Managing Trade Promotions in Marketing Channels: Antecedents to Participation Decisions

Trade promotions have become an immensely popular strategic marketing tool -- especially within the grocery industry. Grocery manufacturers, distributors, and other sellers use trade promotions to foster closer relationships with buyers, gain merchandising support, and manage inventory levels. Grocery retailers depend upon the promotions to keep them economically viable. Maintaining economic viability is even more of a problem for independent grocers than for larger chain operations. Although independents typically require more effort to reach and higher costs to service their accounts, independents represent significant volumes in many markets.