Analysis of Sales Promotion Effects on Household Purchase Behavior

favorite brands is about 40 percent lower for fruit juice products, 30 percent lower for s<strong>of</strong>t
drinks and candy bars, 10 percent lower for potato chips, and hardly any differences are found
for c<strong>of</strong>fee. In general, purchasing an unfamiliar product is risky, and consumers are apparently
risk avert.
Thus far, different effects <strong>of</strong> sales promotions across the product categories have
been discussed. These differences were related to category characteristics. Below, the results
found are summarized for each category characteristic separately. But, because <strong>of</strong> the limited
number <strong>of</strong> product categories included in this study, these conclusions are tentative.
• Average price level: households make relatively more use <strong>of</strong> promotions in
categories that have a higher average price level. For these categories, households
exhibit more brand switch behavior and the promotional quantity purchased is higher
than for lower priced categories. <strong>Promotion</strong>s in these categories do not lead to more
acceleration in purchase timing. <strong>Promotion</strong>s for higher priced categories influence
household purchase behavior once the household is inside the store.
• Purchase frequency: promotions in categories that are more <strong>of</strong>ten purchased have
less impact on households. The promotions are used less <strong>of</strong>ten and when they are
used, the quantity purchased is relatively less. Households also have less tendency to
expand consumption for these categories.
• <strong>Promotion</strong>al frequency: promotions within frequently promoted product categories
are less effective in increasing the promotional purchase quantity bought by
households. An overload <strong>of</strong> promotions within a product category does seem to lead
to saturation effects.
• Storability: promotions for better storable products are used more and lead to larger
promotional quantities bought.
• Number <strong>of</strong> brands: households do not switch more between brands for categories in
which more brands are present.
• Impulse: promotions within more impulse sensitive categories result in lower
promotional purchased quantities than within less impulse sensitive product
categories.
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