Marketing Briefing: Inflation pushes marketers to value messaging and ongoing sales promotions as they court ‘savvy shoppers’

By Kristina Monllos

Marketers are touting value more this holiday season with fixed prices and ongoing sales as inflation continues to make shopping more difficult for consumers this year.

Last month, for example, Walmart rolled out ads that claimed consumers could get “the same incredible feast for the same incredible price as last year” for holiday meals. Walmart isn’t alone in wanting to appeal to people with fixed pricing on some items amid rising costs. Canadian chain Pizza Pizza is taking a similar albeit more humorous approach, offering the chance for people to “lock in” a rate for their pizza delivery. And natural supplement manufacturer Now worked with ad agency Hanson Dodge to create a strategy to focus on value as inflation was emerging. These are just to name a few examples, of course.

“We were aiming at savvy shoppers who appreciate a good value, and suspected that the ranks would grow if the inflationary trends being warned were to come to fruition,” Hanson Dodge president Stacey Boney said in an email. “So not a reaction to inflation, but a good position to be in when it occurred.”

By focusing on the potential savings via fixed prices or sales, many of which are running longer than usual, marketers are hoping that consumers will spend as usual instead of reducing their spending due to inflation this year. Whether or not that will be the case, or if that focus on value will continue in the new year is yet to be determined.

“We’ve seen more advertisers addressing inflation in their ads in Q4, but it remains to be seen if that will continue into Q1 or is just a holiday message,” said Stacey Stewart, U.S. chief marketplace officer at UM, adding that it’s mostly affected messaging. “Inflation is a key topic these days — how to address it as a business and with customers — but other than keeping dollars flexible by using channels with historically better cancellation terms, we haven’t seen it impact where we are spending.”

That’s not to say it won’t eventually impact where clients are spending, as one media buyer noted that a potential client in a pitch asked about inflation’s effect on media this year with the intent of incorporating where they can save into planning their spend. Still, much of the inflation impact has been on messaging with value or sales, especially for clients that need short-term growth.

“In the DTC space we have to do everything we can to help our clients remain relevant, competitive and growing their business against the headwinds of consumer belt tightening,” said Scott McClure, vp and group creative director at Rain the Growth Agency, adding that one client has asked about value messaging and others have been running sales longer than usual. “Positioning against inflation when possible both meets the consumer where they are and is just good direct marketing, but it’s not possible for every industry or brand.”

While some caution against leaning on value amid …read more

Source:: Digiday