Bad Promotion: Stacy’s Pita Chips

Bad Promotion: Stacy’s Pita Chips

Sales promotion is an integral component of marketing. If done correctly, a sales promotion intervention can expand the customer base through attracting new customers, increase sales and consequent profitability, and even enhance the product’s penetration in the market. This paper evaluates an example of a less than optimal sales promotion initiative and makes suggestions for improvement. The analysis indicates that for Stacy’s to enhance the stopping and persuasive powers of its promotion, it will have to enhance the visibility of its products in the stores and emphasize the low-pricing strategy through showing the difference between the normal and promotion prices.

Description

For this bad promotion project, I visited my local Hannaford store. I chose Stacy’s Pita Chips as the product for evaluation. Stacy’s product placement in the store utilized both the shelves and an eccentric cart. The Stacy’s Pita Chips merchandise that was placed on the shelves was situated amongst unrelated products such as cheese and pickles. Ordinarily, they should have been placed near other chips brands. The remaining Stacy’s Pita Chips merchandise was placed in some form of a cart whose novelty would have been an excellent point of customer attraction for Stacy’s Pita Chips were it not for the fact that the product in the cart was placed below eye level. In fact, the cart had other unrelated products placed at the top. Stacy’s Pita Chips were not prominent; they were placed inside the cart and were only visible from the sides which greatly compromised their visibility. The prices were indicated; the discounted price for an 8oz bag was $3.49 while two such bags were priced at $6.49. The original price was not indicated.

Promotions Platform

Target Market

The assumed primary target market for Stacy’s Pita Chips is teens and young adults who have a preference for exotic chips and urban pop culture. The secondary target market may comprise of the elderly parents who may want to purchase Stacy’s chips for their children.

Communication Objectives

The assumed primary communication objectives are increasing sales and attracting new customers (Kaser 102). That is probably why the product has been isolated to enhance its visibility and its prices have been discounted to prompt an impulsive purchase.

Sales Promotion Strategy

The sales promotion strategy used here hinges on lower pricing (Hoyer, MacInnis, and Pieters 74). The products sufficiently display the discount prices; the only problem is that they do not indicate the original pricing which would have helped to demonstrate to the customer the monetary value they gain from purchasing Stacy’s products instead of its competitors’.

Evaluation

Stopping Power

Stacy’s Pita Chips promotion failed to adequately utilize any of the four main powers leveraged for product promotion interventions. The stopping power which relates to the ability to grab attention is almost negligible (Kaser 211). The merchandise was not placed amongst related products, it was, therefore, extremely hard it to get noticed, let alone grabbing the prospective customer’s attention.

Transmission Power

The transmission power that relates to the extent to which the message was understood is low. The customer hardly comprehends the message the promotion is trying to convey. The promotion, undoubtedly, meant to communicate value to customers through lower pricing (Shimp and Andrews 289). However, since the merchandise is not placed near its competitors such that the customers can make a comparison and the original pricing, too, has not been indicated beside the discount prices, it becomes improbable for the customer to discern the value that the promotion intends to communicate.

Persuasive Power

The persuasive power, as appropriated in the promotion, worked against the product instead of for it. Due to the isolation and below the eye level placement, a prospective customer ends up getting a sense of diminished value (Shimp and Andres 576). A customer is bound to feel that Stacy’s Pita Chips are not important enough to be situated near the main competing brands. Placing them below the eye level further exacerbates the situation; it indicates that the brand could not secure prime spaces on the shelves (Hoyer, MacInnis, and Pieters 79).