today, "many Americans, brought up on a steady diet of commercials, view advertising with cynicism or indifference. With less money to shop, they're far more apt to buy on price" (Landler and DeGeorge 1991, 68).