Recently, I read a blog by Michael Fleischner entitled “Marketing is All About Benefits… And Experience.”
In his comments, Flesichner highlights four points crucial to conducting effective marketing:
1. Marketing needs to speak to your audience in an effective communication tools or media, and understand the needs of the customers.
2. We need to consider whether our marketing strategy is effective or not.
3. We need to consider a good timing to conduct an efficient marketing strategy.
4. The feedback from the customers is very important to maintain our marketing positions.
To illustrate his second point, Fleischner uses the example of buying a movie ticket. If he goes alone to buy a movie ticket, even if the theatre is offering a buy-1-get-the-2nd-ticket-half-off deal, he won’t consider the sale because he is alone and won’t be able to enjoy the benefits of the deal. But, if the theatre offers a coupon that he can redeem late, he will change his mind. I totally agree with his example because I have had similar experiences in the past.
I shopped at Metrotown once when a shoe store offered a buy-1-get-the-2nd-pair-half-off deal. I thought it was a great deal but I noticed that a lot of people did not take advantage of the sale because it wasn’t practical. Most people I watched wanted only one pair of nice shoes and weren’t interested in getting a second pair. Also, I doubt that many were willing to spend extra money on a second pair if they didn’t have to.
At Guess, however, I saw a markedly more efficient marketing strategy that used effective timing, a practical marketing strategy, and effective communication tools to deliver its products to its customers. Guess marketers understand that if it can attract more customers to buy its products, then the sales volume will increase. Guess times deals to put sales on during weekends when most young people, who have the greatest amount of purchasing power and expendable cash, go shopping. Guess salespeople also do a wonderful job advertising upcoming sales. They also provide free membership that offers in-store credits to reward loyal customers. Guess’s loyalty reward program was, in my opinion, its most effective strategy over the shoe store’s sales campaign because the option to accumulate points means that customers do not have to purchase multiple things at one time and feel like they have spent a lot of money. The feeling of getting a deal and needing to buy more to get a discount are also powerful incentives to inspire people to shop. Guess’s communication tools are also fairly effective. I shop at Guess frequently and I always receive their emails, mail catalogues, and text messages to inform me of upcoming sales. I completely agree with Fleischner’s argument that successful marketing needs to play tricks on customers to derive the most benefit and gain from them in the shortest time possible.
That is the email that I received from Guess.ca recently
