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www.IndependentRetailer.com MARKETING Retail America On Sale
IN 2010, three billion coupons were redeemed out of the hun- dreds of billions that were printed, but that’s only the tip of the dis- count iceberg. Not only is retail America awash in coupons, it’s also awash in discounts, sales, doorbusters and loyalty pro- grams. Such ideas as strategies and slogans have all but disap- peared in retail marketing, as store after store across the coun- try has focused its media guns on sales and more sales. Many high-end stores are join-
ing the rush to slash prices, with retailer, Lord & Taylor, advertis- ing, “60 to 80 percent off. Save big all over the store,” and Saks Fifth
Avenue touting, “50 percent off already reduced prices, for a total of 65 to 70 percent off.” Even the venerable, Brooks Brothers, trum- pets, “Savings up to 50 percent off regular retail prices.” In fact, 50 percent off seems to be the magic discount. The Atlanta Jour- nal-Constitution runs a weekly column under the heading, “This week’s big deals,” the vast ma- jority of which are 50 percent off or, “buy one, get one free,” in everything from soup to plas- tic surgery. Like most marketing fads, the coupon craze is typical of the follow the leader thinking rampant in the marketing com- munity. That is, ‘If everybody
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is using coupons, then coupons must be an effective marketing tool.’ They are in the short term. It’s easy for a company to check sales and redeemed coupons to decide if its program is fi nancially successful or not. Yet what hap- pens in the long term? How many customers will a company lose tomorrow because they stocked up on sale products today? The end of a bubble is often
marked by a spectacular devel- opment, and the coupon bubble reached a climax last December 3, when news began to circulate that Groupon had rejected a $6 billion buyout bid from Google. A
continued on page 84 Hand-held & Full-size We Have Lambskin and Cowhide FL WALLETS AGS
KEYCHAINS
FIDORAS 82 April 2011
UMBRELLAS
INDEPENDENTRETAILER
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