Conclusions
Based on an extensive review of relevant literature, a number of propositions regarding
the use and success of retail sales promotion in the supermarket industry have been
developed and examined in this study. Two sets of channel members were considered
(retailers and manufacturers), and the relationship between these groups in terms of
their application of sales promotion techniques and marketing objectives was explored.
This section outlines the major conclusions of the study with reference to the research
questions posed.
The review of past research in the area of sales promotion revealed a number of
important issues that had not been fully addressed in the context of the supermarket
retail environment. A tendency to consider sales promotions only in terms of
consumer reactions to, and preference for, was identified, along with a significant focus
by researchers on price-based sales promotion techniques. There has been little research
that considers the supermarket industry specifically and, in particular, the full range of
retail sales promotion techniques available to this industry. Although retailer and
manufacturer objectives in using sales promotion have been considered individually,
there have not been attempts to understand the difficulties of their relationship within
the sales promotion context. In addition, while there have been suggestions that
internationalisation will affect the applicability of individual sales promotion techniques
in different countries, such suggestions are based on assumptions made with regard to
the influence of culture on promotion, rather than on empirical research.
Three major conclusions regarding the issues outlined above have emerged from this
study, and a conceptual framework based on these findings proposed. The first of these
conclusions relates to channel issues, where the balance of power within the channel was
seen to influence which sales promotion techniques were actually used at a retail level.
Retailers tended to hold the greatest proportion of power in the channel relationship, and
as such, had the ability to demand retail sales promotion techniques that best fit their
objectives without having to consider the objectives of other channel members. In
response to this, manufacturers were often reluctant to properly support the sales
promotion initiatives and were losing interest in making an effort to optimise their sales
promotion decisions overall.
The second major conclusion concerned country differences. Contrary to what was
expected from the review of the literature, national culture did not have a great effect on retail sales promotion decisions made by either retailers or manufacturers, and
neither did legal restrictions within individual countries. Instead, an important link
was identified between the two issues of level of market development and industry
structure within a country and the overall success of different sales promotion tools.
These two characteristics tended to moderate, first, the acceptance or resistance to
particular sales promotion tools by retailers, and second, the overall success of that tool
within the individual country.
Lastly, the industry suitability of different sales promotion methods was examined.
The overall finding is that despite prior assumptions that suitability is reliant on
product type or country choice, there are a number of sales promotion techniques that
are inherently suited to the supermarket industry as a whole. The majority of these
“inherently suitable” techniques are price-based and the conclusion is then that these
techniques can be used globally. Value-added techniques, on the other hand, should
be localised to fit with the market in which they are being applied. In light of these
findings, sales promotion use checklists and guidelines for supermarket retailers and
manufacturers have been developed. These are intended to provide a series of
guidelines for the enhancement of retail sales promotion use in the supermarket
industry, as well as resulting in better alignment of the strategic marketing objectives of the two channel parties.