Market Track: July 2011

Overall, there was an 8 % decline in the number of pages per market across the retailer set, and a 4% decline in number of inserts. Pages being down can be attributed to a steep decline in Kohl’s and Sears' number of pages per market, while the decline in number of inserts was due to Home Depot and Staples decreasing their drops.

Home Depot and Safeway adopted a similar strategy, reducing the number inserts per market in July 2011 compared with last year, while increasing the number of pages per market.

Kohl’s drop in number of inserts is due to less inserts in the last week of July 2011 compared with July 2010. They also reduced the pages per market in the same week, impacting decline in total number of pages per market.

Lowes advertised heavily this year with promotions in every week which was different from last year, when they focused promotions in the first and third week of July 2010 only. Number of pages per market also showed an increase compared with last year.

Similarly, Macy’s advertised more compared to last year, increasing inserts by 38% and number of pages by 46%.

Walmart reduced the number of pages by 27% primarily by changing their non-Back to School circulars down to four pages from eight. This reduction was slightly offset through an effort to run these four page inserts all four weeks of the month rather than publishing the eight page circulars on only two of the three weeks.

Sears made their inserts less bulky compared with last years, decreasing page count by 38% and focused more on number of inserts per market with a 5% increase.

July 2010: 4th July to 30th July. July 2011: 3rd July to 30th July

It’s important to note a number of factors that 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, it monitors 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 email[email protected].