Asda was the cheapest for the overall shop, at £42.90, narrowly beating Lidl by just 17p – the cost of a tube of value brand toothpaste. Only Sainsbury's (£48.16) was more expensive than Aldi, at £46.39.The interesting turnabout was:
The no-frills stores have – perhaps turning popular preconceptions on their head – defended their prices, saying it is about value for money and shoppers have to take quality into account.
New York's circulation will fall to 400,000 from 425,000, while the magazine's introductory subscription price is jumping to $24.97 from $19.97.While raising subscription prices may seem counterintuitive in the face of declining circulation, the idea (don't know if it works or not) is to make the remaining circulation more attractive to advertisers. And, of course, to cut costs.
The next page of content is headlined "Scope," with the explanatory subhead "news, scoops and the globe at a glance," which is pretty much what Meacham had said Newsweek was not going to cover anymore. But never mind the headline. Most of the page is a picture of Miss California in a white bikini. I know she's Miss California because of a quote from Donald Trump just over her right shoulder, with the added information that he had "allowed [her] to keep her crown." Her breasts are covered by a table of contents of the Scope section. These contents include "InternationaList" (short dispatches from foreign parts; no list that I can see); a source-greaser (flattering profile of a figure who may prove useful) about CIA director Leon Panetta; something called the "Indignity Index," described as "an unscientific appraisal of dubious public behavior" (comedian Wanda Sykes gets a 12 for a rude joke about Rush Limbaugh, Keifer Sutherland gets a 68 for some kind of unpleasant encounter at a party); a short, serious essay by Melinda Gates about building institutions in underdeveloped countries to help poor people save money; and so on.The newsweeklies, as I noted last year, have dumbed themselves down to the level of People. It doesn't appear that this makeover has changed much. My comment back then stands: "Newsweek trying to reposition itself as intelligent reading seems to me kind of like Lindsay Lohan trying to rebrand herself as Grace Kelly -- it's a worthy effort, but unlikely to succeed."
I say "and so on" as if there is some pattern or similarity here. But the only thing these various features have in common is nothing more about Miss California. It's been said that the test of a newsmagazine is whether you would grab it if you'd been trapped in a coal mine for a week and had one hour to catch up. And after a week trapped in a coal mine, perhaps an hour with a picture of Miss California in a bikini will be more useful than any explanation of why she's in the news. But the new Newsweek maintains the same irritating practice as the old one of half-explaining, which is no use either to those who already know the story or to those who don't.
Intel offered about $37 million in rebates over 2 1/2 years to Samsung and Trigem on the condition that they wouldn't buy from Advanced Micro, according to commission's statement.The EU has just handed down a fine that makes Korea's look like chump change:
The European Union fined Intel Corp. a record euro1.06 billion ($1.44 billion) on Wednesday, ordering the world's biggest computer chip maker to stop illegal sales tactics that shut out its Silicon Valley rival AMD.The findings are detailed in the article linked, and are too lengthy to quote here, but they are similar to the Korean case:
Wrapping up an eight-year probe, the EU says Intel gave rebates to manufacturers Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo and NEC for buying all or almost all their x86 computer processing units, or CPUs, from Intel and paid them to stop or delay the launch of personal computers based on AMD chips.Intel has denied the validity of the findings and says they will appeal within the next sixty days.
[EU Competition Commissioner] Kroes said she hoped the administration of President Barack Obama would join Europe in subjecting corporations to closer anti-trust scrutiny.
This week, one of America's top antitrust officials, Christine Varney, signaled a return to tougher enforcement as the Obama administration dropped a strict interpretation of antitrust rules that saw regulators shun major action against monopolies over the last eight years.
Kroes said Varney's words gave her hope that current "close cooperation" and information exchanges with the Federal Trade Commission "could go in a very positive way" in the future.
"The more competition authorities are joining us in our philosophy, the better it is for it is a global world," she said. "The more who are doing the job ... and with the same approach then the better it is."
Over the past year, about a half dozen retailers have done so, but they mainly are specialty retailers such as AnnTaylor Stores Corp., Guess Inc., Bebe Stores Inc., Cache Inc. and Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. Analysts say many of the stores acted because their comparable-store-sales were deteriorating and it is more of a cost drain compared to better-capitalized large retailers.But what will all us nerds do if we can’t obsess over monthly sales figures?
Macy's Inc., among the biggest retailers in the nation, stopped dispensing same-store-sales figures in February 2008 but started again last October.
French retail giant Carrefour is negotiating to buy Russian supermarket chain Sedmoi Kontinent for 1.25 billion dollars (938 million euros), the daily Kommersant reported.Russia could be an interesting market to watch, since my first thought when I saw this article was, "Hey, didn't I see something a few weeks ago about Walmart planning to enter Russia?" As a matter of fact, I had:
The paper, quoting an unnamed senior Western investment banker close to the talks, said Carrefour would formally submit its bid on May 15 under the terms of a preliminary agreement signed in April.
The paper said the French retailer would pay 1.25 billion dollars to acquire 75 percent of Sedmoi Kontinent and 100 percent of Mkapital, the firm managing the real estate holdings of the Russian supermarket chain.
Reports of out Russia suggest Wal-Mart Stores Inc. may be in negotiations to buy a controlling stake in one of the country's leading “hypermarket” big box retailers. An article in the Kommersant newspaper said the ownership stake in Lenta could approach 51%. This follows similar reports in July 2008.As the quote indicates, Walmart has been looking at Russia for a while. Presumably they'll take the leap soon, especially now that Carrefour has gone first.
Still, any efforts to push their presence out into the regions by Wal-Mart, Tesco or Metro may put them into competition with domestic heavyweight and serial acquirer Aeon.Carrefour pulled out of Japan a few years ago, and Walmart has struggled there.
"Aeon's strategy has been one of looking at M&A as a platform for sales volume expansion," says Larke. "It's seen what the large overseas competition have done and come to the conclusion that sales volume is the way to go."
In the past three years it - or its affiliates - have on average conducted a merger, private placement or capital tie-up with another retailer every two and a half months, according to data from CapitalIQ.
Under the new state law, retailers doing business in Maryland -- as well as state officials -- can sue manufacturers that impose minimum-pricing agreements. The law also covers transactions in which consumers in Maryland buy goods on the Internet, even when the retailer is based out of state. That could potentially affect manufacturers throughout the country.The article says that several other states are considering such legislation, but I doubt there will be any need. Senator Herb Kohl's subcommittee begins hearings next month on a bill to overturn Leegin at the federal level, and that will preempt any state actions.
The process was erratic, labor intensive and costly. In 1930, Americans spent 21% of their disposable income on groceries. By 1940, that percentage dropped to 16%. Today, that figure is less than 6%--thanks to innovations in food distribution, mass merchandising and price competition that began in the 1930s.A sidelight not mentioned in the story is that supermarkets spread so fast and destroyed the existing small retailers so quickly that only six years later, in 1936, congress felt it necessary to try to save the small retailers by passing the Robinson-Patman Act. Didn't work, did it?
"Supermarkets made it possible to achieve economies of scale at a lower cost to consumers," says Leslie G. Sarasin, chief executive of the Food Marketing Institute. "Americans were able to spend more of their disposable income on cars, education, clothing. They effectively created America's middle class."
"While we'll push back a little, what a vendor decides to do with pricing is their decision, but they also own the volume result," Kroger Chief ExecutiveDavid Dillon said at a Barclays Capital conference.
Currently, more than 60 percent of U.S. Twitter users fail to return the following month, or in other words, Twitter’s audience retention rate, or the percentage of a given month’s users who come back the following month, is currently about 40 percent. For most of the past 12 months, pre-Oprah, Twitter has languished below 30 percent retention.That doesn't mean that Twitter will not be successful. If thirty to forty percent of users remain active, and if the application continues its spread to the point that just about everybody tries, then it will be huge. If, however, the anti-hype from the Twitter Quitters begins to discourage new trials, then there will be a problem. We'll keep watching (and even tweeting).
Feesers filed its complaint against Michael Foods and Sodexho on March 17, 2004, alleging price discrimination in violation of the Robinson-Patman Act. A three-week bench trial took place in early 2008 before Judge Sylvia Rambo in the federal district court in Harrisburg, which resulted in the April 27, 2009 decision.This law blog quotes attorneys for the two sides, who disagree (no surprise) as to the importance of the decision:
At trial, Michael Foods and Sodexho argued that Feesers and Sodexho were not in "actual competition" for purposes of the Robinson-Patman Act because Sodexho provides food management services to its customers, whereas Feesers is a food distributor. The court found, however, that both Feesers and Sodexho procure and distribute food for the same institutional customers and, thus, are in actual competition for the same food dollar.
Although the injunctions issued by the district court are binding only as to Michael Foods and Sodexho, it is now clear that price discrimination by food suppliers against distributors such as Feesers and in favor of large-volume food management companies and GPOs such as Sodexho will not be tolerated by the courts.
Kessler [Feeser's attorney] told us Wednesday that the decision could have a major impact on the food distribution industry. In recent years, he explained, food management companies like Sodexo--which provide procurement and management services for cafeterias at schools, hospitals, and prisons--have used their large client base as leverage to extract better pricing deals from suppliers. That's hurt distributors like Feesers. "Sodexho [said to its clients], 'We don't compete with distributors so you can give huge discounts,' " Kessler told us.The decision is here.
Peggy Zwisler of Latham & Watkins, who represented Michael Foods at trial, disputed Kessler's view of Judge Rambo's opinon. She told us it's "very fact specific" and does not have broad implications. She also said that Michael Foods has "strong grounds for appeal" and it intends to do so.
“Competitive injury” is established prima facie by proof of “a substantial price discrimination between competing purchasers over time.” In order to establish a prima facie violation of section 2(a), Feesers does not need to prove that Michael Foods’ price discrimination actually harmed competition, i.e., that the discriminatory pricing caused Feesers to lose customers to Sodexho. Rather, Feesers need only prove that (a) it competed with Sodexho to sell food and (b) there was price discrimination over time by Michael Foods. This evidence gives rise to a rebuttable inference of “competitive injury” under § 2(a). The inference, if it is found to exist, would then have to be rebutted by defendants’ proof that the price differential was not the reason that Feesers lost sales or profits.
"I'd like to capitalize on the store's strong points, but I honestly don't know what they are," Day said. "Every location is full of bizarre adapters, random chargers, and old boom boxes, and some sales guy is constantly hovering over you. It's like walking into your grandpa's basement. You always expect to see something cool, but it never delivers."But Day may be having the last laugh:
Added Day: "I may never know the answer. No matter how many times I punch the sales figures into this crappy Tandy desk calculator, it just doesn't add up."
Net income rose to $43.1 million, or 34 cents a share, from $38.8 million, or 30 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue grew 5.6% to $1 billion.The numbers may be inflated by sales of digital converters, but anybody who's showing good increases right now is doing something right.
Analysts had, on average, been expecting Ft. Worth-based RadioShack to earn 20 cents a share on revenue of $944.8 million, according to consensus estimates derived in a FactSet Research survey.
... for 395 newspapers reporting this spring, daily circulation fell 7% to 34,439,713 copies, compared with the same March period in 2008. On Sunday, for 557 newspapers, circulation was down 5.3% to 42,082,707.Well, at least things can't get any worse than this. Right?
The first panel will be moderated by Pauline Ippolito, Acting Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Economics, and will examine empirical evidence on the effects of RPM. Specifically, it will review existing empirical studies of RPM, or studies of other vertical restraints that might inform the thinking on RPM. The panel also will explore potential future research in light of possible testable hypotheses underlying the competitive effects of RPM.The sessions will be of value to manufacturers who wish to establish minimum pricing rules for their resellers, although it's quite possible the rules might change again very soon.
The second panel, to be moderated by Laurel Price, Attorney Advisor to FTC Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour, will examine the legal and business history of the use of RPM in the United States. It will explore how RPM has been treated in this country historically, as well as the legal and business management doctrines related to RPM.
The third panel, also to be moderated by Price, will examine “rule of reason analyses” after the Supreme Court’s landmark Leegin decision, and will assess guidance provided by the Leegin Court regarding the analysis of RPM.
Not only have private label brands been gaining share for the past decade, experts say these gains are the single-biggest problem facing branded packaged goods players. House brands, once a staple of lower-income households, now enjoy roughly equal penetration among demographic segments. Improvements in quality and packaging have helped removed the stigma attached to buying a no-name product.The recession has accelerated the growth of private label, but it is a long term trend that was happening before the recession and will (presumably) continue, though at perhaps a reduced rate, when the recession is over. The increasing concentration of retail, and the increasing power of the surviving retailers, virtually ensures it.
American Greetings is selling its retail store operations to Schurman, which operates Papyrus card and gift retail stores. Schurman will operate stores under the American Greetings, Carlton Cards and Papyrus brands. Schurman paid American Greetings approximately $6 million for its retail business.American Greeting is a pretty well-known name -- I'm surprised to see that their retail business is worth only $6mil. But then, I also don't remember having seen any of their stores recently (if ever) -- which may be a clue as to why they are exiting the business. This would seem to be one of those "concentrate on your core business" moves.
The card companies also announced that American Greetings purchased the wholesale division of Schurman, which supplies Papyrus brand greeting cards to specialty, grocery and other retailers. Following the close of the deal, American Greetings will become responsible for service to those accounts where Papyrus brand products are sold.
American Greetings paid approximately $18 million dollars as consideration for the wholesale division of Schurman.
“The addition of the Papyrus brand to the American Greetings family provides the opportunity to serve a consumer with distinct tastes—a consumer who appreciates the Papyrus approach to design and quality,” says American Greetings CEO Zev Weiss.
"The rating actions reflect Standard & Poor's deepening concern about the impact of the U.S. recession on the increasingly troubled department store sector," Standard & Poor's credit analyst Diane Shand writes in her reports, "which has felt the full brunt of the declining U.S. economy and weakening consumer confidence in 2008. We believe lower consumer spending and declining mall traffic will affect the sales and profits of the department store operators this year," Shand writes, "and that recovery will be slow."I'm not a market analyst (as a glance at my portfolio would quickly prove), but I certainly agree that "recovery will be slow" for the department store sector, since their problems pre-date the recession and will continue after the recession is over.
As more stores have closed, mall vacancies are at their highest point in almost a decade, according to Reis, a research company, which said the vacancy rate at the end of 2008 was 7.1 percent, compared with 5.8 percent at the end of 2007.Down 97% -- sounds like some of my investments.
That has left many of the roughly 1,500 malls in the United States groping for a solution — any solution — to their woes. Some have converted retail space into office space. Others have drastically lowered rents for prized tenants, agreeing to cut deals to keep revenue flowing. Some have simply gone dark.
Shares in General Growth, which closed on Wednesday at $1.05, have fallen 97 percent over the past 12 months.
Trendy vendor and possible competitor Wet Seal reported that its net revenue fell to $593 million last year from $611 million in 2007. Clothing retailers like Ann Taylor, Eddie Bauer and Gap have shuttered stores across the nation of late. And retailers like Meryvn’s and Steve & Barry’s declared bankruptcy last year.But the store owners are undetered:
“It’s the best time to enter. From here, it’s all up,” Armando Dollero said as he toured the 6,300-square-foot store on opening day.Good luck to them. I love that attitude.
The recession is also forcing customers to exchange expensive name brands for cheaper retailers, Carlo Dollero said.
“We’re getting a market we didn’t have before,” he said, adding that sales in Mexico shot up 42 percent last year compared to 2007.
These days, many fashion brands are effecting their own pushback, demanding to be left out of department stores' sales. "All our brands are taking great care to ensure that what happened in November will not happen again," says Paola Milani, a spokeswoman for Gucci Group, which owns Bottega Veneta, Yves Saint Laurent, Gucci and other brands. "The idea is to maintain pricing coherence in the regions in which our products are sold regardless of channel of distribution." [ ... ]One wonders if that will be legal if the Leegin decision is repealed, as Senator Kohl is demanding.
Saks, which was a leader in last fall's discounting, declined to comment. But this week, notices for Saks's 25% off "Friends and Family" sale exclude, in the teensy fine print, more than 40 top luxury brands, including Gucci, Cartier, Chanel, Loro Piana, Oscar de la Renta, Zegna and Christian Louboutin.
Her company depends on department stores for 70% of its revenue, which was $273 million in 2008. But she would like to whittle that share down to 50%.Probably not a bad idea anyway, considering the current state of department stores. Another variation is opening leased departments within the d-stores.
To that end, Eileen Fisher will open six new stores of its own this year in the U.S. -- slightly accelerated from an average of five new stores per year -- and is launching a costly new technology platform for Internet sales that will offer greater flexibility, allowing online customers to pick up items in stores, for instance.
Telesto Ventures said it would not build vehicles and would only keep a skeletal design crew on hand to adapt models from other automakers to a Saturn look. It also said it would focus future models on fuel-efficient and electric vehicles from other automakers.I wish them well, and I find it fascinating to watch the concept of private label spread into areas where one could never have imagined.
While such a business model doesn't exist today, Telesto's backers say the global overcapacity among automakers and the growing number of start-up firms in China and elsewhere would give the reformulated Saturn several possible sources of new vehicles.
Finding automakers to work with "is not a tremendous concern," said John Pappanastos, a group spokesman. "It would allow manufacturers not in the United States to launch without incurring the largest expense they would otherwise face, setting up a distribution network."
Young & Rubicam, looking to snag more revenue in one of the few ad sectors still growing despite the recession, is forming an alliance with Mars Advertising, a specialist in pitching products to consumers while they're busy shopping.Traditional ad agencies, finding their business shrinking as a result of the decline of traditional media, are following the money into in-store marketing. Y&R is just the latest of several firms to enter the field.
Y&R faces stiff competition in the in-store sector, where some of its rivals were faster to bulk up. Publicis Groupe's Saatchi & Saatchi, for example, purchased in-store marketing firm Thompson Murray in 2004. Now named Saatchi X, the firm has 15 offices around the world and works for marketers such as Procter & Gamble, Wal-Mart Stores and PepsiCo's Frito-Lay.It's good to see the ad agencies catch on (if belatedly) to what we've all known for a decade or more. It remains to be seen if they understand the dynamics of trade promo. It's a little different from competing for Golden Lions at Cannes.
"The pass delivers songs, video footage and photos, but spaces out the offering over several weeks in the hope of holding consumers' attention and justifying the premium price."The music industry is flailing about, looking for new revenue streams. It may be that producing value-added bundles of this sort might be one way out of their dilemma. Interestingly, their problem has been caused by the collapse of bundled deals -- albums -- that they have been offering for generations. Downloads have de-bundled albums, and consumers are choosing to buy the one or two songs per album that they care about and ignore the useless filler songs that the record companies had been forcing their customers to pay for.
Polaroid Corp., the twice-bankrupt pioneer of instant photography whose brand name may be its most valuable asset, must try again to auction off its assets after failing to win a judge’s approval for a $56.3 million sale.Fifty-six million. Wow.
... Acer could pass second-place Dell in number of computers shipped this year—and close in on HP. Acer "has a strong chance of overtaking HP," wrote analyst Gokul Hariharan of JPMorgan Chase in a report earlier this month.This is based on unit volume, not sales, and many of the units are low-priced netbooks. But it's impressive nonetheless. They have moved up by cutting costs to be the bone (their overhead costs are barely half of Dell's and HP's), and doing the same with their prices.
Acer's new ultrathin laptop will have a starting price of $650, compared with $1,800 for a similar HP Voodoo Envy and $2,000 for a Dell Adamo. "They're changing customers' perception of what you should pay for a computer," says Richard Shim, an analyst with the research firm IDC.So Acer is taking the low end of the market, but also attacking their rivals on the high end.
Many U.S. apparel makers are ditching acquisitions and store expansion plans to conserve cash amid the consumer-spending downturn. But VF Corp. is taking a reverse tack to survive the turmoil.In a recession, it's possible to grab market share as competitors retrench. Companies that do so often come out the recession stronger than ever.
The largest apparel maker in the world by revenue, VF is continuing to add new retail stores and plans to snap up new brands, said Chief Executive Eric Wiseman.
The Greensboro, N.C., company plans to open at least 70 new boutiques world-wide this year, Mr. Wiseman said in an interview. It is committed to a five-year plan that began in 2007 to reduce its reliance on flagging department stores.
Last year, it opened 89 new stores and drew 16% of revenue from its own outlets. It aims to boost direct sales to 22% of revenue by 2012, Mr. Wiseman said. The stores also showcase its brands, which include Nautica, The North Face, Lee Jeans and Vans.
Its expansion plans are a contrast to those of rivals such as J. Crew Group Inc., which has said it is revisiting all store openings. Jones Apparel Group Inc., which owns brands such as Anne Klein, Nine West and Jones New York, said it was "substantially" paring back its store expansion plans. And Liz Claiborne Inc. is postponing store openings until the economy improves.Of course, expanding in a tight credit market requires having manageable debts, and the article notes that "VF has no long-term debt coming due until the fall of 2010."
Although the luxury sector has been one of the hardest hit in all of retail, Mr. Wiseman said that he is looking to buy more contemporary apparel brands. Earlier this month, VF spent $208 million to acquire the shares it didn't already own and debt of Mo Industries Holdings Inc., which owns Ella Moss and Splendid, makers of $100 t-shirts sold at Barneys New York.These may or may not be good moves. Time will tell. But what I like is that VF seems to be a company that is looking beyond the recession and adopting a strategy to maximize the recovery.
"We know the challenges of the upscale department stores," said Mr. Wiseman. Nevertheless, he defends his strategy, arguing that, for now, VF can capture consumers at lower- and mid-tier retailers, but "when they shift back up to luxury we can catch them there as well."
Cardin's Newspaper Revitalization Act would allow newspapers to operate as nonprofits for educational purposes under the U.S. tax code, giving them a similar status to public broadcasting companies.Senator Cardin says that the "bill was aimed at preserving local and community newspapers, not conglomerates which may also own radio and TV stations." According to other things I've read, though, it is not the smaller local independents that are hurting the worst, because they are not facing as much competition as the big metro dailies, and they are not over-extended financially as the chains are.
Under this arrangement, newspapers would still be free to report on all issues, including political campaigns. But they would be prohibited from making political endorsements.
Advertising and subscription revenue would be tax exempt, and contributions to support news coverage or operations could be tax deductible.
A group of financial wizards looked into their crystal ball Tuesday and saw some good news.We'd all rather that the recession ends tomorrow, of course, but year-end doesn't seem all that far away.
The recession will ease by the end of this year and companies will begin adding workers, signaling the end of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
For the past two weeks, the percentage of respondents in The Gallup Poll who say the economy is getting better has been steadily ticking up. Monday through Wednesday, 29% took the optimistic view — the highest number since July 2007.And finally, more specific to our business, we see Wall Street rallying on good news from consumer products companies and retailers:
Better-than-expected earnings from big consumer brands Best Buy, ConAgra Foods and Dr Pepper Snapple Group sent the Dow Jones industrial average up more than 174 points Thursday to its highest level in six weeks. It has surged 21 percent since hitting a nearly 12-year low on March 9.Put it all together and we get ... nothing definite, but perhaps some reason for cautious optimism.
Discount Pricing of Consumer Goods: The Subcommittee will continue its examination of the elimination of the nearly century-old ban against manufacturers setting a minimum retail price as a result of the 2007 Supreme Court decision in the Leegin case. Allowing retail price maintenance has the potential to seriously harm discount pricing and retail competition. Senator Kohl intends to seek passage of the Discount Pricing Consumer Protection Act (S. 148), his bill to restore the ban on vertical price fixing.There are few guarantees in life, but I'll be shocked if this doesn't pass.
NSI Marketing Services (NSI), the St. Louis based channel marketing services firm, that provides technology-enabled marketing administration, communication and research solutions, has acquired privately-held CoAMS, Inc. In announcing the acquisition, Mark Mantovani, President and Chief Executive Officer of NSI, called the event “pivotal” as it “brings together two established firms with long track records in providing first-class channel marketing services to world-class clients.”NSI was formerly known as The National System. They have a variety of channel marketing services, to which CoAMS' administrative offerings would seem a good complement.
The government's stimulus plan won't work as planned if we don't get consumers spending again. But in the nearly $800 billion package, there is one thing missing that would surely help accomplish this: advertising. To get people spending again, and the economy moving, the government needs to provide help for businesses in America to advertise their products and services.The author says that companies should receive a tax credit for advertising.
The acquisition — which consists primarily of FGI’s client and supplier contracts and “other assets” — comes immediately after the two companies agreed to settle their lawsuit in midtrial over whether Rupert Murdoch’s News America had sabotaged FGI’s business by lying to its customers and hacking into its computers.
Coupon use rose 15 percent in the last three months of 2008, compared with the same period of 2007, said Charlie Brown, vice president of marketing at NCH, the redemption unit of Livonia, Mich.-based Valassis ...Apparently the percentage of coupons redeemed must also be increasing, since manufacturers produced only 5% more coupons. Low redemption rates are one of the biggest complaints I usually hear from manufacturers. NCH, of course, is quick to rattle off the benefits of coupons:
Larson rattled off the grocery coupon's various effects: They draw attention to a product, lower its price for past buyers and attract new ones, generate consumer "pull" during soft sales periods, remind even nonclippers of the product's existence, create a marketing synergy benefit when coupled with in-store specials, and they limit growth of private-label competitors.
