Sale seekers: store circulars prove to be a way to capture an audience looking for values, and potentially private label.

Michelle Reynolds is a 29-year-old professional living in Chicago. Soon to be married and living with her fiance, she now grocery shops for two. Every week she goes to her neighborhood Dominicks and looks through the circulars for items on sale--hoping to save money before the big day. A recent

study done by Vertis, a Baltimore, Md., provider of targeted advertising, media and marketing services, shows that Reynolds is not alone when using store circulars to determine her purchases. Many consumers rely on the ones delivered in Sunday newspapers and those available weekly in stores.

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The study shows that 71 percent of female grocery shoppers--those responsible for 60 percent or more of household grocery shopping--read advertising circulars and plan their grocery shopping based on items advertised each week.

"Ad inserts have been around for over 30 years and they've always been influential, but our most recent survey clearly shows that consumers are increasingly being drawn to this medium to assist in their decision-making process when making a purchase," says Therese Mulvey, vice president of marketing research at Vertis. With less time on their hands and less money in their wallets, a growing number of shoppers are seeking out the best deals before they leave the house to go shopping. Now, more than ever, retailers and other marketers should consider including advertising inserts in their multi-channel marketing programs."

So what does this mean for the private label industry and leading retailers?

According to Doug Adams, a marketing consultant from Prime Consulting Group, Bannockburn, Ill, businesses can benefit from including private labels in advertising circulars in a number of ways. Using circulars can promote brand loyalty and also get consumers in the door.

"Properly designed messages can deliver tremendous sales for a brand," Adams says. "It's all about reaching the consumer drive. Using circulars can be an excellent way to reach consumers. It can also help create an image for the store, and a private label supports that image."

AND THE SURVEY SAYS ...

According to the study, 28 percent of adults surveyed indicated that ad circulars and inserts most influence their buying decisions, which was 6 percent more than those who said they are most influenced by television. For the women surveyed, of those who read Sunday newspapers, 84 percent indicated that they had read Sunday advertising inserts in the past seven days. Sixty-nine percent of women indicated they had read an ad insert in a weekday newspaper in the past seven days. The study also stated that 48 percent of Generation X females regularly use coupons from grocery store advertising inserts and circulars.