Kearney · Consumer / retail · Intermediate · 25-35 min

Promotional planning

Promotional planning is an intermediate Kearney consumer / retail case interview that runs 25-35 min. Identify the core commercial problem and recommend how promotions should be redesigned. A strong answer works through 3 phases: Promotion effectiveness; Margin and volume tradeoffs; Execution across channels.

Last updated 2026-09-05

The brief

A consumer business needs a better promotional planning approach that improves performance without wasting spend.

How to approach it

  1. Promotion effectiveness
  2. Margin and volume tradeoffs
  3. Execution across channels

What a strong answer does

  • Identify the core commercial problem and recommend how promotions should be redesigned.
  • A strong answer should connect customer behavior, channel economics, and operational feasibility.

Practice drills

  • Frame the promotion problem from both revenue and margin angles.
  • Prioritize which data you would request first.
  • Recommend how to pilot a better promotional calendar.

Why this case

Kearney publishes promotional planning as a crack-the-case example for candidates.

Adapted from Kearney crack-the-case example: promotional planning (official sample).

Cases are written in each firm's style, written and reviewed by working consultants; they are not the firms' own published cases.

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