Sales Promotions

Thinking about where am I going to find a persuasive message for the found content while eating breakfast I realised that 2 were staring at me in the face (just to note I don't actually have ketchup for breakfast, this was left out by one of my housemates). 

Chandon et al, (2000) found that sales promotions provide consumers with hedonic benefits (opportunities for value expression, entertainment, and exploration) and utilitarian benefits (savings, higher product quality, and improved shopping convenience).Utilitarian benefits are primarily instrumental, functional, and cognitive; they provide customer value by being a means to an end. Hedonic benefits are non instrumental  experiential, and affective; they are appreciated for their own sake, without further regard to their practical purposes (Hirschman and Holbrook 1982. p. 100).

Going into more detail into some of these benefits: Sales promotions may allow consumers to upgrade to higher-quality products by reducing the price of otherwise unaffordable products (the quality benefit). They signal the availability of the brand at the point of sale and can reduce consumer search and decision costs and therefore improve shopping convenience. Also, they can enhance consumers' self-perception of being smart shoppers and provide an opportunity to reaffirm their personal values (the value expression benefit).

Consumers evaluate products on the basis of the benefits they provide weighted by the importance of these benefits. The weighting of the benefits varies across products, purchase occasions, and individuals. For low-involvement, repeat-purchase products, the weights of some of these benefits may decrease to zero so that only a few important benefits are considered in the purchase evaluation. For example, Hoyer's (1984) field study of laundry detergent buyers in the United States shows that a few product benefits, such as product performance, price, emotional attachment, or social norms, account for 81% of the (self-reported) benefits sought.



Chandon, P., Wansink, B., & Laurent, G. (2000). A benefit congruency framework of sales promotion effectiveness. The Journal of marketing, 64(4) 65-81.

Hirschman, E, C., & Holbrook, M, E. (1982). Hedonic Consumption: Emerging Concepts. Methods and Propositions. The Journal of Marketing, 46(3). 92-101.

Hoyer, W, D.(1984). An Examination of Consumer Decision Making for a Common Repeat Purchase Product. Journal of Consumer Research,11. 822-29.