The Path to Loyalty – Step 1 is the first in a range of publications and research studies exploring added-value promotions, promoting best-practice in their use and discussing research and measurement techniques to hone them and make them work even better.

The White Paper examines research into how consumers respond to different sorts of promotion, discusses ways to assess the relative value of price promotions versus added-value promotions and looks at the role of creativity. It includes a strong call for Institute members to avoid over-using price promotions because of the long-term damage they can do to brand values.

The document also contains a number of case studies exploring the use of different promotional marketing techniques and their impact on consumer loyalty.

Throughout the document are links to web pages supplied by partner organisations and companies where marketers will be able to access further information to expand the discussion about the link between promotional marketing campaigns and customer loyalty.

Colin Harper, head of insight at the Institute of Promotional Marketing, says, "Promotions play a central role in shortening the path to loyalty by encouraging early adoption. Manufacturers need to make sure that closing the gap to purchase is done with a promotion that is likely to increase the probability of subsequent repurchase and not, as so often seems to happen today, to decrease it.”

Last year, the Institute of Promotional Marketing published a major research report, The UK Promotion Tracker: Mortgaging the Future, which revealed that the UK’s consumer goods companies spent a total of £28.6bn on promotions through the retail channel in 2008, of which £14.4bn went on price promotions. Unfortunately, that report concluded, price promotions tend to damage brands long-term and arguably only serve the interests of retailers.