Coding the Competition

The Challenge

Despite having a national presence and being predominant in parts of the country, the brand experienced lackluster sales and weak FSI coupon redemption in one key US region. Worse yet, the brand was losing ground to its competitors in that region while its efforts were hampered by low brand awareness and strong consumer loyalty to its competitors. The brand needed to better penetrate the region to gain share and grow volume, so it looked to Inmar VSI Promotion Consulting for options in such a fiercely competitive landscape.

The Solution

Inmar VSI developed an approach to help the brand fine-tune its promotional performance evaluation: market-level coding. Coding coupons for each market inside the region differently and performing analysis with the resulting data would highlight differences that might get overlooked if evaluating the region as a whole. Further, since each market had different predominant competitors, market-level coding could provide actionable insights to help gain share – one targeted market at a time. Finally, measuring the success of market-specific offers could help shape future coupon tactics.

The Results

The new level of detail afforded by the market-level coding, combined with Inmar VSI's coupon expertise, provided a host of strategic insights. For one, the situation wasn't as dire as it seemed; the brand had opportunities to grow in the region. Inmar VSI uncovered that, promotions in some markets once deemed weak due to competition, actually performed as well as or better than those in other parts of the US. This revealed that the brand should consider different approaches to the issues presented by a few tough markets that were dragging the results down for the region.

Also, Inmar VSI confirmed that coupon redemption and the Brand Development Index (a measure of sales strength) are not always linked. Other factors – such as consumers' overall propensity to use coupons – are better indicators of the ability of a coupon to move volume and gain share in a market.

Finally, the brand learned that, in most markets in the region, consumers responded well to offers with the brand's standard face value. This insight allowed the brand to shift spending focus to markets that needed richer offers to get consumers to try or switch to their brand.

Ultimately, Inmar VSI identified a targeted path the brand could follow to grow sales in the region.

If you have questions about how to optimize your coupon promotions, how to organize and implement your events or how to evaluate promotional effectiveness, Inmar VSI has the answers you need. Imagine what a difference it would make to have all the data analyzed and boiled down to the most efficient and effective recommendations. That's exactly what Inmar VSI does: leverage resources and information to get straight and simple answers to your toughest promotional questions.