Promotional Comparison (URMS)

Promotion Comparison Dashboard (Tactic Benchmarking Across Brands)

Overview

The Promotion Comparison Dashboard is designed to compare promotional strategies across multiple brands or products, typically within a category or portfolio. It addresses questions like: “Which brand is promoting the most aggressively in this category? How do our promotion tactics stack up against our competitors’? Which markets receive the highest promotion support for these products?” By looking at comparative metrics such as % of volume sold on promotion, average discount depth, frequency of feature/display, etc., you can benchmark different players’ promotional intensity and tactics. This is especially useful for brand managers and sales teams to understand the promotional landscape: Are we under-promoting or over-promoting relative to others? Is a competitor buying share through constant deals, or are they winning with less promotion? This dashboard spans across markets or products to give a broad view of promotional tactics.

Key Metrics & Visuals

• Percent of Volume on Promotion (% Promo Volume, or "Sold on Deal"): A primary metric here is the share of a product’s sales that happen on promotion. For example, if Brand A has 40% of its volume on promotion and Brand B has 20%, Brand A relies more on deals to move product. The dashboard might show a bar chart for each brand’s % volume on promo, making it easy to see who is heaviest on promotions. High % on promo on certain weeks could indicate a hi-low strategy, or reflect seasonal pressures due to competition). Low % could mean a premium or EDLP (Everyday Low Price) strategy where promotions are rare.

• Average Promotion Depth (Discount %): How deep are the price cuts on average? One brand might only do modest 10% off sales, while another routinely does 25% or BOGO deals. The Depth of Discount metric (average % reduction from base price during promotions) is useful here A table may list each brand with their average promo discount. If Brand C shows 30% average discount and others are around 15%, Brand C is much more aggressive in cutting price to drive volume. The goal here is to figure out what depth will maximize Lift, without sacfrificing profitability unnecessarily.

• Promotion Frequency / Weeks on Deal: Another angle is how often a product is on promotion (regardless of depth). This could be measured as % of weeks with any promotion or average number of weeks per quarter on promo. A chart might compare “weeks on feature/display” or simply “promo events count” for each brand. For instance, if one product is on deal nearly every other week, it suggests a high-low pricing model, whereas another might only promote during key holidays.

• Merchandising Tactics: If the data includes types of promotions (e.g., Feature Ads, Display, TPR (temporary price reduction), etc.), the dashboard can compare how each brand uses them. Perhaps Brand A heavily uses displays in-store, while Brand B relies on price cuts without display. A visualization might show a breakdown (like a stacked bar for each brand: % of promo volume with Feature, with Display, etc.). This reveals differences in strategy – e.g., your competitor might always get endcap displays, which could explain their big lifts.

• Market-by-Market Promotion: The user prompt mentioned “percent on promotion by market.” The dashboard might allow you to see how promotion intensity varies by geography or retailer. For example, you could select a brand and see a heatmap or table of % volume on promo in different regions. Or vice versa: select a market to compare brands. This could show, for instance, that in the Northeast, everyone promotes more (maybe because of a regional price war), but in the West, promotions are less frequent. Such insights help tailor regional strategies.

• Sortable Comparison Table: Likely there is a master table where each row is a Brand (or product) and columns cover all these metrics: % volume on promo, % ACV on promo (how widely promotions are executed), avg discount, promo weeks, % lift achieved, etc. This acts as a reference for who is doing what. It’s handy to sort by any column to see extremes (e.g., sort by % lift to see which brand’s promos are most effective, or sort by %ACV on promo to see who has the broadest promotion reach).

How to Use the Promotion Comparison Insights

• Benchmark Your Promotion Strategy: Start by locating your brand on these charts and tables. Are you the one with the highest % of volume on deal, or the lowest, or mid-pack? And how does that align with your market position? For example, if you’re a smaller brand but have the highest promo% in the category, it might mean you are trying to buy trial aggressively. If a large brand also has high promo%, maybe the category is very promotionally driven overall. Alternatively, if the market leader has a low promo% (often true for strong brands or those in a leading position), and you’re much higher, it could indicate that they don’t need to promote as much to get sales – a sign of brand strength – whereas challengers do.

• Identify Competitors’ Tactics: See if any competitor stands out for a specific tactic. If one competitor has a notably higher display presence (maybe their % of volume with display support is high), it suggests they invest in in-store visibility. That might explain sales differences and give you a clue that negotiating for more display is a competitive need. If another competitor runs deeper discounts, you can infer their strategy is to entice consumers on price – you might respond by emphasizing product differentiation or value to avoid a pure price war, or prepare matching promotions if needed. Essentially, understanding how each competitor promotes helps you anticipate their moves and consumer expectations. For example, if consumers are trained that Brand X goes 50% off every few months, you know when that happens you might see switching – so plan your calendar accordingly (maybe avoid promoting at the same time if you can’t beat 50%, or conversely promote simultaneously to avoid losing share during those weeks).

• Optimize Your Promo Spend: If your brand’s % volume on deal is high but your incremental lift is low, that’s a warning sign of inefficient promotions – you’re giving discounts but not getting proportionate volume lift. Perhaps most of that volume would have sold without a deal (what Nielsen calls subsidized volumemicrosites.nielseniq.com). Comparing lift rates (if available) across brands can highlight who gets the best bang for buck. If Competitor Y has lower promo frequency but similar sales, their base is stronger – maybe they invest more in media instead of discounting. These insights can fuel internal strategy debates: should we reduce promo frequency and focus on base building? Or do we need to promote differently (e.g., fewer but deeper promos to actually create urgency)?

• Coordinate with Sales/Retailers: A market-by-market view can reveal if certain retailers promo strategies differ. For example, maybe Retailer A runs lots of BOGOs on the category, whereas Retailer B rarely discounts but does big display weeks. Align your plans with these retailer behaviors. If you see your product is under-promoted in a certain region compared to others, you might have a distribution or execution issue in that region – perhaps the local sales team isn’t getting as many features. That’s actionable: you could target that region for improved promo execution.

• Historical Trend (if available): Sometimes these dashboards might allow you to see changes over time (promotional cadence last year vs this year). If you have that, check if a competitor ramped up promotions recently (e.g., their % volume on deal jumped from 20% to 35% YoY). That could explain share changes and hint at their strategy (maybe they are trying to halt a share decline by pumping promos). Similarly, if you cut back on promos and your share fell, you have evidence of the effect.

In essence, the Promotion Comparison Dashboard is about context. Promotions don’t happen in a vacuum; consumers see multiple brands offering deals. This tool lets you see the big picture of those promotional “battles.” By benchmarking, you ensure your strategy is not formed in isolation – you know what’s standard in the category and what’s aggressive. Use it to strike the right balance: for instance, you might decide “We won’t win a promo arms race with Brand X who discounts 30%. Instead, we’ll aim to differentiate with moderate promos but highlight our product benefits.” Or you might conclude “We’re not doing enough in features – competitors run twice as many feature ads, we need to negotiate more.” Such decisions should ideally be backed by the kind of data this dashboard provides around promotional lift, depth/discount, frequency, and merchandising conditions/tactics.