Ethnic minority consumers' responses to sales promotions in the packaged food market

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 19 (2012) 98–108

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Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services

0969-69

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Ethnic minority consumers’ responses to sales promotions in the packagedfood market

Ahmad Jamal a,n, Sue Peattie a, Ken Peattie b

a Cardiff Business School, Aberconway Building, Colum Drive, Cardiff CF10 3EU, United Kingdomb BRASS Research Centre, Cardiff University, 55 Park Place, Cardiff CF10 3AT, United Kingdom

a r t i c l e i n f o

Available online 10 November 2011

Keywords:

Ethnic minority consumers

Sales promotions

Consumer behaviour

Customer value

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esponding author. Tel.: þ44 2920 876838; fa

ail address: [email protected] (A. Jamal).

a b s t r a c t

Many scholars have stressed the significance of understanding ethnic minority subcultures and the

associated cultural dimension for marketing. Most of the previous research involving ethnic minority

consumers has largely focused on coupon usage and remains North American in origin and application.

Also, previous research emphasises the short-term nature of sales promotions, ignoring their dynamic

effects in specific consumption settings such as the family. The paper explores ethnic consumers’

responses to different sales promotional formats for packaged food products in family settings. Face-to-

face in-depth interviews were conducted in original settings involving ethnic participants who

regularly shopped at mainstream supermarkets, and who were the principal grocery shoppers for the

family. Findings suggest that sales promotions have the potential to make consumers more responsive,

less responsive or even hostile to sales promotional offers and while some promotions are better

perceived than others, their overall effectiveness is largely determined by their ‘‘net-worth’’ as

perceived by ethnic consumers in a given shopping situation. The paper discusses implications for

retailers, particularly for those having store locations in market areas with high concentrations of

ethnic consumers.

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1. Introduction

A number of scholars have stressed the significance of under-standing ethnic minority subcultures and the associated culturaldimension for marketing (Burton, 2000; Costa and Bamossy, 1995;Wilkinson and Cheng, 1999). Cultural differences can influenceconsumer responses to different marketing activities including salespromotions (Green, 1996; Lowe and Corkindale, 1998). For instance,previous research has reported the impact of cultural orientation onattitudes towards coupons and sweepstakes (Huff and Alden, 1998),cultural self-construal on consumer response to sales promotiondeals (Barone and Roy, 2010) and ethnicity on coupon proneness(Green, 1996, 1997; Laroche et al., 1997).

Previous research has also compared and contrasted ethnicminority consumers’ (henceforth, ethnic consumers) responseswith those of mainstream consumers to coupon usage(Brumbaugh and Rosa, 2009; Bridges et al., 1996; Green, 1996,1997; Laroche et al., 1997), long term and short term dealinterests (Laroche et al., 1997) and sales promotion effectiveness(Kwok and Uncles, 2005). However, a number of shortcomings inthe existing literature can be identified. First, and to the best of

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our knowledge, no previous research has specifically exploredethnic consumers’ responses to sales promotional activities in theUK, where ethnic minority population represents the fastestgrowing segment of the total population (Jamal, 2005) and isexpected to account for 10% of the UK population by 2020 (Emslieet al., 2007).

Following Green (1995) we believe investigating ethnic con-sumers’ responses to sales promotions is an important issue forretailers and particularly those that primarily serve ethnic mar-kets in the UK (see also, Jamal, 2005; Mulhern et al., 1998). Datafrom the national Census suggests that some ethnic minorityconsumer groups (e.g., South Asians) have concentrated them-selves in particular urban areas of UK (National Statistics Online,2001). This has caused some mainstream supermarkets to altertheir product offerings in certain neighbourhoods for serving theneeds of ethnic consumers (Jamal, 2005). Furthermore, othershave pointed towards the growth of ethnic minority enterprisesthat specifically serve ethnic consumers (Iyer and Shapiro, 1999;Jamal, 2005) and engage in extensive sales promotional activities(Jamal, 2005). Given these circumstances, it is important for bothmainstream as well as ethnic marketers to develop an under-standing of the extent to which their target clients such as ethnicconsumers respond to different sales promotional activities.

Second, previous research has largely tended to lump all types ofsales promotions together, regardless of the varied characteristics

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A. Jamal et al. / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 19 (2012) 98–108 99

and capabilities of the different sales promotions tools (Peattie andPeattie, 2003). The literature also tends to view such tools as purelytactical devices only capable of delivering short-term sales uplifts(d’Astous and Jacob, 2002). This partly reflects a tendency to focusonly on particular types of promotional tools (such as pricediscounts and coupons), and to only measure certain types ofimpacts particularly by monitoring sales patterns (Peattie andPeattie, 2003). For instance, in comparison with price promotions,previous research has paid limited attention to non-price promo-tions despite their importance to profitability in competitive retailmarkets (Carpenter and Moore, 2008). The current paper contri-butes by exploring ethnic consumers’ responses to a variety of salespromotional formats (not just price promotions or coupons) offeredby leading manufacturing brands in the packaged food industry.

Third, sales promotions provide a range of benefits to consumersbeyond simple monetary savings (Chandon et al., 2000; Kwok andUncles, 2005) and yet very few have attempted to explore thesebenefits in detail. This paper contributes by exploring and extendingthe sales promotions benefits framework by considering the abilityof sales promotions in making a consumer more responsive or lessresponsive in a given consumption and cultural context. In doing so,the paper aims to highlight the significant role played by salespromotions in building and communicating brand values in innova-tive ways and reinforcing consumer–brand relationships (Fournier,1998) at family consumption level.

The research adopts a qualitative, interpretive and theorybuilding approach and explores ethnic consumers’ evaluationsand responses in the context of family food consumption. Foodbuying is an important component of family expenditure, andfood consumption is a fundamental aspect of family life (Mennellet al., 1992). Family food consumption involves additional layersof complexity in which the purchaser (the shopper) may beseeking to balance the needs and preferences of a number offamily members, and to accommodate both adults and children(Polegato and Zaichkowsky, 1999).

With recent concerns about children’s diets, obesity and themarketing of ‘‘junk’’ food, shopping for food has the potential tocreate dilemmas for the shopper in which the additional benefitsof sales promotions need to be weighed against the benefits anddisadvantages of the core product in nutritional terms. Foodconsumption is also the marketing context most strongly asso-ciated with the application of sales promotion techniques, parti-cularly for packaged foods. Thus, packaged food represents the‘‘heartland’’ for sales promotion activities. Although recent yearshave witnessed a growth of promotions in areas such as servicesand publishing, it is the fast moving consuming food productsthat represent the biggest users of sales promotions.

The remainder of this paper is organised in five sections.Section 2 reviews the literature related to sales promotions andtheir effects on consumer behaviour. Section 3 describes themethodology, including sample design, data collection procedureand data analysis protocol followed in this research. Majorthemes emerging are presented in Section 4. This is followed bythe final section, which discusses findings and reports conclusionsand implications for brand managers.

2. Conceptual framework

2.1. Sales promotion benefits

Sales promotions are often classified according to the nature ofthe benefits that they offer, which can be both monetary and non-monetary (Chandon et al., 2000; Lichenstein et al., 1995), or asPeattie and Peattie (1994) suggest ‘‘value increasing’’ (whichchange the basic product/price equation) and ‘‘value adding’’

(which offer a novel benefit such as a premium or contest).In this context, sales promotions are defined as ‘‘marketingactivities usually specific to a time period, place or customergroup, which encourage a direct response from consumers ormarketing intermediaries, through the offer of additional bene-fits’’ (Peattie and Peattie, 1994, p. 418).

Chandon et al. (2000) argued that sales promotions providehedonic and utilitarian benefits to consumers, and that a rational-economic focus on monetary savings cannot fully explain howand why consumers respond to promotional offers. FollowingKeller (1993), they defined consumer benefits of sales promotionsas ‘‘the perceived value attached to the sales promotion experi-ence, which can include both promotion experience (e.g., seeing apromotion on a product) and usage (e.g., redeeming a coupon orbuying a promoted benefit).’’ In particular, they identified sixconsumer benefits of sales promotions based on ideas derivedfrom customer value, hedonic consumption and consumerresponse to sales promotions:

�
monetary benefit (e.g., consumers save money as promotionsoften lower the unit price or offer more of the same product); � quality benefit (e.g., promotions relax budgetary constraints
and consumers can afford to upgrade to higher quality pro-ducts, which are otherwise expensive to buy);
� convenience benefit (e.g., consumers can easily find products
or can be reminded about them at point of sales, hence searchcosts and decision making costs are reduced);
� value expressive benefit (e.g., consumers feel that they are
responsible buyers as they can fulfil their roles and their dutiesas shoppers. Also, sales promotions provide consumers oppor-tunities to express themselves and relate to others);
� exploration benefit (e.g., promotions attract attention and fulfil
needs for exploration, variety and information) and
� entertainment benefit (e.g., some promotions can be intrinsi-
cally fun to watch and to participate in).

However, much of the research on consumer response to salespromotions is rather producer oriented, because it focuses on thebenefit that the marketer is perceived to be offering to theconsumer, as opposed to the value that the consumer perceivesthe promotion to embody. Previous research has also highlightedthe difference between what managers think their customersvalue and what customers actually value (Sharma and Lambert,1994; Woodruff, 1997). To give a simple concrete example, apackaged food manufacturer might decide to offer a product as‘‘five portions for the price of four’’. This would appear to representa classic value-increasing promotion, offering simple value-increasing monetary benefits. However, a consumer might beattracted to purchase because they have five members in theirfamily, and are attracted to the convenience benefits regardless ofprice. As with many other things in life, value is in the eye of thebeholder and ‘‘is something perceived by customers rather thanobjectively determined by a seller’’ (Woodruff, 1997, p. 141).

2.2. Sales promotions and customer value

Value is commonly defined as a ratio or a tradeoff betweenquality and price or between perceptions of what is received andwhat is given (Zeithaml, 1988; Babin et al., 1994; Sweeney andSoutar, 2001; Woodruff, 1997). However, recently a new perspec-tive has emerged wherein it is argued that viewing value as atradeoff between quality and price is too simplistic (Sweeney andSoutar, 2001; Woodruff, 1997). It is argued that value can besubjective and experiential in nature and may be closely linkedwith hedonic and other tangible consequences (Babin et al., 1994;Holbrook and Corfman, 1985). In this perspective, value is seen as

A. Jamal et al. / Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 19 (2012) 98–108100

a key outcome variable in the context of consumption experi-ences (Holbrook and Corfman, 1985).

Following Holbrook (2005) we believe that value is interactivein nature because it involves a relationship between the con-sumer and the products they consume. This is in line withWoodruff (1997), who argued that ‘‘customer value is inherentin or linked through the use to some product’’ (p. 141). Consumersmay seek different types of value through the use of products,including functional, social, emotional, epistemic and conditionalvalue (Sheth et al., 1991; Sweeney and Soutar, 2001) and valuemay be intrinsic to the product or extrinsic to the product or self-oriented and other-oriented in nature (Holbrook, 1994).

Moreover, as per Holbrook (2005), value is relative (e.g., itreflects a comparison of one product with the other), it differsfrom customer to customer and is context driven (e.g., it dependsupon the situation in which the evaluation occurs). Consequently,value embodies a preference in the form of positive attitude andis relevant to some consumption experience, in this case, shop-ping for food items (Holbrook, 2005). Hence, we consider value toincorporate multiple contexts, cognitive tasks and assessmentcriteria (Smith and Colgate, 2007; Woodruff, 1997). Our concep-tualization allows us to go beyond the simpler definition of valueas being what customers get relative to what they have to give upin terms of costs or sacrifices (Zeithaml, 1988).

Aaker (1991) argued that marketing efforts contribute towardsbuilding brand equity, which creates value for the customer, whichin turn enhances value for the firm (see also, Yoo et al., 2000).In this context, we argue that sales promotions may influence brandvalue in a way that could be either positive or negative dependingupon the perceived ‘‘net-worth’’ of a sales promotion to consumers.This is because hedonic and utilitarian benefits offered by salespromotions (Chandon et al., 2000) may combine with shoppingmotives (Arnold and Reynolds, 2003; Tauber, 1972), shoppingexperiences (Babin et al., 1994; Michon and Chebat, 2004), a givencontext (e.g., shopping for family members) and cultural under-standing in informing consumers’ overall responses to sales promo-tions. Sales promotions may add value to consumers throughutilitarian benefits that make the ‘‘work’’ of shopping easier ormore affordable, or through hedonic benefits that contribute to theentertainment and playfulness value of the shopping experience(Arnold and Reynolds, 2003; Babin et al., 1994).

Family food shopping literature highlights the challenges facedby female shoppers in managing time and substantive aspects ofnew and existing roles by allocation resources, such as time,energy and money, appropriate to their availability and personalmotivations (Polegato and Zaichkowsky, 1994, 1999). Thus theoverall usefulness of sales promotions and appreciation of variousactivities and roles played in the context of shopping for family,including the frustrations, tensions and anxieties, can indicatevalue to consumers (Polegato and Zaichkowsky, 1994).

A growing body of literature argues that the perceived value ofsales promotion can be enhanced when sales promotions areintegrated with the consumption context or utilisation of product(d’Astous and Landreville, 2003) and effective promotions arethose that offer benefits that are congruent with the promotedproduct (Chandon et al., 2000).

However, limited research exists exploring the potential net worthof sales promotional offers and this research aims to fill this gap inliterature. The net-worth conceptualisation of sales promotions valueintegrates various aspects of how and why consumers respond tosales promotions in a given consumption and cultural context.

2.3. Role of culture and ethnicity

Previous research also tends to overlook the specific culturalcontexts in which consumer responses to sales promotions make

sense. Consumers live in societies that contain multiple codes, andmultiple co-existing sign systems (Levy, 1959; McCracken, 1986).The behaviour of consumers is meaningful and their world is full ofmeaningful relations. Consumer offerings including sales promotionsare a part of these systems of meaning, often culturally specific.Meaning is shared, learned and transmitted through generations.Consumer products are therefore capable of communicating culturalmeaning (Douglas and Isherwood, 1980; McCracken, 1986). However,in a traditional approach to understanding consumer responses tosales promotions, conceptual frameworks and theories are oftendirected to the explanation of the behaviour of the individual (Cova,1997), by contrast to an approach that of necessity looks at collectivesystems of understanding.

The collective cultural mindset is likely to affect consumptionpatterns of ethnic minority consumers originating from collectivistcultures such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh (Jamal, 2003). Peoplein collective cultures tend to hold an interdependent view of the selfthat stresses connectedness, social context and relationships (Aakerand Maheswaran, 1997; Hofstede, 1984) and cultural self-construalcan influence judgements, including those made in response to salespromotional activities (Barone and Roy, 2010). For instance, empiri-cal evidence suggests that consumers adopting independent self-construal prefer exclusive sales promotional offers whereas thoseadopting interdependent self-construal react negatively to receivinga targeted offer that is exclusive, instead preferring discounts thatare more widely available (Barone and Roy, 2010). Similarly, Huffand Alden (1998) found that in collectivist cultures like Taiwan,Thailand and Malaysia, social normative factors directly influencedconsumer attitudes towards coupons and sweepstakes.

A review of the ethnic consumer behaviour suggests that, incomparison to mainstream consumers, ethnic consumers mayreact differently to different promotion strategies (Brumbaughand Rosa, 2009; Laroche et al., 1997; Green, 1996). For instance,Green (1995) reported that sales promotion coupons were rela-tively less effective for African-Americans than Anglo-Americans.In a related domain, Bridges et al. (1996) reported that main-stream consumers showed greater response to print and electro-nic media whereas more personal promotions such as educationalmeetings were more effective among ethnic minority consumers.Moreover, Green (1996) found that differences in time orienta-tions between Anglo-Americans and African-Americans affectedcoupon usages in each community differently. In comparison withAnglo-Americans, African-Americans tended to gravitate moretowards a present time orientation (one that viewed the futureas vague and unpredictable) and hence the time expended bysearching through media, organising and redeeming coupons wasa major deterrent to their use.

Shopping value and motives are, in part, consequences of cultureand ethnicity (Phinney, 1992; Rokeach, 1973) both of which caninfluence ethnic consumer responses to various marketing stimuli,including responses to sales promotion (Lowe and Corkindale,1998). In a study involving consumption experiences of three ethnicminority groups in the UK, Jamal (2005) reported a strong tendencyacross all three groups for actively searching different retail outlets(both mainstream and ethnic) for bargains and engaging in long andin-depth attribute evaluations prior to purchase. Price played a keyrole in deciding where to shop and all three ethnic groups revealedpreferences for actively seeking price promotions and subsequentlybuying large quantities of products with low promotional prices.Word of mouth communications were found to be very strongwithin all three ethnic groups with news of any desirable item onsale spreading very quickly within a close circle of family and friendsreflecting a strong collectivist mindset (Jamal, 2005).

Rather than comparing and contrasting differences acrossdifferent cultural groups, this research focuses on understandingthe notions of value provided by sales promotional formats from


the perspective of one specific cultural group. This is in line withBridges et al. (1996), who identified a need for research exploringculturally driven responses of consumers to promotional activ-ities as their findings revealed that, in a services context, culturalvalues affect the effectiveness of promotion strategies.

Food consumption has a strong cultural component, and foodis capable of symbolising the manner in which people viewthemselves and others, and is capable of expressing hierarchy,inclusion, exclusion and transaction across boundaries (Levi-Strauss, 1968, 1970; Warde, 1997). Sales promotions activitieswithin the food marketing area are therefore capable of signifyingsymbolic meaning to consumers (Holt, 1995; Elliot, 1997) andhence their consumption may go far beyond the notion of utilityor rationality (Douglas and Isherwood, 1980).

3. Methodology

The study involved exploratory interviews in a leading metro-politan city in the UK, with ethnic consumers (mothers) whoregularly shopped at mainstream supermarkets, and who werethe principal grocery shoppers for the family. The ethnic groupidentified in this research (British-Pakistanis) was chosen due toits successful history of migration in the UK and a long history ofsettlement in the city. Also, the group (predominantly Muslim) islittle reported in consumer research terms (Jamal and Chapman,2000). According to the 2001 Census, the ethnic minority popula-tion represented 7.9% (4.6 million) of the total UK population, ofwhich recent estimates suggest that there are around 2 millionMuslims in the UK, with the largest groups originating fromPakistan and Bangladesh.

Ethnic participants were recruited through local communitylinks and were briefed about the aims and objectives of the study.Given the cultural sensitivities and the access problems highlightedby previous research (e.g., Sills and Desai, 1996; Jamal andChapman, 2000), the interviews were conducted by an appropri-ately trained and culturally acceptable interviewer (a female from adifferent but comparable ethnic background, British-Indian, withsimilar age and family life-stage to the participants). Participantswere informed about the nature of the interviews and the inter-viewer beforehand, and in order to encourage interest in theresearch projects, they were each offered a £20 shopping voucher.

The sample size consisted of a total of 14 ethnic consumers, outof which seven were born in Pakistan and seven in the UK. Previousresearch has suggested that minority consumers born and raised inthe culture of destination are likely to exhibit different consump-tion patterns in comparison to those who were born and raised inthe culture of origin. Therefore an equal split between those bornand raised in the UK and Pakistan was established with a view todetermine differences in their consumption patterns. The averagelength of stay in the UK for those who were born in Pakistan rangedfrom 11 to 30 years. The age range of mothers for the total samplewas 32–49 years old with all having a minimum of three and amaximum of five children. In all, the 14 families had a total of 52children living at home (46 children aged 18 years and under). Thesample consisted mostly of full-time housewives, but also includeda few who worked part-time and full time. The mothers had a rangeof educational backgrounds up to degree level. All had extensiveshopping experience involving a wide repertoire of shops (bothmainstream retail supermarkets and local ethnic stores).

The research adopted a qualitative and an interpretiveapproach of investigation (Hirschman, 1989; McCracken, 1988;Wallendorf and Belk, 1989). The research was holistic in nature,incorporating various aspects of food consumption, includingshopping patterns, store choices, perceptions of products andtheir associated sales promotions, and the influence of children

while shopping. The study employed face-to-face in-depth inter-views with each of the participants (at their households) andobservation of purchased items (e.g., inventory in the kitchen).All interviews lasted between 1 and 1(1/2) h, and were taped andfully transcribed. Detailed notes were also taken duringand immediately after the interviews. During the face-to-faceinterviews a short discussion guide with specific open-endedquestions was used. A range of sales promotion offers (both valueincreasing and value adding) were shown to participants tostimulate discussion and seek opinions.

Following the tradition of interpretive research, the data wasanalysed on a continuous basis whereby each stage of theorybuilding was guided by different stages of data collection (see forinstance, Glaser and Strauss, 1967; Spiggle, 1994). Also, to addcredibility to the research process, triangulation across research-ers was employed (Wallendorf and Belk, 1989), whereby theauthors of this paper discussed and analysed the underlying logicof participants’ responses with one another. Perspectives from theinterviews were combined with those drawn from the review ofthe literature and the authors’ prior understanding of partici-pants, their culture and their shopping behaviour, which led tothe emergence of a number of important themes that werecommon to the participants even though they were born indifferent countries (UK and Pakistan). In most cases, the themeswere consistent with the conceptual framework, though therewere some variations, which we report below.

We report these themes with the objective of providing anunderstanding and knowledge of certain phenomena, from thepoint of view of those who are under study (Hudson and Ozanne,1988; McCracken, 1988). While attempting to achieve this objec-tive, this paper seeks to provide some idiographic descriptiveknowledge, which Geertz (1973) refers to as ‘‘thick description’’from the point of view of the ethnic participants of this study. Giventhe context of this research, we report here only some of thethemes that support our conceptual framework and are related onlyto ethnic participants’ responses to sales promotion offers.

4. Ethnic consumers’ responses to sales promotions

A number of major themes emerged as a result of an inter-pretation of the qualitative data obtained in this research (Fig. 1).Although these themes are presented under separate headings,they are interwoven in theory and thought throughout. The broadfinding to emerge from the interviews was that promotions canoffer and combine a number of different types of ‘‘worth’’ from theperspective of the ethnic consumers as illustrated in the following(the illustrative quotations from the discussions are chosen to berepresentative of commonly expressed positions; the names usedare fictitious).

4.1. Money’s worth

Previous research argues that consumers develop expectationsof prices partly based on the frequency of sales promotions(Kalwani and Yim, 1992) and use this information when evaluat-ing benefits of using them, which in turn affects their liking ofsales promotions (Laroche et al., 2003). An interpretation of ourdata reveals that almost all of the ethnic participants looked forpromotional offers, particularly for those where they could savemoney instantly. Like the participants in Chandon et al.’s (2000)study, most of our ethnic participants seemed to like the moneysaving potential of promotions. For instance,

Mrs. Ali (early forties, married with four children, born inPakistan): yI like the buy-one-get-one-free offers. They make

NETWORTH

EducationalWorth

SocialWorth

Happy Families Worth

EntertainmentWorth

Money ’sWorth

NutritionalWorth

e.g., free books/CDs with cereals

e.g., token collection schemes

CRMe.g., computers for

schools To give pleasure

Relief from pester power

e.g., character tie-ins Premiums with purchase, in

packMail in competitions Valued packaging

e.g., free samples

value increasing promo-tions

e.g., extra discounts, coupons, buy one get

one free offers

e.g., Happy Meal promo-tions with healthy food

options

HEDONIC, PEACE AND HARMONY

UTILITARIAN

NegativeWorth

NegativeWorth

UsageWorth

QualityWorth

Fig. 1. Ethnic consumers’ response to sales promotions.


you feel so happy when you look at them! You think ‘Oh, I can

save some money!’

Mrs. Usman (mid thirties, married with four children, born inthe UK): (on purchasing Ribena) y the other day, I picked up a

small one for £1.79[inside the store] but I found that they had an

offer for a really big one for about £2.69! And I thought ‘Oh, wow!

This is good news’, so I picked up a couple of bottles.

This money worth represents functional value of sales promotions(Sheth et al., 1991; Woodruff, 1997) as our ethnic participants felthappy for being given an equal exchange of quality for the price theypaid. Previous research suggests a positive relationship betweensaving money and the use of sales promotional offers such as coupons(Babakus et al., 1988). Previous research indicates high price respon-siveness among ethnic consumers in general in comparison withother consumer groups (Hoch et al., 1995; Jamal, 2005) and our dataconfirms this pattern. Participants might have been motivated bymore than saving money as use of sales promotions could have beenseen as a concrete manifestation of their desired image or theirinvolvement in food shopping (Smith and Carsky, 1996), allowingparticipants to achieve a sense of personal satisfaction (Polegato andZaichkowsky, 1999). Whatever the case, our data reveals ethnicparticipants’ feelings of happiness and delight for being able to savemoney and consequently buying additional quantities.

4.2. Thinking worth

Previous research lends support to the presence of cognitiveprocessing by consumers as the initial stage of response to salespromotions (Laroche et al., 2003; Mittal, 1994). Consumers canactively search for information, which can feed into their overallevaluations and calculations of costs/benefits triggered by the usea sale promotion activity in order to maximise utility and value(Mittal, 1994; Shimp and Kavas, 1984).

In the case of ethnic participants, consumption of salespromotions reflected an experiential consumption episode inwhich an interpretive framework like mental accounting wasapplied to engage with and interpret the complexities involved insales promotional offers (Holt, 1995). Our data reveals that some

ethnic respondents remained doubtful that all promotions weremonetarily worthwhile and would actively engage in mentalcalculations to check and challenge the offers before them. Forexample consider the following quotes:

Mrs. Tariq (late forties, married with five children, born inPakistan): I always go through these offers. Even when I go to

Tesco, I always check prices, even on the organic food and

vegetables y I do check prices beforehand because I notice that

when they say 20 p off they have actually raised the price for the

original one and then they offer you a 20% off or something and

then you’re thinking, ‘What am I doing, it’s only 20% off!’, you

know. ‘Shall I spend that much money, or shall I leave to last’.

Mrs. Zaman (mid thirties, married with three children, UKborn): I think money-off coupons are good because sometimes

like a £3 off makes a difference, so I use them. But if you get offers

like Buy One Get One Free, then I say to myself, ‘‘What is the price

for a single one?’’ and think, ‘‘O.K. I’m getting this because the

single ones are quite expensive.’’ I always look at the offer and

think, ‘‘How much am I going to pay for the one first?’’ and then

see if buying the other one is worth it or not.

Previous research suggests that ethnic consumers can be cost andprice conscious (Mulhern et al., 1998) and the above quotes reflectthis consciousness. Like the baseball game in Holt’s (1995) study, thecommercial context of sales promotional offers provided our ethnicparticipants with an inter-subjectively shared lens through whichthey made sense of the situation and evaluated the relevance andsuitability of the promotional offer by engaging in mental calcula-tions. It could be that the sense-making task was complex requiringsome specialised information and hence mental accounting became asignificant component of ethnic participants’ actions.

Hence, responding to sales promotion appeared to be athoughtful process involving deliberate calculations and somedegree of planning. It could be that the cost/benefit evaluationsand mental calculations fed into ethnic consumers’ affectiveresponses to sales promotions, making them feel that they weresmart shoppers and got good promotional deals (Laroche et al.,2003).


4.3. Usage worth

While ethnic participants were able to save money, all of themwere reluctant to respond to promotional offers particularly whenthey knew that their children might not use the product. This is inline with previous research, which suggests that consumers do notrespond to sales promotional offers unless it is attractive andrelevant to them (Simnonson et al., 1994; d’Astous and Landreville,2003). Within many Asian cultures, there is a strong cultural andreligious tradition of avoiding food wastage, and in some cases,wasting food can even be seen as an unforgiveable crime or a sin(Chan, 2006). Islam, for instance, strongly advises its followers toavoid wasting food or any other natural resources as one of theverses of the holy Quran clearly states: ‘‘Eat and drink and do notwaste, verily Allah does not love those who waste’’ (7:31).

The following quote from Mrs. Khalid reveals the frustrationand the tension that she experiences realising the potential offood wastage arising out of her actions. On one hand, she knowsthat she can save money by responding to the promotion but sheis also very mindful of her actions that might lead her intowasting money and in turn wasting food:

Mrs. Khalid (early forties, married with three children, born inthe UK): Sometimes I just walk right past these offers, and I think,

‘‘Oh, don’t bother, who’s going to eat that?’’ I wouldn’t pick it up

just for the sake of picking it up. I don’t want something that’s just

lying in the cupboard. If I know somebody in the house is going to

eat it, then ok but it’s not like I’ll sling everything in the trolley.

No, I wouldn’t. You know it is quite annoying, it’s like wasting

money. If you know the child’s going to eat the cereal, you don’t

mind buying it, but if he’s not going to eat it or nobody else likes

the cereal or you know he [my son] eats it once and then it goes in

the bin, then I wouldn’t buy it.

The above quote is thus a reflection of her cultural andreligious mindset, which strongly argues against wasting food.Her behaviour can also be described as typical of a resistantconsumer for whom food wastage has been a fundamental issuefor a long period of time (Bekin et al., 2006). Like participants ofDobscha’s (1998) study, she appears to be defining herself inopposition to the dominant consumer culture by devising aresistance strategy involving her own standards of ‘‘buying only

if it is used’’ for herself and her children. This allows her to gain anempowering sense of accomplishment and autonomy over her life(Bekin et al., 2006). This is in line with Holt (2002), who alsodiscusses how consumers can fight back against marketers’coercive cultural authority by investing commodities with moreparticularised meanings and using them in their own idiosyn-cratic ways. Guided by their religious and cultural tendencies,many of our ethnic participants strongly resisted temptations tobuy extra quantities of food items on promotional offers.

4.4. Happy families worth

Many food promotions offer benefits that are designed toappeal to children. This has the potential of both creating ordestroying harmony and contentment within the family since thebenefits once delivered can engage and occupy the children, butthe desire to access those benefits can lead to the exercise of‘‘pester power’’. Our interpretation of the data reveals that almostall of the ethnic participants experienced ‘‘pester power’’ whileshopping for children and did their best to avoid its influence.However, in most cases, they often gave in to children’s demandsbecause they wanted to make their children happy. Consider for

instance, the following quote:

Mrs. Hafeez (mid forties, married with three children, born inthe UK): I think my children tend to ask for those cereal packets

with the games inside or something inside, they tend to go for

that. Sometimes, it’s quite annoying because you don’t want to eat

the product, but the children are asking for it, and you feel

embarrassed to say no to the child because the shop is busy, so

you just tend to pick it up and put it in your basket anyway, even

though you’re not going to have any use for it. Lots of times, I’ve

just ended up throwing the item away, and it’s usually just a little

plastic toy anyway.

The quote however also reveals the paradoxical nature ofshopping for family as Mrs. Hafeez aspires to avoid wastage andyet gives in to pester power as the need to fit in with the largergroup (e.g., mainstream shoppers in the supermarket) overridesher moral concerns for throwing away the promotional toys,which are perceived as simply ordinary. The paradox becomesfurther evident in the following quote:

Mrs. Zaman (mid thirties, married with three children, UKborn): I like money-off coupons and buy one get one free but then

there are others like you get some toy inside or something like

that. Oh, really I hate to see them! Because the thing is, I find that

the children are not going to eat that cereal and they’re just going

for the toy. And they are getting like what, maybe a Spiderman or

something like a CD in there, which, if I do buy it, then I have to

download it on my computer, for one thing, and sometimes they

don’t worky..and the boys they get in there, then they’re fighting

over that one toy, to open that cereal box and then, once they’ve

opened it, all I can see is that the toy’s just rubbish as well.

While Mrs. Zaman hated to see some types of sales promotionsyet she bought the products for the sake of children revealing theperceived utility of sales promotions based on their ability toarouse feelings of guilt (Sheth et al., 1991). However, other ethnicparticipants developed coping strategies, by seeking to take morecontrol of the situation as revealed in the following quote:

Mrs. Ali (early forties, married with four children, born inPakistan): I’m not very happy about this idea, because as soon as

they look at the CDs, or free gift, on the outside of the box, they

just get on to it. And they pick up the box, and, you know, they feel

like to taste it. But they just pick it up because there is some toy

inside, and I bring it home and they are wasted. They take the CD

out, or toy out, and they hate the taste. I used to buy these but

now I have told them ‘‘No, we’re not buying this any more’’.

Refusing to buy promoted products that Mrs. Ali thoughtwould be wasted allowed her to gain control and establish herauthority over others and hence reflected what Holbrook (1994)describes ‘‘utilitarian politics’’ of sales promotions.

4.5. Educational worth

In terms of offering a promotional benefit that will attract theadult purchaser, as well as the children within the families asconsumers, there has been a trend recently within packaged foodsfor educational books, CD-Roms and games to be used aspremiums. For example during 2005 Nestle and Kelloggs werecompeting head-to-head with breakfast cereal promotions offer-ing Dorling-Kindersley educational CD-Roms and ‘‘Horrible His-tories’’ books. Such promotions found favour amongst ethnicrespondents:

Mrs. Asif (late forties, married with three children, born inPakistan): I don’t mind companies making offers and why not, the

children get excited and often then, the parents get excited too,


and when you see the charm in their eyes and you see the toy, and

I think it’s nice. I actually like them [brands] because at least they

care about children, they’re doing something for them, and I like

that. I especially like the idea of educational toys. I think it’s

better, because the children spend a couple of days playing with

the toy. The other day they [the children] had some sort of game,

like ludo or chess game and they played with it for a couple of

weeks. It was like a numbers timetable up to 20 in there as well,

so they learned quite a lot [laugh].

The above quote from Mrs. Asif reveals the value expressivebenefit of sales promotions as self-gratification derived fromfulfilling a duty of being a parent (Holbrook, 1994) and from asense of being a responsible parent and buyer (Mittal, 1994). Thequote also reveals amusement and the aesthetic value of salespromotions as reflected in Mrs. Asif’s and her children’s excite-ment towards the promotions (Chandon et al., 2000). While mostof the ethnic respondents appreciated the educational benefits,others felt that it was their responsibility (and not the marketer’s)to educate their children and hence felt negatively about suchpromotions. For instance, in terms of their feelings about the salespromotional offers involving free books or free educationalvideos, Mrs. Zaman said:

Mrs. Zaman (mid thirties, married with three children, UKborn): Well, I would think, again, you know, it’s just like bribing

the children into it. If I wanted to buy something educational, I’d

go and buy it myself.

4.6. Social worth

Previous research indicates that ethnic consumers in the UKhave larger than average households and their unique culturalconsumption patterns mean that they frequently navigate inbetween ethnic and mainstream consumer cultures (Jamal,2005). A similar pattern was reflected in our data as ethnicparticipants shopped in both mainstream and specialist ethnicretail outlets comparing and contrasting their sales promotionaloffers. Like the participants in Jamal’s (2005) study, news of salespromotional offers were frequently shared with close family andfriends by our participants, reflecting a collectivist mindset, whichplaced a strong emphasis on social ties, relationship building andinformation sharing within social groups (Hofstede, 1984; Kwokand Uncles, 2005). For instance, Mrs. Asif (late forties, marriedwith three children, born in Pakistan) commented: ‘‘My familyand friends always ring to tell that there are sales promotionaloffers like you know offers on big rice bags. I went to the meatshop the other day and the bag was priced for about £14 but myfriend rang me and said Tesco were selling it for £10. She said ifyou end up going there get a bag for me as well!’’

Moreover, sales promotions have the ability to provide widersocietal benefits, as well as benefits for the marketer or consumer,particularly through cause-related marketing schemes. Such pro-motions allow consumers to meet personal or moral values suchas being a socially responsible buyer (Mittal, 1994). They alsoallow consumers to seek gratification by enhancing their sense ofthemselves as smart shoppers and earn social recognition andaffiliation with others (Bagozzi et al., 1992). Token collectionschemes for either the individual or for third parties such asschools are well established and widely used in the UK (e.g.,Walkers Crisps Books for Schools or Tesco’s Computers forSchools). These also found favour amongst ethnic respondents,particularly as a form of promotion that brings social benefitswithout much additional effort on the part of those doing

the purchasing:

Mrs. Tariq (late forties, married with five children, born inPakistan): Yes these free books for schools or Tesco’s free

computers for schools y I think these are better and I collect a

lot of coupons because I do shopping every week and I always

collect and send them to the school.

Mrs. Zia (late thirties, married with four children, born in theUK): I don’t get involved with collecting coupons or things like

that. But if it is benefiting the schools or a charity, then I would.

Particularly, if the product is at home and the coupon’s on there

and all you have to do is cut it out and the children will take it to

school, then that doesn’t really bother me.

There was also a feeling expressed by ethnic respondents thatsuch promotions had value in terms of getting children interestedin social causes and responsibilities (for example encouragingidentification with the child’s school).

Mrs. Asif (late forties, married with three children, born inPakistan): I feel these schemes [computers for schools] are very

good. I collect a lot of these. I think they are a good idea. It gets the

kids interested as well, as they take them to school, so that they

can buy a computer or book or something. The children do it

themselves, and put them in their school bags, yeah they do it, and

I don’t have to send them.

Mrs. Khalid (early forties, married with three children, born inthe UK): Like some times ago, there was some offer with Walker’s

and I think my eldest one was mainly in that, he went asking all

his aunts and all, everybody, friends and neighboursy. ‘‘If you

have these packets, could you cut the coupons out?’’ And they did,

and all of them did! You know, like the neighbours, a couple of

houses around the side streets as well, because they had friendsy.

and older, a couple of the people had no children at all, but they

still used crisps you know, and they’d give the couponsy.and it’s

amazing how many coupons he got back and he went to school,

he had a bagful of coupons.

The social worth offered by such promotions therefore has thepotential to overcome some of the consumer’s usual preference inrelation to brand choice, and to build a relationship between thebrand and the consumer as well as with the cause.

4.7. Entertainment worth

In addition to token collection schemes, competitions, prisedraws and instant wins there are other value-adding salespromotion tools used frequently for marketing the food products.Such promotions can be intrinsically fun to participate in as theyprovide the entertainment benefit to consumers (Chandon et al.,2000) with a sense of active play. Consumers can also get a senseof entertainment when their need for variety, information andexploration is fulfilled by sales promotions. This is revealed in thefollowing quote by Mrs. Asif, who, while expressing her views onsales promotions involving competitions and instant wins, said:

Mrs. Asif (late forties, married with three children, born inPakistan): I just feel happy to get them y and my children they

like them too. They would say, ‘‘Please Mum can I have that?’’ And

they collect them as well, especially Omar, if there’s something

about football, he will always say he wants it, and he collects it, he

has a box full y and then from the telly they say inside the box

there’s something, and they know when I bring the box in and

they look for it.

The entertainment value associated with exploration is alsorevealed in the following quote. When asked about her feelingstowards sales promotional offers for children, Mrs. Latif (late


thirties, married with four children, born in Pakistan) respondedby saying:

Oh, my children love them. They would say, ‘‘Mum, buy this cereal

- it’s got more things inside!’’ And if I buy it and I put it in my food

store, and after two hours they go and open the packet and take

all the things out and every packet they open, they are looking for

the gifts inside. The children love it. It is fun!

4.8. Nutritional worth

Shopping for food has the potential to create dilemmas for thefemale shopper in which the additional benefits of sales promo-tions need to be weighed against the need to serve food thatconstitutes a healthy diet. These dilemmas were reflected in ourdata as a majority of the ethnic respondents expressed concernsabout junk food consumption and its impact on health. The valueof sales promotions was often accessed against the nutritionalworth of the products being promoted via sales promotions.

Moreover, while children often like eating junk food (Brownet al., 2000; Horne et al., 1998), parents often blame peerinfluence and media exposure, including the use of mediapersonalities is shaping children’s eating habits (Brown et al.,2000; Kelly et al., 2006). This is reflected in our data as manyparents blamed the use of celebrities in promoting unhealthydiets among children and were reluctant to accept sales promo-tional offers for foods that they perceived represented junk food.For instance, Mrs. Zaman (mid thirties, married with threechildren, UK born) commented: ‘‘I do not like the idea of usingcelebrities to advertise junk food y why should they have thesestars encouraging children to have more fizzy drinks y you knowchildren and their minds are innocent y the children believewhat these people tell them y so it’s like brain washing them butthis is not good for children. Crisps are not good for them, fizzydrinks are not good for them’’.

Previous research suggests that consumers’ response to salespromotion can depend upon the fit between the benefits offeredby sales promotions and the type of product under consideration(d’Astous and Landreville, 2003; Chandon et al., 2000; Palazon-Vidal and Delgado-Ballester, 2005). While some were concernedabout the lack of healthy food choice in schools, others weredetermined to fulfil their parental responsibilities to their best:

Mrs. Usman (mid thirties, married with four children, born inthe UK): You know what children are like, if they want some-

thing, and they keep getting it, they just get addicted to it, so, for

young children, the parents should choose, you know, what they

have to eat. If you’re bringing home healthy food then your kids

can eat healthy. If you’re just bringing junk, for yourself, then they

can eat junk, can’t they, so it’s all depending on you, isn’t it?, what

you want your children to eat. You know, I mean, sometimes, just

give in and y..so many chocolates in one week, and you know,

they’ll have more junk and less food.

Asked whether in her opinion promotions were good or bad,Mrs. Nazir (late thirties, married with three children, born in theUK) said:

It depends. You know some children are very fussy eaters, and if a

mother knows that, if a child might not eat it, unless it’s got Bob

the Builder or Tellytubbies on it y you know the kids when

they’re younger y they see the photo and they say they do want

it. In a way, buying that is OK, because at least the mother knows

that they’ll eat it. If it’s just a normal spaghetti brand, that may

not appeal to them as much so they won’t bother eating it.

4.9. Quality worth

Some argue that sales promotion and, in particular, pricepromotions are brand harming activities (Mela et al., 1997; Yooet al., 2000). This is probably because price promotions maycondition some consumers, making them more sensitive to priceand price promotions over time (Mela et al., 1997). Consumersmay also attribute their behaviour to the presence of priceinducement and not to their own preference for the brand(Dodson et al., 1978). However, our empirical data finds no suchevidence. On the contrary, our ethnic participants did not per-ceive price promotions diluting the quality of the brand asrevealed in the following quotes:

Mrs. Shah: (early forties, married with five children, born inPakistan): No, I’m not worried about the quality y actually I

would be pleased and think that it is a good deal. I would

sometimes buy more.

Mrs. Nazir (late thirties, married with three children, born in the

UK): I wouldn’t think that the quality’s gone down y I would just

look at it as an offer and be pleased.

Mrs. Hafeez (mid forties, married with three children, born in the

UK): No, quality wouldn’t bother me because I know the offers

only last for a little while, they don’t last forever.

Our findings are in line with previous research, which hasfound price promotions to be significantly effective particularlyfor utilitarian products (Chandon et al., 2000; Palazon-Vidal andDelgado-Ballester, 2005). Moreover, Hunt and Keaveney (1994)argued that consumers can make attributions in response to pricepromotions and can actually use ‘‘price promotions as a positivepiece of information about the brand rather than as an internalsignal about buying the product only to get a price deal’’ (p. 513).We concur with Raghubir and Corfman (1999) and argue pricepromotions may serve more than an economic function and mayresult in negative evaluations when they are not common in theindustry.

4.10. Negative worth

d’Astous and Landreville (2003) argued that consumers arelikely to develop negative reactions to marketing efforts involvinggimmicks such as useless sales promotions in an effort to attractthem. Similarly, Simnonson et al. (1994) also made a similar pointby arguing that marketing efforts involving sales promotionaloffers that have little or no value to consumers might triggernegative evaluations and attitudes. Our findings support this assometimes ethnic respondents felt motivated to challenge thevalue of an offer (e.g., the quality of free gift or trustworthiness ofpromotional competitions) as revealed in the following quotes:

Mrs. Ali (early forties, married with four children, born inPakistan): Oh, I hate some of these offers. You know these really

scary toys and things like that – they show in the TV ads. They

[my children] used to ask me for the Toy Story, the Action Man,

these things, which I think are not too bad and I buy for them. But

some toys are really like, horrible faces and scary. And they [the

children] look at it and say, ‘‘Oh, please, please can we buy this?!’’

And I say, ‘‘What’s the point, what are you going to do with it?’’

Mrs. Latif (late thirties, married with four children, born inPakistan): Sometimes you have offers like a £20 note inside a

pack of crisps. Sometimes on the positive side, you think there

maybe a £20 inside the packet and maybe some people do find the

note but then I don’t think they put a £20 in every packet. I think

that there may be million packets of that crisp brand and just one

or two people may be lucky to get the prise. I think they shouldn’t

think that people are fools!


Previous research investigating the effects of stigma in spon-sorship setting has also reported negative evaluations and atti-tudes (Ruth and Simonin, 2003). Such reactions are potentiallysignificant, since previous research suggests that consumers arelikely to develop negative reactions towards the brands if apromotional offer is not attractive or relevant (d’Astous andLandreville, 2003; Simnonson et al., 1994). In our case, ethnicparticipants expressed concerns for health and obesity as Mrs.Usman (mid thirties, married with four children, born in the UK)commented: ‘‘I do not think it is right for manufacturers andsupermarkets to use all these sales promotions. I don’t think it’sright because I mean because they don’t offer with all productsbut mostly the one they want to sell like the ones with too manysugar in them. All these cereals with sugar inside y. I mean theycan make children addictive. I think it is not right. It is just theirways of selling really’’.

5. Discussion

A growing number of marketers are interested in targetingethnic consumers in the UK and across Europe given the currentdemographics shifts and rise in cultural diversity (Chaudhry andCrick, 2004; Emslie et al., 2007; Jamal, 2003). Previous researchhas found ethnicity to have a significant impact on consumptionpatterns, media usages and ethnic response to marketing efforts(Donthu and Cherian, 1994; Hui et al., 1998). This research makesa contribution to the existing marketing literature by providing anempirical framework that might help to improve marketingpractices aimed at ethnic consumers in the UK and across Europe.

More specifically, the purpose of this research was to betterunderstand the perceived benefits of sales promotion from ethnicconsumers’ perspective, and to propose an empirical model ofconsumer responses to sales promotions in the context of familyfood consumption and purchasing. In doing so, the research hascontributed towards the growing and emerging appreciation ofthe benefits, versatility and value of sales promotions (Chandonet al., 2000; Kwok and Uncles, 2005).

The research finds that the value provided by sales promo-tional activities was experiential in nature involving a relation-ship between the participants and the products they consumed.While some promotions were better perceived than others, theiroverall effectiveness was largely determined by their ‘‘net-worth’’as perceived by ethnic consumers. Various utilitarian and hedonicbenefits offered by sales promotions interacted with each other inthe context of shopping for food and family. Ethnic consumers’responses to sales promotions appeared to be context driven andpromotions appeared to motivate and de-motivate ethnic con-sumers depending upon the context of shopping. The researchfinds that sales promotions made ethnic consumers more respon-sive, less responsive or even hostile to offers in the context ofshopping for food and family.

The cultural mindset appeared to play an important role inshaping ethnic consumer responses in different ways. Somenoticeable examples included the frustrations and tensions asso-ciated with food wastage, frequent expression of doubts about themonetary worth of sales promotions, making additional efforts tofit in with the larger cultural group (mainstream consumers insupermarkets) and strong feelings of responsibility for educatingchildren rather than allowing marketers to do the same. Foodwastage, for instance, has been recognised as a significant social,nutritional and environmental problem (Griffin et al., 2009) andmany blame marketers for causing consumers to buy more thanthey need via attractive sales promotional offers like buy one andget one free. While many supermarkets in the UK now activelysupport national campaigns to reduce food waste (Baker, 2009),

our data suggests that perhaps they have a long way to go intackling the problem.

The research adds to the growing body of evidence thatalthough rational-economic, utilitarian perspectives provide partof the explanation of the popularity of promotions amongstconsumers and their use by marketers, it does not provide thewhole story, nor even necessarily the majority of it (as has oftenbeen assumed in the past). The research finds that sales promo-tions provide educational, social and entertainment benefits toethnic consumers. Such benefits helped ethnic consumers toexpress altruistic or socially cohesive motives, and to expressacceptance and affection in their interpersonal relationships(Arnold and Reynolds, 2003; McGuire, 1976).

Price promotions appear to provide important savings toconsumers and improve their overall shopping experience(Chandon et al., 2000; Davis et al., 1992) and our findings confirmthis pattern. Also, we concur with Chandon et al. (2000) thatmonetary savings alone cannot fully explain consumers’responses to sales promotions. We also find that money savingsare linked with ethnic consumers’ ability to engage in mentalcalculations, perceived attractiveness and relevance of offer andcan make consumers think negatively about a brand if theyperceive an offer to mislead or represent any other form ofwrong-doing by the brand (for example by making tokenisticoffers).

The ethnic respondents’ views demonstrated that family foodshopping is about much more than acquiring products andmeeting households’ material needs. Food purchasing is wrappedup with deeper feelings relating to the care and nurturing of afamily, and sales promotions can tap into this by positioningthemselves as a means to contribute to happiness, fulfilment andcontentment within families. Since shopping can be perceived asa leisure activity (Martin and Mason, 1987) and fulfil someimportant role in family and social life, sales promotions can helpachieve these roles. This is also linked to the affiliation motive(Tauber, 1972), whereby ethnic consumers are able to affiliatewith family members as the overall shopping is treated as a socialprocess.

Some argue that sales promotion, and in particular, pricepromotions are brand harming activities, which increase consu-mers’ price sensitivity (Mela et al., 1997; Yoo et al., 2000).However, our findings suggest that ethnic consumers do notperceive well-established brands to be of lower quality evenwhen they are frequently price promoted. This is in line with agrowing body of literature that has suggested that both price andnon-price promotions can have a positive effect on brand equity(Palazon-Vidal and Delgado-Ballester, 2005).

6. Implications and future research

There can be many similarities and differences in the wayethnic and mainstream consumers respond to sales promotions.On one hand, the underlying psychological mechanism may workequally in all consumers irrespective of ethnicity. Our findingsimply many such similarities, including various ways in whichethnic participants sought value provided by sales promotions inthe context of shopping for food items. This implies that theframework provided here may be applicable to all consumersirrespective of their ethnicity and the framework should beexplored in future research comparing and contrasting ethnicwith mainstream consumers. Further research, in a greatervariety of contexts and cultural groups, may help us betterunderstand how culture is manifested in the ways in whichconsumers respond to sales promotions.


On the other hand, unique cultural experiences and tendenciescan also result in differences in motivations and responses tomarketing activities (Cui and Choudhury, 2002) including salespromotions. Even when ethnic consumers may not have a uniqueneed for certain products, they can still be more responsive tomarketing activities if these activities reflect cultural values andtendencies. From an acculturation point of view (Jamal, 2003;Penaloza and Gilly, 1999) an important finding of this research isthat culture was uniformly manifested in ways in which all ethnicrespondents (irrespective of their country of birth) responded tosales promotions. This implies that firms can probably standar-dise sales promotions strategies across different ethnic minoritysegments. When targeting ethnic consumers, managers shouldspecifically focus on the range of benefits valued by this segmentand avoid those that caused irritation and frustration.

For instance, our findings highlight the significance of non-price promotions, which can be linked with hedonic aspects ofconsumption (Babin et al., 1994; Chandon et al., 2000), providingretailers with an opportunity to differentiate ethnic consumers’shopping experience from that of competitors (Carpenter andMoore, 2008). Since many retailers have store locations in marketareas with high concentrations of ethnic consumers (Jamal, 2005;Mulhern et al., 1998), ethnic aspects of responses to salespromotional activities should be included in decisions on marketsegmentation and promotional strategies. An important implica-tion is that price promotions should be not viewed in a negativeway as these can add value to brand in different ways.

Our findings are also significant as price promotions arelikely to increase store traffic, generate sales and inducebrand switching (Carpenter and Moore, 2008) among ethnicconsumers.

7. Limitations and conclusions

A potential limitation of this study is that the empirical modelpresented here is specific to family food purchasing among ethnicconsumers, and therefore may not transfer comfortably to othertypes of product or other purchasing contexts. However, given theimportance of food purchasing amongst families (which repre-sents around 20% of weekly UK household expenditure if ‘‘bigticket’’ items like cars are excluded) and the continued wide-spread use of sales promotion in packaged food marketing, thedevelopment of specialised tools to better understand family foodconsumption seems justified. Similarly, ethnic consumers’ per-ceptions of value may differ in the trade or business to businesspromotions context and hence should be explored in futureresearch.

The study was mainly conducted from an interpretive per-spective and fully acknowledges the limitations imposed byadopting such an approach. Future research may wish to adopta different approach such as experimental design. However,despite the limitations, the study highlights a number of poten-tially interesting future research projects. Rising competition andadvances in technology propel the use of sales promotions andmanagers need to understand how consumers respond to theirmarketing efforts including sales promotions. This study is animportant step toward developing such an understanding. Theultimate aim of marketing is to promote consumption and failureto gauge evaluations of value provided by sales promotions mayhave important consequences such as losing customers. Thisexamination of net-worth value provided by a range of salespromotion formats within the packaged food market adds greaterdepth to existing research and goes some way in helpingmanagers to develop a better understanding of consumer beha-viour involving consumption of sales promotions.

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Ethnic minority consumers' responses to sales promotions in the packaged food market

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