Dodo Loves Marketing

Package Deals

Stores often package more than one item together, then tell you that you’re getting a lower price than if you bought each item separately. But if you don’t want everything in the package, why spend more money for it? If they’re offering a great deal on something if you buy a case of them, do you really need that many? It doesn’t matter if they’re cheaper by the dozen if you only need one or two. Know what you came for, and leave with it.

Impluse Buys

Stand at just about any checkout counter and you’ll be surrounded by this trick: candy, key chains, toys, magazines, doodads—racks and stacks of cheap stuff just waiting to jump into your shopping bag. Stores put this junk at the sales counter because that’s where you’re most likely to make impulse buying decisions—choices without a lot of thought to them. ..more

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Try to visualize your customer.

He’s standing before you.

He’s not frowning_; nor is he smiling. He is perfectly neutral. Yet, there’s something strange about him.

Coming out of his forehead, reaching up toward the ceiling, is an antenna! And at the end of the antenna is a sensor, beeping away like crazy.

And the sensor is taking in all of the sensory data around it—the colors, shapes, sounds, and smells of your store, or your office, or the restaurant where you’re meeting for lunch.

The sensor is also taking in sensory data from you: how you are standing or sitting, the color of your hair, how your hair is combed, the expression on your face— Is it tense? Are you looking directly at him or off to the side?—the crease in your slacks, the color of your shoes—Are they shined? Are they worn? Are the laces tied? ..more

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‘Every time a friend succeeds, I die a little.’

Promoting the sale

You have provided dynamic, written material, you have had a successful appointment and the potential client seems pleased by what you have to offer. However, he or she is wavering about giving you the business project and, as always, you realise that you have hungry competitors wanting the business, too. In this case, a special offer on your part can make the difference. It says, ‘I really want your business.’

The essence of sales promotion is that it must be easily understood and relevant to your product. It will seem ludicrous to consumers to receive a free embroidery kit if they are buying a puppy! With this principle in mind, let’s look at some examples.

Promotional techniques

In hairdressing you can promote your business using hairdressing products. In fashion, you can use accessories or perfumes. With books you can offer membership to a book club. Your offer must always sound right and be related in some way to your product or service. Here are a few types of special offers you can consider; they represent some of the best promotional vehicles I’ve seen in the past few years, with the exception of competitions, which I have included for discussion only. ..more

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The new market leaders know that the greatest constraint on today’s customers is time—more critical even than money. The broader choices, the constant stream of innovations, and the pace of contemporary life conspire to crowd people’s schedules. Whether you’re in the market for a CD player for home or a new supplier of components for your company, you don’t have time to evaluate every option, consider every shred of information, and explore every contingency—even though it would probably be useful to do so.

Time is a flexible commodity: We willingly spend more of it on some activities than on others. A busy manager for whom every minute counts will happily spend hours on thegolf course, but an easygoing person with time to chat will hang up angrily on a telemarketer who calls at dinnertime. ..more

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