We're delighted to launch this second paper in our Hidden Mind series - The hidden mind: How behavioural science unlocks additional promotional power.
In this paper, we look at how the human mind interprets promotions with behavioural scientist, Richard Shotton. Richard is the author of two best-selling books, and is an associate of numerous institutions including Cambridge University, and an honorary fellow of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA).
We’ve shortlisted 10 behavioural science insights to power your promotions, exploring how small tweaks in design and framing - from expressing discounts according to base price, to using scarcity cues - can transform your promotions into powerful levers of persuasion.
Sneak peek: The bottom-dollar effect
One of the behavioural insights covered in the paper is the bottom-dollar effect - which describes why consumers are far more price-sensitive at the end of a pay period than when there's money to spare. So, we thought we'd take a look at when some of the largest grocery retailers are live with promotions.
Our data shows...
Over the last quarter, Tesco shows the highest number of promotions with the highest fluctuation (6,000-8,000+). We can see here a clear preference for early-month promotional activity, primarily in their Clubcard loyalty offering.
Morrisons' promotions peak toward the month end, which builds from mid-month (~5,400) to their highest levels (6,000-6,800) by the end of the month, outside a brand driven spike in early September.
Sainsbury’s and Asda both appear to favour mid-month strategies, whereas Waitrose shows a clear trend of a weekly alternating promotions (shifting from 3,000 to 4,000 every other week).
To summarise:
- Month start activity: Tesco starts the month competitively with a high volume of promotions
- Month end activity: Morrisons' builds up promotions from mid-end month, suggesting an effective conversion tactic
- Stable or volatile: Asda shows a steady rise and fall over the quarter, which contrasts sharply with Tesco's high-fluctuation
- Unique positioning: Waitrose alternates consistently, which might indicate an alignment with their premium customer shopping behaviour
Download the paper today
In case you missed it - take a look at our first paper in the series: How behavioural science unlocks additional pricing power
Source: Acuity Pricing data, all grocery products included in promotions across Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Waitrose 30/06/25 - 29/09/25. Any and all promotions observed at some point between the Monday - Sunday period of each week. All promotion types considered.
