Printed advertising material one step closer to the grave

The Danes continue to ignore unaddressed advertising material and use the internet or their smartphone to find the best offers. The number of households who have chosen to put up the little sticker with the text "Reklamer nej tak (no advertising material)" on their mailbox has increased from 13 per cent in 2005 to 28 per cent in 2012. According to Mogens Bjerre, Associate Professor at CBS, and Per Østergaard Jacobsen, External Lecturer at CBS, it is only a matter of time, before the printed advertising material is history. The two researchers have conducted the survey "Har tilbudsaviserne en fremtid? (is there a future for printed advertising material?)"

- It is hard to imagine that it is profitable to keep printing advertising material, when 40 per cent of the Danish households will refuse to receive it, which, according to our analysis, will happen in 2015, says Per Østergaard Jacobsen from the Department of Operations Management.

Smartphones oust printed material
Today, four out of ten households refuse to receive advertising material in the Copenhagen area. In 2015, this number will be 60 per cent. The advertising material will thus attract less customers to the stores, so it will become less profitable for the supermarkets to print and distribute their flyers, says the researchers behind this survey and point towards tendencies that fuel this development.

The supermarkets turn into discount stores, which results in less special offers and branded products. In this way the price will constantly be as low as possible. The customers have become more environmentally conscious. Important operators in the market are turning against the advertising flyers; for instance the Danish waste management company who recommended the citizens to say "no thank you" to printed advertising material. New statutory requirements may give the advertising material a hard time, since a new tax will be charged on it in the future. If the existing "no thank you"-scheme is changed to a "thank you"-scheme, the number of recipients will change. Digital offers on smartphones, the internet and tablets will become increasingly popular together with e-trade and reduce the need of printed matter.

May survive in the provinces
There is a huge difference in the popularity of the advertising material, and it depends on where you live in Denmark. While six out of ten households say no to printed advertising material, 19 out of 20 households in the Danish provincial town Vils have chosen to receive 55 kilos of printed matter from supermarkets a year. Per Østergaard Jacobsen predicts that the printed advertising material has a chance of surviving in the provinces.

- They are very popular outside the urban areas. It has got something to do with tradition and cosiness. People like to flick through the pages, but the question is how many people will actually do that in three to five years? Will it be worth while for the supermarkets to print and distribute the material in areas where it is expensive to distribute them?, says Per Østergaard Jacobsen.

Contact: Per Østergaard Jacobsen, External Lecturer, pj.om@cbs.dk, Mogens Bjerre, Associate Professor, mb.marktg@cbs.dk or Mikael Koldby, Public Relations Officer, 3815 3722.