Market Track: July 2012
With the start of Back to School promotions, (and taking JCPenney out of the mix) we witnessed increase in page count that was driven mainly by significant increases in Walmart’s and Sears’ page counts.
JCPenney has been drastically altering their promotional strategy in past couple of months, however this month, the store did not promote at all, causing curiosity for many customers. (It should be noted that JCPenney did release circulars the week of July 29th that will be counted in the August report.)
Highest gain in flyer circulation was witnessed by Home Depot, with 60 per cent increase in flyer drop this year compared to same month last year. The store dropped 2 flyer prior to 4th of July week, of which one was themed around 4th July.
Staples, CVS, Kroger, Sears and Target also saw a significant increase in flyer circulation; however that did not lead to increase in page count per flyer for all the retailers. Home Depot and CVS witnessed a drop in page count while others had an increase when compared to previous year same month.
Walmart may have fewer flyers compared to previous year, the retailers made their flyer much more bulky than last year. In the week of 7/1/2012 Walmart dropped a 32 page flyer compared to only 4 page flyer last year same week. Similarly in the week of 7/15/2012, 24 page flyer was dropped instead of 12 page flyer previous year same week.
Best Buy also dropped fewer flyers while concentrating on increase of pages per flyers.
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].