Retail shopper marketing: the future of promotional flyers

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the recent evolution of store flyers to illustrate how a tool of traditional marketing can be applied to generate insight on customer “couch-to-cart” behaviour thus supporting an innovating shopper marketing approach. The authors support this position by elaborating on three themes: first, the recent evolution of flyers, driven by incorporation of customer insight derived from loyalty data and by new features enabled by flyer digitalization; second, the evolution of the flyer planning and management process, related to opportunities and challenges in the retailer organisational structure; and third, the rise of online flyer aggregators.

The authors used field interviews. The authors included the perspectives of different subjects involved in planning and delivering flyer-based promotions. Secondary data were also collected regarding flyer activities of a sample of 67 retail groups across 15 countries and four industries.

Critical aspects of flyers as retail marketing tools emerged. The authors found that there are changes taking place in flyer-based promotion caused by “fertilisation” by loyalty data and digital that have not been captured by research so far. Retailers are experimenting with flyer aggregators. These infomediaries generate new insight on various aspects of the shopping cycle. Retailers can use these metrics to improve flyer strategy and negotiation with suppliers. The authors shed light on obstacles that prevent exploitation of shopper marketing benefits and value. Among the managerial challenges the authors found retailer organisation and management and functional integration.

The paper points to four areas for future research: promotion innovation, electronic intermediaries, marketing organisation and competition. Research questions are suggested.

This study contributes to retail management by identifying best practices that support promotional campaign development in a shopper marketing perspective. The authors provide suggestions around the incorporation of loyalty data in the flyer planning process and the creation of inter-functional teams.

Academic research has long addressed flyer-based promotion, but has not linked it to innovation or shopper marketing. Little or no attention has been paid to the flyer management process and its organisational dimensions, nor to digital flyers.