2024 Insert Analysis: Competition and Trends in Promotions

The year 2024, marked by economic uncertainties and high inflation rates, has been a period where brands have had to contend with intense pricing pressure and competition. In this challenging environment, we have observed that brands have increasingly turned to promotional activities to engage with consumers more frequently and effectively.

Let’s take a closer look at the insert trends in the retail sector in 2024 and the key insights revealed by the numbers.

Insert Trends in 2024

Around 8,500 inserts were published in 2024, marking a 70% increase compared to the previous year. Retailers preferred to publish more consolidated but more frequent inserts. The peak period of the year was May, with 875 inserts published.

As May is typically a preparatory period for summer, this time saw a significant increase in activity, particularly in the Home Care & Cleaner and Personal Care categories.

Key Categories

In 2024, the categories with the most inserts were, as in the previous year, Food, Home Care & Cleaner, and Dairy Care. The number of brands investing in inserts increased by 20%, reaching a total of 5,400 brands.

The Categories with the Most Brands were ranked as Follows:

• Food: 1.712 Brand
• Dairy Care: 1.136 Brand

The categories with the highest increase in competition were Pet with 34% brand increase and Dairy Care with 29% brand increase.

Product Portfolio and Promotions

In 2024, the product portfolio size increased by 38%, covering 65,000 products. The category offering the widest range of products to consumers was Food, with 14,000 products. The Ramadan period stood out as a time when the number of products in this category reached its peak.

Compared to the previous period, the category with the largest increase in product volume was Dairy Care, with a 63% growth. During the back-to-school period, in September and October, the number of products in this category included in inserts reached the highest level of the year.

Promotion Strategies

In 2024, due to economic conditions and competition, there was a 50% increase in the number of promotions, with a total of 450,000 promotional communications conducted. The most prominent categories in promotions were Food and Home Care & Cleaner. These categories stand out from others because of their price sensitivity and their coverage of essential household needs.

When examining the price levels of products included in promotions:

• The Confectionery and Beverage categories stood out with the lowest prices (47% of the products were priced below 29 TRY)
• Baby Care and Meat Products, on the other hand, entered promotions with higher prices (45% of the products were priced above 139 TRY)

The categories with the highest discount rates applied:

• Pet Category: Average discount of 31%
• Personal Care Category: Average discount of 29%

Outlook for 2025

In 2025, price sensitivity is expected to continue. Consumers will make more careful spending decisions and focus more on discounts and promotions. Brands will need to:

• Develop promotional strategies that address price sensitivity
• Use technology more effectively to better understand consumer behavior
• Offer campaigns tailored to the needs of their target audience.

It is crucial for brands to adopt innovative approaches to turn competition into an advantage during this challenging year. In the future, capturing consumer trends and shaping them through the right strategies will be the key to success for companies.

The data used in this article has been generated through the AI-powered data analytics provided by our REM Insert platform. REM Insert is a powerful SaaS platform that helps you understand category trends, promotional strategies, and consumer behavior by deeply analyzing discount brochures published by retailers.

For more information contact to: [email protected]

Prepared by:

REM Advanced Analytics Team