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I just finished clearing off a spot in the middle of my desk after a 4 day holiday and then decided to take a little time to watch the latest news on the internet. It’s “Cyber Monday” just a little after lunch here on the east coast and the retail reporters are predicting a 20% increase in internet sales over last year. “Black Friday” was up 7% and everybody is confident that this holiday shopping season will rake in the greatest number of dollars ever. One television reporter is standing outside the mall entrance interviewing people loaded down with bags and bags of items they purchased for just pennies on the dollar while another is describing the mass chaos inside as shopper push and shove to get the deals before they are all gone. The craziness makes you think that everyone in town found a bushel basket of $20’s hidden under their beds and ran out to the stores to spend it as quickly as they can. But what has been going on for the last 11 months? Nothing much, and retailers wonder why they’ve been struggling. Why is it that retailers will suddenly start to advertise, promote, and market again after hibernating all year? Why now? Is it just because they can’t wait any longer? Is it because they think that people are finally ready to buy? I don’t think so. I think it is because they are doing the same thing they always do. They are stuffing the mailbox and Sunday paper with their wish books because their competitor is stuffing the mailbox and Sunday paper with their wish books. Retailers will sit and wait forever for customers and not spend a dime to get them unless the competition spends first. It’s old fashioned “Fear of Loss”, the most powerful motivator in the boardroom. I’ve been promoting that the current down trend in marketing is a fantastic opportunity for a smaller scale business operation to get out in front of the competition at a very low cost. With newspapers and magazine a quarter of the thickness, the ad rates half, and the competing ad space a fraction what it once was, I can’t think of a better time to pounce. I have personally helped savvy business owners dramatically increased their market share with this technique so I know it works very well. But, there is one other thing that you need to make this work. Your customers have to believe that this is the right time to buy. Those interviews outside the mall always uncover that the shopper wasn’t just looking for gifts to go under their tree, they’re taking advantage of the selection and super good prices to pick up a few items for themselves as well! They are shopping and buying because they are convinced that now is the time to get the very best deal. So what do you do in the off season when you don’t have a tsunami of advertising and marketing hype to propel people into your store? Funny you should ask me that question! I’ll tell you this. There are some pretty good deals out there no doubt but most of the things that people are buying today could have been purchase for pretty much the same price last week or even next year. They are buying today because they believe they are getting a special deal today and they will darn near kill each other trying to get to the cash register. So when things settle down a bit and business returns to usual, consider taking advantage of the lack of competition in advertising and then structure your pricing in a way that convinces your customer that now is the best time to get the very best deal. How? By selecting a good product and adding a low cost/high value sales incentive to the package and make it available at least until you can run your next ad with your next product and incentive pairing. In my opinion, nothing gets people as excited as Travel Certificates or vouchers for popular electronics products. Not even Santa Clause.
Tags: economy, incentives, internet, motivation, product pricing, sales incentives, travel certificates
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