Market Track: October 2012
The overall trend has been similar to what we saw last month with a marginal decrease in the number of circulars, while increases were seen in page counts per market. Average pages per market saw 10% increase this year October when compared with the same month last year.
Walmart decreased the number of flyers compared with last year, while they focused on increasing the size of their flyers by almost doubling their page counts. Also, the advertiser gave more focus to promotional events like “Fall” and “Halloween” this year, with Fall promotions starting earlier this year.
Safeway, Staples, Target, Kroger and Kmart witnessed increase in pages per market along with an increase with the number of flyers. Of these retailers Safeway witnessed the highest increase, while it was Kroger who had highest percentage change in pages per market when compared with previous year.
Sears, J.C. Penney and Toys "R" Us followed the trend of reducing the number of flyers and increasing page counts. Toys "R" Us saw more than 100% increase in their page count. The huge increase in page count for this month was primarily due to the release of an 80-page Christmas flyer, kicking off the holiday earlier than most of the other retailers.
Kohl, Walgreens, Home Depot and Lowes decreased both circular drops and page counts.
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].