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easy pieces
Free and easy, but not so easy
n an early incarnation, I taught English literature discounts and offers is a far simpler procedure online
I
at a minor US university. My “speciality” was than it could be for a printed catalogue, not only because
the poetry of Robert Browning, so the spillover recordkeeping is basic but also because promotional use
naturally included Elizabeth Barrett Browning. of an individual customer’s record can be immediate.
A deep memory that for some insane reason Number three: The home page is subordinate to the
leaked to the fore as I was planning the diatribe landing page(s). Putting the home page in a secondary
for this issue was a line from one of her lesser poems position may irritate old-line executives with a neatness
whose title you may remember (I don’t, and I’m not complex, but it matches what a prospective customer
bothering to look the title up): “They are weeping in the expects to see. How and why does anyone, whether
playtime of the others / In the country of the free.” business or consumer, get to your website? Those who
What generated that ancient callback was a question land randomly or seek you out because of a prior
from a friend, not a member of our catalogue-marketing relationship aren’t there because of your brilliant selling
tribe, who was browsing through a printed US catalogue: copy and graphics. Those who land there because you’ve
“What’s this all about?” driven them there expect to see what you promised they
“This” was an apparently self-cancelling incentive: “Free would see: a specifi c offer, not the generalised glory of
shipping” with no qualifi er, until the reader hits the order doing business with you. You promised them cake. Let
form, which repeats “Free shipping” and in the space them eat cake.
below, prior to “Total”, “Add $2.00 Handling (No matter Number four: Lend emphasis to your uniqueness. What
how much or how many you order)”. do you have, what do you offer, that supports a claim of
My friend was balancing “Free shipping” against the exclusivity? Think and apply. Whoever you are, online
$2.00 handling charge. (Yes, yes, I know, “handling” marketing is the Great Equaliser, the medium itself
suggests a nose picker wearing fi lthy work gloves.) battling your distinctive positioning. Fight like a tiger to
transmit dynamically the benefi t you, and only you, offer
The new era: 2009 is ancient history the lucky customer.
Of whatever number of evolutionary (or Number fi ve: Specify an expiration date. An expiration
devolutionary) trends that have surfaced, date adds two dabs of verisimilitude to the mix: It validates
let’s look at a sampling of fi ve. the “special deal” and stimulates quick action.
Number one: Free shipping is generic Should an expiration date be actual or simply a
to online catalogues. Printed catalogues marketing ploy? That is up to the individual cataloguer.
haven’t recognised free shipping as a Typically when an order comes in after the announced
factor that contributed anything other expiration date, one of two reactions is forthcoming from
than negative numbers to the bottom the vendor: “I am pleased to tell you that although your
line. But the battle has been joined, and order arrived after the expiration date, we are able—and
catalogues whose alert management delighted—to extend the special terms to you” or
decides to compete in a new arena rather “Although your order arrived too late to take advantage
than discarding print media altogether or of the special offer, attached is a private discount for your
using them as a basic feeder mechanism next order.” (The discount attachment has a prominent
to the web now scout around for ways to expiration date.)
participate on the new battlefi eld. Are these suggestions just piddling items of little
So making much of “free shipping” consequence in the cosmic scheme of catalogue
and hoping a shipping charge passes marketing? If that is a serious question, please be
unnoticed is a competitive move. my competitor.
As experimentation continues
in the search for profi t
Herschell Gordon Lewis is president of
centres, it’s a move not
necessarily limited to
Lewis Enterprises. He writes copy for
print. and consults with direct response and
Number two: Add
catalogue companies worldwide. He is
to that development
the author of 31 books including Catalog
another—“deals”
for the multibuyer.
Copy That Sizzles, Open Me Now, and
By Herschell Gordon Lewis
Implementing special Marketing Mayhem.
ceb175.indd 35 7/11/09 13:10:37
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