Clarification: Target promotional efforts increased in April

Last week’s issue of Target News Now contained some inaccurate information relating to the level of promotional activity during April at some of the nation’s leading retailers. The correct information along with a link to a revised chart provided by research company Market Track is below.

An increase in promotional efforts in April contributed to Target’s 13.1% monthly same store sales gain, according to revised data from the promotional intelligence firm Market Track. The late arrival of Easter explained some of the increased promotional emphasis, which saw Target produce an average of 105 pages of ad inserts per market compared with 91 the prior year for a 15% increase. Such other retailers as Dollar General, Walmart and Toys“R”Us had an even larger percentage increase while Staples and Macy’s grew their ad pages at a slower rate.

Just because Easter came late didn’t mean all retailer boosted advertising in April. Such companies as Best Buy, Home Depot, Lowe’s and Kmart saw their April 2011 ads pages decline when compared with the prior year.

On average, across the retailer set, number of inserts decreased slightly, while the number of pages increased on a year over year basis for the month of April. When reviewing front page category share of voice, Candy experienced a strong increase in April 2011 compared to the same month in the prior year. This is no surprise as Easter fell later in the month in 2011, giving retailers the opportunity to advertise this category for more weeks throughout the month than in 2010. Other categories with notable increases in 2011 versus 2010 include household cleaning, digital TVs and toys.