In theory, at least, it's meant to sway those who are wavering about whether to make a purchase or not into taking the plunge and parting with some cash. As such, it is a pretty unambiguous part of any retailer's armoury and, used effectively, can be the difference between a deal being clinched or not.
The problem is that that if there is too much of it, it becomes the visual equivalent of white noise, something that you are vaguely aware of, but which you block out.
Something of the kind was evident at Boots in Camden, north London, this week when the UK's largest health and beauty retailer decided that the time was right to run a few promotions. Simple, you might think. Get the buyers and the marketing department together, work out how much money is to be spent and then take a view on what will be the most effective across-the-board promotion.
Shoppers are busy people and don't really have much time when making a distress purchase – which is what a visit to Boots is generally about – to spend time working out where the best deal lies. So on the basis that a straightforward appeal to the pocket is always alluring, it would seem to make sense to opt either for a percentage off the products that have been selected for price cuts or perhaps to indulge in a little buy-one-get-one free thinking.
The problem for Boots appears to be that it wants to have a bit of every available promotional tool going. On a single, two-metre section of a mid-floor gondola, shoppers were invited to buy-one-get-one free, to buy two for£5, to buy two and get the third one half price (or something like that) and at least another three offers. Exhausting. And all rather more effort that it seemed to be worth.
A colleague visited the Liverpool Street branch and found that the staff were as confused as the customers and that there was an absolute lack of clarity about which promotion was which and, indeed, how much of a reduction was involved. Granted, this could have been resolved by waving the products in question over the zapper at the till and seeing how much would be deducted, but that does rather defeat the purpose of PoP material.
The shelves housing the promotions were well stocked and had clearly not suffered from a surfeit of customer attention, even although it was a busy Friday lunchtime. However, Boots needs to think a little more clearly about what it is trying to achieve if promotions like this are to have the desired effect.
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