Wednesday
Jan092008
Take Away the Word Sale… What’s Left? Anything?
By Wizard Associate Anna Gerard
My local market is flooded particularly with electrical retailers all with a “yell to sell” attitude. Some of them have teams coming up with 12 new sales each year, while others just re-hash the old, cross their fingers and hope.
The first problem with a short-term sale approach is that sales are loosing their impact… there are too many, too often. A shipping container sale will work brilliantly first go round, but bring it back month after month and it looses its excitement and rarity.
The second big problem is if you’re in a flooded market and everyone else in your category is saying the same thing, the same way… the business with the largest share of voice will win the biggest number of customers. When the message is the same, it’s the business saying it most often that will generally sit on top of the shopping list.
But that still doesn’t always secure the business… So what if you take away that four letter word SALE… Underneath it, what does your brand stand for? Does the public know? Do your people know? Do you know? Ouch!
Don’t overkill with short-term sales while leaving your brand underdeveloped… A brand can survive without a sale, but a short-term sales strategy will struggle against a current of strong brands.
The kings of short-term advertising are electrical stores. Actually, rug, jewellery, and bedding stores would also come close. And it’s all based around that four letter word – SALE.
My local market is flooded particularly with electrical retailers all with a “yell to sell” attitude. Some of them have teams coming up with 12 new sales each year, while others just re-hash the old, cross their fingers and hope.
The first problem with a short-term sale approach is that sales are loosing their impact… there are too many, too often. A shipping container sale will work brilliantly first go round, but bring it back month after month and it looses its excitement and rarity.
The second big problem is if you’re in a flooded market and everyone else in your category is saying the same thing, the same way… the business with the largest share of voice will win the biggest number of customers. When the message is the same, it’s the business saying it most often that will generally sit on top of the shopping list.
But that still doesn’t always secure the business… So what if you take away that four letter word SALE… Underneath it, what does your brand stand for? Does the public know? Do your people know? Do you know? Ouch!
Don’t overkill with short-term sales while leaving your brand underdeveloped… A brand can survive without a sale, but a short-term sales strategy will struggle against a current of strong brands.
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