A-M-A-N-D-A

Marketing is all about creating, capturing, delivering and communicating value to customers. Sellrs are constantly trying to build products that are distinct from their competitors. Products that will capture the consumer’s attention. Their goal is to build customer loyalty, and retain those customers who do become loyal to their product(s).

I have lived in Vietnam for over 8 years. Being an avid shopper, i have noticed a lot of marketing strategies through experience, communication with salespersons, family, friends and searching the web. Some techniques are sneaky; and i have learnt to become aware of it over time. Not everyone plays fair. After all, the bottom line is for the seller to make a sale, gain profit and growth.

Here are a couple of Marketing strategies that you may not have noticed when you go shopping in a mall, a small convenience store, or a marketplace.

1) ESCALATORS

Ever wondered why the two escalators beside each other both either go UP or DOWN? and that you have to walk one whole round to use the escalator on the other side? This is a Marketing Strategy to force us customers to walk around the mall, so that they will look at the products they walk past more. Customer are more likely to consider and buy a product that they are forced to see more and more.

2) PRICE DISCOUNTS

Stores are constantly having discounts. There’s summer sales, winter sales, end of season sales, promotions, anniversary sales. The list goes on. What you may not know is that SOMETIMES, not always; stores would BUMP UP their prices before they give discounts.  For example, a shirt that originally cost $50, is given a 50% discount, technically lowering the price fo $25. In some department stores, they would first scale up the original price of $50 to say, $60. Only then will they give the 50%, lowering the price to $30 instead of the $25 it was supposed to be in the first place.

3) DISPLAY OF PRODUCTS

This is very common in the marketplace, where stores are privately owned and bargaining is allowed. In order to draw customers in, sellers would display only a few of the same items outside. This makes some customers think that the products are in scarce supply, implying that the products are very popular. Crowding of the same products is not a good marketing strategy. People are more likely to pass by a store with a large abundance of products than they would a store with limited and selected products.

There are a lot of other strategies that marketers use to draw customers, in these three i found were the most intriguing, and unexpected.

So next time to you are near an escalator, remember; they aren’t just functional; they also have a marketing purpose!!!

Thanks for reading A-M-A-N-D-A

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