September 5, 2023
The marketing promotions seem to fail this year. Double 11 Shopping Festival growth slowed, and Chrisemas and New Year have not turned to be the trending topics yet after the sensation of referendum, by-election, and Leehom Wang scandal. According to the latest research, only one third participants shopped during the Double 11 Shopping Festival, annual sales, and Black Friday.
Actually, a symptom showed last year. Last October’s survey pointed out that only 21.1% of female consumers increased budget to purchase for annual sales, the Double 11 Shopping Festival, and Christmas, and 70% of the budget was allocated on cosmetics.
Indeed, promotion cannot effectively motivate purchase nowadays. First of all, people who followed their purchase plan were 57.3%, and women were more than men with approprexmitly 60%. Regarding consumer age, people in the age group of 50 to 60 have the highest possibility of impulse buying, and people aged 30 to 49 are less likely to do so.
Secondarily, the research does not find any decline in customer demand for cosmetics. Since the change of season, the market need of lotion and hand cream is increasing. Furthermore, 23.2% of people claim that they would frequently use cosmetics in the next three months, and the age group of 30-39 increased the using frequency significantly. Conclusively, the failure of promotion is not relative to the market demand.
The essential problem is that the price is not cheaper in promotion activities. The research addressed that over 80% of consumers buy products in promotion because of the discount. Yet, according to a BBC report, the British consumer association told shoppers that 184 out of 201 items from six retailers were priced the same or cheaper before Black Friday in 2020. As a result, rational consumption leads people to better understand the commodities they buy including the product value and price, so they are less motivated by flashy promotion.
In a word, firms should focus on their product quality, price strategy, and brand value that the core issue consumers care about. It is not worth to over allocate companies' resource on promotion activities without bringing real value to consumers.
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