A campaign encouraging people to buy a Quebec book was associated with a sharp rise in sales of local authors’ titles, with the strongest estimated gains going to less-established authors, according to research published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science.
The October study examined an annual August 12 event that asks customers to support books by Quebec authors. The event does not normally offer a price discount, although individual stores may run their own giveaways.
Researchers Chloé Vanasse, François Carrillat, Renaud Legoux and Valentyna Melnyk call the approach a symbolic promotion. Instead of promising a lower price, it asks people to participate in an activity connected to a community they identify with.
For retailers and small brands, the study suggests a different way to think about a promotion: the reason to buy can be tied to discovery and community as well as savings. The size of the Quebec result should not be treated as a forecast for another campaign.
What the book sales showed
The researchers had access to records from 143 bookstores for 2014 through 2022. Their main analysis used daily sales for 22,084 fiction titles, including 5,179 titles by Quebec authors targeted by the event and 16,905 titles by authors outside the province.
They compared sales on the promotion day with the surrounding period while accounting for factors including the day of the week, year, price, publication timing and earlier sales. The paper reports that sales on the event day exceeded the model’s expected trend by more than sevenfold.
That comparison is specific to the books and model studied. It does not mean every participating title sold seven times as many copies, or that a new campaign would achieve the same result. The researchers also could not directly control for all other advertising and promotions.
Authors’ prior average sales per title were used as an indicator of brand strength. The estimated promotional effect was larger for weaker authors by that measure. The authors suggest that an event focused on local writing may help readers discover books they did not already know, though the sales records cannot establish each shopper’s motive.
Why identity can matter to an offer
A discount gives the buyer an economic benefit. A community-focused promotion offers a different reason to participate, such as supporting local makers or exploring work connected to a place. Both types can coexist, but they should be assessed separately when a business wants to know what caused a sales change.
The paper adds a second test involving 451 US adults who passed attention checks. Participants were randomly shown one of three hypothetical grocery promotions: a local-food event, a hunger-related campaign or a 10% discount. They rated their likelihood of participating, sharing the promotion and considering the store later.
The researchers’ analysis linked responses to the local-food message with curiosity and a sense of connection to place. Those results concern stated intentions in an experiment, not actual purchases at a grocery store.
Other evidence shows why choosing an offer involves trade-offs. In our earlier coverage of discount research, shoppers in hypothetical scenarios expressed weaker later purchase interest after seeing a particularly low previous price. That was a separate study with a different design, not a direct comparison with the Quebec campaign.
How a small retailer could test the idea
A store considering a local campaign could first identify which products genuinely qualify and explain the criteria to customers. A local label that is vague or unsupported may not create the trust a campaign depends on.
It could then compare sales of participating products with their own recent history and with similar products not highlighted in the campaign. Monitoring margins, repeat purchases and sales in the following weeks can help distinguish additional demand from purchases that would have happened anyway.
The Quebec paper found no evidence of a short-term sales dip around the event in its analysis. A different retailer should still check its own figures: the study covers one established book-buying event, and its results do not prove that every community promotion generates lasting growth.
