Abstract:

Two experiments are presented. One deals with "in shop" promotions, the other with "in home" promotions (coupon delivered at home). Both aimed at estimating to what extent promotion actually boosted the sales (thus generating a profit to be subtracted from the cost of the promotion). And both confirm that, at short term, the cost of the promotion is rarely compensated by the extra sales profit. There is, however, no reason to believe that, on a longer term basis, this compensation does not take place, and the two experiments are offered more as illustrations of the way in which promotion can be experimented with, in a controlled way, than for their short term conclusion.