Product details

In autumn 1998, Carrefour rocked the world of mass-market retailing with the launch of its worldwide promotional campaign entitled 'An unbelievable month' ('Un mois jamais vu') to mark the chain's 35th birthday. For a month, the banner set up an exceptional promotional campaign, with each day a 'spot' product available in limited numbers at a rockbottom price. Sales in October, traditionally a weak month for mass-market retailers, grew by some 30%, emptying competing stores of their habitual customers. As its 40th birthday approached, Carrefour began to ask questions about the way the Carrefour birthday campaign was running out of steam, and how it should be organised. This gigantic promotional campaign, prepared over 12 months by the various teams concerned, had given rise amongst observers in the educational world to the proposal of a new term, mega-promotions. In view of this, the Carrefour birthday case gives students the opportunity to: (1) identify what is at stake in mega-promotion campaigns; (2) analyse the way a campaign of this type is carried out; (3) carry out a diagnosis of the Carrefour birthday campaign in the light of a 5-year retrospective (1998-2002); (4) reflect on the strategic aspects of sales promotions; and (5) make practical proposals concerning approaches to be developed or strengthened, and the organisation to be set up (information systems included). Depending on the wish of the tutor, this case study can therefore be used with various different approaches: (1) analysis of the sales promotion strategy in mass-market retailing; (2) analysis of organisational processes in a project-type operation (involving one year of preparation,10 departments concerned including the company's general management and several hundred people involved in the process); or (3) cross-functional marketing and information system analysis. The case, originally conceived for a 4-day unit, can be conducted cross-functionally by covering both mass-marketing sales promotion and the setting up of performance indicators and thus information systems. This dual approach enabled by the case is however not compulsory, and the case can be considered from the single viewpoint of marketing and sales promotion. A video on CD-ROM is available to accompany the case '505-067-3'.