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Promotional perils and B2B excellence: Your Marketing Week
At the end of every week, we look at the key stories, offering our view on what they mean for you and the industry. From Halfords issuing a profit warning to the gold standard in B2B brand building, it’s been a busy week. Here is my take.
The perils of promotional activity writ large
Issuing a profit warning this week, Halfords blamed “weaker gross margins than previously anticipated”. The reason behind this? Its level of promotional activity.
The news was delivered as if the retailer was a hostage. A victim of an embedded necessity: customers demand it, everybody else is doing it so we have no choice but to go with the flow, regardless of the damage to margins and profitability.
