FSI Coupons Deliver 257 Billion Offers Worth $320B in Incentives in ‘07

More than 197 billion pages containing 257 billion consumer offers representing over $320 billion in consumer incentives were delivered through free-standing insert (FSI) coupons in Sunday newspapers during 2007, according to a new report, writes MarketingCharts.

Average face value increased to a new record level of $1.26, up $0.07 from 2006, according to the 2007 FSI Distribution Trends Report from Marx Promotion Intelligence, a TNS Media Intelligence company. (See table of FSI coupon-related key measures, 2007.)

On average, FSIs reach almost 70 million households on a weekly basis, with household reach varying across national, regional, and local brands, according to the report.

Additional findings are reported below.

Overall FSI Activity

During 2007, over 197 billion pages containing more than 257 billion coupons were delivered via FSI coupons in Sunday newspapers:

• Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) dominated, accounting for 69.0 percent of total FSI pages, followed by Direct Response with 22.0 percent and Franchise at 9.1 percent.
• CPG activity is up 1.2 percent versus 2006, and Franchise increased 2.7 percent. However, Direct Response decreased 8.8 percent versus 2006 - the first decline for this industry since 2003. (See table of CPG FSI activity.)
• Within the CPG industry, the Non-Food segment had a 3.9 percent increase in coupon circulation, while the Food segment pulled back 1.8 percent.
• Record levels were set for Average Face Value within both the Non-Food and Food segments, with a 5.8 percent increase (to $1.54) for the Non-Food segment and a 5.1 percent increase (to $0.87) for the Food segment.

Top 10 New-Product Categories

FSI coupon support was included as part of 441 new product introductions across the CPG industry in 2007 (see table of top 10 new-product FSI categories):

• Food categories contributed 312 of these new items, led by Cereals, Beverages and Snacks.
• Non-Food categories contributed an 129 new items, led by Household Cleaning

Top 10 FSI Categories

Three of the top 10 categories for new product introductions were also among the top 10 categories for overall FSI activity in 2007 (see top 10 FSI categories overall):

• Household Cleaning Products led all categories in overall FSI coupon activity and ranked number one in new product introductions among Non-Food categories for the second year in a row.
• Snacks ranked second across all categories for new product introductions and was the top-ranked Food category for overall FSI activity.

The top 10 categories accounted for 32.4 percent of all coupons distributed across the CPG industry.

Top 10 Manufacturers

The ranking of the top 10 manufacturers changed slightly in 2007 (see table of top 10 manufacturers using FSIs):

• Procter & Gamble retained the top position.
• Reckitt Benckiser PLC moved up two spots while Unilever dropped down to the sixth position.
• Kraft foods also moved up two spots along with L’Oreal which broke into the top 10 in 2007.

“Marketers continue to leverage FSIs as a cost-effective advertising medium to deliver consumer impressions and to create purchase intent for their brands,” said Mark Nesbitt, COO, Marx Promotion Intelligence.

“Additionally, many retailers align quality merchandising support with these FSI promotions to improve overall promotion effectiveness and to increase incremental sales. FSIs continue to be a source of news about product categories to the consumer and to be a driver of category trips for the retailer.”

Full copies of the Marx FSI Distribution Trends Report are available through the Marx Promotion Intelligence (www.tnsmi-marx.com).