For immediate release
Unveiling the power of sales promotion tools in retail sectors
- A twin approach to consumerism in Hong Kong and Beijing
Hong Kong, 7 July 2010 – With consumer sentiments booming among the flourishing Asian
economies, particularly in China, retailers are gearing up efforts to stimulate consumption
across a wide spectrum of consumer goods from daily necessities to luxury goods and high
end household electronics, all vying for more substantial shares of the ever more competitive
markets. While heavy advertising and high-profile publicity campaigns certainly achieve the
ends of purchase stimulations, sales promotions have been adopted extensively in the retail
sectors as an effective tool to spur sales transactions and sales revenue. A recent crossborder research conducted by MVA, an independent consulting and market research firm,
has unveiled the pattern of consumers’ preferences and behavioral responses towards
various sales promotional tools in the two leading cosmopolitans - Hong Kong and
Beijing.
What are the most preferred sales promotion tools?
Six core retail categories, namely (1) Supermarkets, (2) Convenience stores, (3) Clothing,
footwear and allied products retail (4) Jewelry and watches retail, (5) Home appliances or
person electronics retail and (6) Health and beauty retail are the focus of the study to offer a
comprehensive coverage of the various retail establishments in Hong Kong and Beijing. For
all these six categories in general, the research reveals that direct discount is the most oftendeployed by retailers and also voted most preferred by consumers in both Hong Kong and
Beijing, followed by“coupon” or “buy-one-get-one free offer”, “bonus pack/discount for
a package and free sample”.
“Contest”, “game” and “sweepstake” were the least
attractive. Similar findings in Hong Kong and Beijing are observed.
Promotion tool that can best alter the patterns/ behaviours of consumers
In terms of effectiveness in triggering different purchasing behavior, “direct discounts” top
the chart. In general, direct price discounts are found to be most powerful in motivating
consumers in buying more quantity of usually-purchased products, and switching to less
purchased brands. Notwithstanding this, the study shows that the weakest impact of sales
promotion is when it comes to trying to motivate consumers to buy any unintended products
(i.e. products that are not on the shopping list).
However, it should be remarked that, if not practiced skillfully, “direct discount” may
potentially cause detrimental effects on retailers’ profit margins. Consumers may become
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less responsive if frequent and perennial discounts are offered because they do not see
those discounts as real good deals or bargains not-to-miss. In addition, they may refrain
from shopping at regular prices as they expect sooner or later discounts will return and
further price cuts will be available. As such, continual discounts will gradually eat into
retailers’ profit margins and regular retail pricing, or the SRP (suggested retail prices) from the
manufacturers, will render ineffective eventually.
Regional disparities in retailing high-end and durable products
An interesting phenomenon for marketers’ attention in relation to shopping cultures takes
place in the retailing of high-end and durable products such as “Jewelry and watches”,
“home appliance / personal electronics”. Consumers of such products in both Hong Kong
and Beijing use credits cards as the most prevalent form of payment. Yet it seems that
Beijing consumers are less prone to “patronage rewards from credit cards” in their
purchasing of these products. One of the possible reasons behind may lie at the vast
competition in the credit card business in Hong Kong, which makes card issuing bodies align
with more local retailers and partners in spearheading aggressive sales promotion campaigns
in Hong Kong. In Beijing, however, such patronage rewards from credit cards are yet to
become a phenomenon as it is yet to evolve into a more sophisticated marketplace ##
For more details on the above study on Asian cruise consumers and other MVA BMSR's
services, please kindly contact MVA BMSR in Hong Kong:
BMSR Enquiry:
Email address:
Phone:
Postal address:
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Mr. Wayne Yeh, Research Director
wayne.yeh@mvaasia.com
+852-2864-6360
14th Floor West, Warwick House, TaiKoo Place,
979 King's Road, Island East, Hong Kong
International
http://bmsr.mvaasia.com
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http://bmsr.mvaasia.com/china
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About MVA:
MVA, which was founded in the UK in 1968, comprises of a diverse group of resultsoriented people providing an array of consulting services in Europe, Middle East, and
the Asia-Pacific region.
Core consulting services:
Business Consulting | Marketing & Social Research |
Management Information Systems | Transport Planning Policy & Strategy |
Traffic Engineering | Revenue & Patronage Risk Management
The Group presently practices from:
 6 offices in the United Kingdom – Woking, London, Manchester, Birmingham,
Edinburgh and Glasgow;
 Dublin in Ireland;
 Paris, Lyon and Marseille in France;
 Abu Dhabi in the United Arabs Emirates; and
 Hong Kong, Beijing, Shenzhen, Singapore, Bangkok, New Delhi and Mumbai in the
Asia-Pacific.
500 people across 4 continents with 40 years' experience
...5 sectors working together to create joined-up solutions
Hong Kong is the Asian headquarters, with over 30 years of professional presence in the
region.
MVA in Asia
– from Hong Kong to the rest of Asia, since 1978
The companies within the Group work closely together to pool experience and resources as
appropriate, and many projects include staff from more than one Group companies. MVA’s
ability to readily supplement its local resources in Hong Kong/Mainland China with the
international resources and network of the MVA Group (with over 320 staff based outside of
Hong Kong/Mainland China) ensures that the firm is able to provide the level of consultancy
support required for assignments demanding a wide range of professional expertise.
Having celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2008, MVA operation in Hong Kong today has
almost 170 employees in the HKSAR & Mainland China, the majority of whom are
professionally qualified specialists in economics, statistics, business consulting & marketing
research, transport planning, investment appraisal, traffic engineering and computer science.
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MVA’s major consultancy services encompass the following key areas:
Business, Market and Social Research
Transport Planning
Transport Modeling
Traffic Engineering
Car Parking Management System
Green Transport
Simulation
For media enquiry, please contact:
Ms. Elaine Ng
Marketing and Communications Manager
elaine.ng@mvaasia.com
+852-2864-6465
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