Co-marketing promotions on the rise

Drug Store News, July 11, 2005 by Antoinette Alexander

NEW YORK -- While retailers and suppliers continue to debate the best way to move the needle with consumer and trade promotions, certainly co-marketing promotions are on the rise.

That is the key finding of a recent report released last month by Marx Promotion Intelligence, a TNS Media Intelligence company and supplier of consumer promotion information. The number of free-standing insert pages dedicated to co-marketing events grew to more than 5.4 billion in 2004, compared with roughly 1.5 billion in 2001, according to the Marx report.

A co-marketing promotion is similar to a trade promotion ad inside an in-store circular. However, unlike most in-store circulars, FSIs can provide an uncluttered platform in which manufacturers and retailers can highlight targeted savings for the consumer, placing the manufacturer's ad in close proximity to its promotional coupon and tying in the retailer's brand, as well.

These types of co-marketing promotions also resonate with consumers, clearly communicating the full savings, by factoring in all manufacturer's discounts, retailer rebates, etc.

Some key highlights from the report:

* In 2004, the top 25 retail banners with the highest co-marketing frequency participated in co-marketing events in roughly 67 percent of the weeks with FSI activity, up from 36 percent in 2001.

* In 2004, there were 17 retail banners that increased their frequency of participation more than 100 percent from 2003, including, Meijer, Publix and Bigg's.

* The total number of manufacturers participating in co-marketing promotions reached 186 in 2004, compared with 71 in 2001.

* Dry grocery continues be the leading area in co-marketing activity, participating in more than 1.7 billion pages in 2004, up nearly 1.2 billion pages since 2001.

* Health care and frozen products appear to be the fastest-growing areas, up almost 480 percent in pages since 2001 to more than $1.5 billion in 2004.