In November 2014, Heidi Schultz, product manager for Sudzo, one of the top brands in the Cropper and Gimble stable of laundry detergents, was considering which of two promotion schemes she should use to boost Sudzo's sales (which had fallen somewhat during the Spring quarter).Schultz was considering either a combined cooperative advertising/trade promotion or a promotion to consumers.The trade promotion would let the trade (retailers) purchase Sudzo below its usual (trade) price.In exchange, during December the retailers would have to perform an end-aisle display of Sudzo on at least two weekends, and feature Sudzo in the supermarket's advertising flier each Thursday.The cost of this advertising would be shared with Cropper and Gimble.

The second promotion would involve the widespread distribution of coupons to potential purchasing households.The coupons would be distributed by mail, and Schultz was fortunate enough to subscribe to the services of Big Brother, Inc. (BBI). BBI maintained up-to-date lists of names and addresses of all households in most major metropolitan areas, along with demographic data on each household.This latter information was important to Schultz, because from earlier Sudzo promotions she had found that middle income families were the most likely to redeem Sudzo coupons.While the overall redemption rate of Sudzo coupons was only 35%, the rate was 45% among middle income families, 25% among low income families, and only 5% among high income families.If she conducts this promotion, Schultz would, as in past promotions, mail 60% of all coupons to middle income families, 30% to low income families, and the remaining 10% to high income families.