Strategies to combat price discounting
Peter Field
The UK (and probably much of the developed world) is in the grip of an epidemic at the moment.
It is a very destructive one – brands everywhere are self-harming with excessive price promotion. It is as if they need to punish themselves for some deepseated shame at trying to make a profit during a recession. So they seize upon what is probably the best way to destroy shareholder value and thrash out another price promotion.
Perhaps they are hoping investors will not notice that large chunks of the marketing budget have been...