Most people accept these ads as a little far fetched, and most likely far from being real. As such customers either buy or not buy based on that skepticism.
What makes me mad is when a local business, whether small or large chain store, misleads, or uses tricks in their advertising to get customers to visit their store. Using such terms as 2 for 1, or limited time offer doesn't bother me. What does is when companies artificially inflate their prices, just to get you in the door.
Several weeks ago I needed to have a poster framed for my garage. I have a bunch of posters in my garage already framed so I knew approximately what the cost would be. As I was discussing this with my wife she mentioned she just got a coupon from an art supply company for 60% off customer framing. This was a chain store business with a local location.
Of course my thought was, wow, perfect timing to get my poster framed so I grabbed my poster and off to this company's local store. That day they were installing a new computer cash register system so were having all kinds of problems getting my order together. The cost of the frame came to $140, and that was with my 60% discount. I questioned the price, but with the cash register disruption and the fact I had been there for about 45 minutes, I decided to go ahead and get the price straighten out when I picked up the order.
The posters I previously had framed at a local custom frame shop was about $145, so naturally I was thinking this price was way off and so I expected a big refund. Before returning, I also checked online to see how much the frame would have cost and it was about $130.
With this information in hand I went in to pick up my order. I first questioned the clerk that the price could not be right. He checked and said yep, this frame is typically $391. I mentioned the frame I had done locally by a custom frame shop was only $145 and found the frame online for less than that. How could the exact (and it was the exact same molding) frame be $391?
The clerk's response was that we are always running big sales so the retail price is inflated so no one ever actually buys anything at retail. I responded "So basically the price you charged me, which was 60% off your retail is really your retail price, not your retail price you have listed and so, I really did not save anything"?
He looked a little confused and then said, well yea.
Needless to say I learned my lesson from this poor marketing trick and will never do business with them again. I normally shop at local small businesses but made the mistake of trying to save a few bucks and ended up not really saving anything.
Tom's #1 rule to marketing: Don't mislead the public by over inflating your prices only to always discount them. It is misleading, and really bad marketing. Customers will catch onto this, and award you by not doing business with you again.
Be truthful with your customers, market to them honestly and in turn they will reward you as devoted customers forever.
If you would like assistance with your small business marketing, please give us a call at the Roanoke Regional Small Business Development Center. www.RoanokeSmallBusiness.org. We are here to help local small businesses with no-cost business counseling services.
