Price Promotions and Popular Events

Managers often use popular events, such as the Olympics, to advertise their brands more heavily. Can manufacturers and retailers capitalize on these events to enhance the response to their price promotions? This study empirically examines whether the sales response to price promotions is stronger or weaker around events than at nonevent times, and what factors drive this relative promotion response. Studying 242 brands from 30 consumer packaged goods categories in the Netherlands over more than four years, the authors find that a price promotion offered around a popular event often generates a stronger sales response than the same promotion at nonevent times, with a price promotion elasticity that is 9.3% larger, on average, during events. Still, the variance in relative promotion response across brands and events is high, and the authors identify several drivers that managers should consider before shifting promotions toward event times. Currently, managers often do not take these drivers into account. This study provides guidelines to improve promotional timing decisions in relation to popular events.