Market Track: February 2012
Overall, February witnessed a year-over-year decline in total flyer circulation per market as well as pages per market. Conversely, the biggest change in this month was witnessed by Walmart, which saw a considerable jump in flyer circulation as well as the number of pages. This dramatic increase of 122% increase in flyer drop was mainly due to the two extra flyers dropped in the second and fourth week of February this year unlike the previous year.
Apart from Walmart, Best Buy, Sears, Kmart and Target followed the same promotional strategy of dropping more flyers per market and also made them bulkier compared to previous year.
Those who saw a considerable fall in flyer drops as well as pages were Safeway, JC Penney, Home Depot and Lowe’s. The highest drop in flyers per market was witnessed by JC Penney with almost 60% drop compared to last year. The reason behind this was that they did not drop any flyer in the first week of February while last year they had circulated almost four flyers per market in the corresponding week. Likewise they did not drop as many flyers as they did in the third and fourth week of February when compared with the previous year.
Lowe’s not only reduced its flyer circulation by 50% but also heavily cut down on pages per market (-47%) compared with last year.
Toys”R”Us was the only retailer not having any change in flyer rotation or page counts.
Staples, CVS and Walgreens planned similarly for advertisings with keeping their flyer circulation constant but increased their page count by 23 per cent, 14 per cent and 8 per cent respectively.
Kohl’s and Macy’s East increased their flyer circulation marginally however saw a fall in pages per market compared with 2011.
It’s important to note a number of factors should be considered when examining the number of inserts and pages retailers send into the marketplace. Market Track’s granular level of data reflects regional versioning and market specific differences. This is accomplished through an extensive collections process, including physically obtaining the ads from the various markets in which they are distributed. In the instance that retailers send additional circulars to a limited number of markets, Market Track’s information reflects these nuances through numbers with decimals (for average number of inserts per market) and odd numbers (for average number of pages).
About Market Track:
Market Track is a market intelligence firm dedicated to increasing customers’ returns on their promotional investments. Through innovative technology and marketplace expertise, they monitor and analyze over 200 U.S. and Canadian markets for every channel of trade in order provide retailers and manufacturers with superior tools to monitor promotional activity, support dynamic decision making and turn information into market intelligence. For more information, contact Market Track at 1.800.235.3781 or e-mail [email protected].