# 7.2 Ethics and sales promotion

Whilst there is nothing inherently unethical about sales promotions, that has not stopped the tool from being used unethically. In 2011 the BBC television programme Panorama: The truth about supermarket price wars investigated British supermarkets’ sales promotions and identified a number of highly unethical sales promotion techniques being used:

- The wow factor

  ‘Wow deals’ is a term used by one supermarket to indicate to customers products being sold below their normal price. Panorama, however, discovered that 11 of the products featured in this promotion had previously been on sale for the same price for the previous six months. In one unethical sales promotion, Panorama found that four products were actually more expensive than before the promotion.

- Multi-buy deals

  Panorama discovered that some supermarkets had price labels on their shelves announcing sales promotion deals for products, such as ‘2 for £2’. Whilst there was nothing wrong with this pricing there was actually no financial saving as the products were singularly priced at £1!

- New-yet-old low price

  Sales promotions often introduce short term price cuts to increase demand. Whilst this is a very effective marketing tool, Panorama found that British supermarkets were selling products at the same price for a considerable period and then suddenly increasing it, before dropping the price again. The unethical issues arise because the price drop is presented as a price discount to the customer.

- Less is more – much more

  A popular sales promotion technique is to offer customers a greater quantity of a product for a higher price. By purchasing more, customers are often able to achieve a lower price per unit being purchased. However, Panorama found that supermarkets used this technique unethically. For example, a 1kg tub of a particular brand of margarine spread was priced at £3.20. This appears to be acceptable until it was highlighted that if the consumer purchased two 500g tubs they would have only paid £3!

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