Herman School of Business
FREE is your marketing...
I have been preaching for about a year that spending money on marketing in today’s environment is a waste of money. Your customers are broke…they have no more credit…blasting ads at them is like teasing a kid with candy but not giving it to them. Your customer doesn’t want to see ads that remind them they can’t afford what you are selling.
Give what you have to them for free!
By now some of your inventory is outdated and starting to remind you that having a big pile of merchandise means no money in the bank. On this week’s SUNDAY MORNING show there was a feature worth talking about. A Professor offered his students a piece of “truffle chocolate” for 15 cents or a Hershey Kiss for one cent. 73% took the 15 cent bargain, going for quality at a ridiculously low price. He them lowered each by one cent…the “truffle chocolate” was 14 cents and the Hershey Kiss was FREE. The overwhelmingly majority of students took the free chocolate…taking nothing out of their pocket.
Stop having “huge discounts” on some things trying to lure customers in for a bargain. Today every store, every restaurant and every service company now offers “huge discounts” and people would be insulted if they didn’t see a price reduction. BUT…people will stop in, call you for help, and at least give you a try if they could get something for FREE.
If you own a jewelry store announce that every hour on the hour there will be a drawing for a FREE WATCH all weekend long…but you must be there to get the watch. A clothing store can give a twenty dollar gift certificate away every hour…a restaurant will give one meal FREE for every three who pay for all seated by 6PM this Friday and Saturday night. Consultants can give FREE hours…you get the point.
I keep telling you things will get worse before they get better. Ignore the MSNBC crowd who preaches we have turned the corner…we have only lost 100 banks so far…200 more will be falling over the next twelve months because the commercial real estate collapse is in full swing now. One-third of houses sold…are selling below their purchase price. Commercial property isn’t selling at all…because no banks are offering financing on commercial real estate. That’s right…banks are worrying about falling prices…then cause falling prices by not offering loans to pay higher prices…shooting themselves in the foot yet again.
- Posted: 12 October 2009
- Comments: 2
- Category: Business success
Comments
A lot of the young guns in (internet-based) marketing are promoting ‘free’ but I believe you explained it just as well in one short blog post. Thanks!
Written by Collier on 4 February 2010
Good advice, but the problem is that it costs money to give goods or services away for free. So, we’re getting pounded twice.
Written by BillOGoods on 24 October 2009