For many companies, promotion costs are their biggest single area of expenditure, and understanding the impact and worth of that spend is of critical importance. The scale of promotional spend often means that even marginal gains in efficiency will have a significant affect on the bottom line.

For top line analysis, Nielsen ScanTrack answers questions such as

• How many promotions did I do?
• How does this compare to the competitors?
• What is the overall sales lift associated with individual promotion points?

For insight into more complex promotional issues, Nielsen has developed a series of modelling and consultancy approaches to help companies understand the impact of activity and develop the optimal promotions strategy.  These sophisticated techniques are designed to address questions such as:

• How are different promotion mechanics driving incremental brand volume and profit?
• What is the optimum level of discount to achieve volume/profitability objectives?
• To what extent does display enhance promotion effectiveness?
• Are there key times of the year when promotions are more effective?
• How does the length of promotion influence its effectiveness?
• How much cannibalisation across the portfolio occurs when items are promoted?
• What is the worth of historical promotional activity?

Nielsen promotions models use weekly scanning data to evaluate the impact of different promotional tactics. Other information sources such as Nielsen Homescan consumer purchasing information and manufacturer profitability measures can also be incorporated.