Empirical analysis of budget and allocation of trade promotions in the US supermarket industry

Using a unique data set, the authors examine the role of manufacturer and retailer characteristics in the joint determination of trade promotion budgets for supermarket brands and their allocation across trade promotion types. They find that manufacturer variables, such as brand position in retailer product category and brand price premium, and annual retailer sales determine trade promotion budgets. Furthermore, retail companies with larger shares of private labels in product category sales, larger annual sales, and stronger brand positioning are able to increase the allocation of promotional funds to off-invoices and decrease allocation to performance-based trade promotions, such as scanbacks/ accruals and billbacks. Manufacturers with formal trade promotion policies tend to decrease allocation to off-invoices. The authors discuss marketing policy implications of this study and provide research directions.