Survey: Manufacturers Not Satisfied With Retail Promotions

Compiled ByDeborah Austin While a growing proportion of consumer-product manufacturers say they get "excellent" or "good" value from their retail-level promotional spending, the portion rating this value as "poor" also has grown -- to a historic high. So demonstrates the Tenth Annual Trade Promotion Practices Study by ACNielsen U.S., released at year-end 2000, which reflects a continuing disconnect between consumer packaged-goods manufacturers and retailers over the value of "trade" promotions such as frequent-shopper programs. Nearly half of surveyed manufacturers reported a 1999 increase in spending on trade promotions. But while 64% of retailers acknowledged this trend, 70% of them said the amount still is not enough. And while 30% of manufacturers rated trade promotion value "excellent" or "good" -- edging up from 25% four years ago -- the majority still rate the value "fair" or "poor." In fact 24% of year-2000 respondents rated it "poor," up from 12% the previous year. "The fact that overall value ratings are moving up is encouraging, but there are still far too many manufacturers who are not satisfied with the impact of their trade promotion spending," says John Petrakis, senior vice president of marketing for ACNielsen U.S. ACNielsen U.S. is an operating unit of market research firm ACNielsen Corp., headquartered in Stamford, Conn.