While shopping for a new reading chair to place in my office, I had a conversation with the furniture store sales associate. “What’s this ‘Million Dollar Sell-Off’ you have going on right now?” I asked. He answered, “Oh it’s the same sale we always have, just with a different name.”
The salesperson showed me that behind the Million Dollar Sell-Off ticket was the ticket for the Spring Sale coming up next week (with the same price). Then he showed me the manufacturer suggested retail price ticket behind that, which featured the same price as the other two tickets. “The sales are just another way to get people in the store,” he said.
These “sales” are actually promotions. Promotions are a great way to feature products and build excitement, but when they are billed as discount sales, as these promotions were, the company seems disingenuous at best, if not sleazy.
If you are advertising a discount sale, make sure you back it up with an actual discount. “Million Dollar Sell-Off” sounds like you’re making $1 million worth of markdowns, not that you’re trying to make a million bucks off the suckers who buy into the marketing. If you are advertising a promotion with no discount, don’t pretend that you’re offering special pricing. Instead tell people why you’re promoting a particular product and why they should buy it (in other words, sell them on the value, not the price).
Another lesson here is that when marketing is inconsistent with actual offerings, it puts employees in a compromising position. The salesperson probably felt uncomfortable having to explain that the fake sale was just a way to get people through the doors, but he didn’t have much of a choice. Sure, he didn’t have to tell the truth about the fake sale in the first place, but then he would have been acting as sleazy has his company.
In the end, the company lost the sale, the salesperson had to admit that his company lies, and the customer felt lied to. Who wins in that situation?
photo credit: Cosmic Kitty
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Great post and great points. Marketing should never be about tricking someone into buying something. It should be about understanding customers actual needs and helping them understand how your brand can provide a solution. No one wins when the consumer gets tricked into purchasing. Its stuff like this that make people not trust marketers.