Contact Information: Media Contact: Sahir Anand Aberdeen Harte-Hanks (617) 854-5271 sahir.anand@abredeen.com
Historical Promotions Is Top of Mind for Best-in-Class Promotion Optimization Plans
Seventy One Percent of Best-in-Class Retailers Are Improving Historical Promotion Analysis Capabilities for Promotion Optimization
| Source: Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company
BOSTON, MA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- March 8, 2007 -- More than two-thirds (71%) of Best-in-Class
retailers are improving historical promotion analysis and the understanding
of consumer purchase patterns for better returns on company and vendor
funded promotions, says a new report on promotions optimization by
Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE : HHS ). "The Changing Dynamics of
Retail Promotions" research report reveals that Best-in-Class retailers are
taking a new approach towards promotion optimization by taking the solution
deeper into the enterprise to improve historical consumer purchase
dynamics.
Aberdeen's research of 140 retailers shows that promotions and its
optimization is shifting deeper into the enterprise. This solution is
acquiring a critical role in the value chain collaboration and overall
retail optimization. Companies that bring together strategic planning,
store operations, inventory management and pricing groups to create
optimized promotions planning are achieving significantly better results.
These departments are playing a key role in ensuring that promotion
processes are forecasted, planned and executed the right way. The report
reveals that historical promotion analysis is the most significant
strategic action area for retail companies in their quest to adopt or
improve their existing optimization goals for promotions.
"Firms displaying Best-in-Class practices consider improving their
abilities for historical promotion analysis as a key step in improving
their promotion accuracy, sales uplift and profitability," says Sahir
Anand, Research Analyst for Aberdeen's Retail Technology practice.
"Best-in-Class retail enterprises that have currently adopted promotion
optimization applications take into account the successful and failed
promotion data from the past for accurate processing of a promotion mix."
A key component of any historical promotion analysis is dependant on the
effective measurement of new product adoption of branded or own-brand
merchandise. Tracking new product adoption enables enterprises in
predicting profit uplift for a category and capturing the best promotion
mix for a particular promotion period. "Best-in-Class companies outnumber
the Average and Laggard when it comes to tracking new product adoption for
measuring promotion effectiveness. While 86% of the Best-in-Class track new
product adoption, only 42% of the Average and 33% of Laggards are measuring
this strategy as important for optimization," says Anand.
This report is underwritten by IBM, Demand Tec, and Connect 3 Systems Inc.
and provides recommended steps that could lead retailers needing to close
in on the industry leaders as well as Best-in-Class to maintain their
competitive advantage. Obstacles to promotion optimization are many, but
this report illustrates they are not insurmountable.
To download a complimentary copy of the report for a limited time, please
visit:
http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=3909
About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company
Aberdeen is a leading provider of fact-based research and market
intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having benchmarked more
than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is uniquely
positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating
demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment
analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets,
corporations turn to Aberdeen™ for insights that drive decisions.
As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in
context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen's
analytical and independent view of the "customer optimization" process of
Harte-Hanks (Information - Opportunity - Insight - Engagement -
Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role
Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit
Aberdeen http://www.aberdeen.com or call (617) 723-7890, or to learn more
about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748 or go to http://www.harte-hanks.com.