Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

I think you are on the right path. Trends change in everything, right now clean design is what draws. You can't market today in the same way you did years ago.

I can't speak on all of your question, but I will tell you this. If you go into a Walmart store today you see a different look. It is stylized, there is wood vinyl plank replacing VCT, more natural light, upgraded fixtures, the graphics are different. The reason-- when they began they wanted to tell the world they were low price leader and wanted their store design to reflect that. They designed their stores to look "cheap"- that was the plan-- today they moved past that. EVeryone knows now they are all about low prices, to grow they need price and also-- style. If you know visual merchandizing, you can't put a style product in a cheap display and expect it to sell. Would a Walmart store today have worked when they were just starting, no, it would turn away their customers. Would a Walmart store design of yesterday work today, no it would turn away their customers.

Target built their brand on price and style -- as Kristie Alley said "you can really live big at Target" Walmart started chasing Target on style.

Or, think coffee-- you can buy a coffee in a gas station -- yet we go to the higher end shops. They may have good coffee, but is the difference worth the price-- or is the entire sensory experience what we buy.

As far as postcards, etc-- you also have to take in consideration your location. In a metro city postcards may not be the preferred method of attracting clients. But here in the south where I am -- newspapers are still very viable. You send them a piece of mail and they open every one. I have no idea why, but when I lived in Denver, I'd stand by the trash can and just flip mail in unopened-- I find myself opening every single one. I must have drank the water...

hope that helps

Usually, products through a WalMart or Kmart would require higher volumes to make up for lower margins per unit, where a product through a boutique would have higher margins per unit and lower volume. So to target an individual with marketing (where that individual is buying a small number - likely 1), you need to be more cost effective at reaching them for those sold through a Kmart or Walmart. So post cards instead of multi-page brochures, and the like. Or more mass media rather than direct mail.

But the content needs are similar - as you said, it would need good design, provocative headline, and a clear call to action. Whether high or lower market doesn't impact the info they want. Just the product need (a high end computer with lots of bells and whistles would need more info to close sale than a simple netbook) and limitations of the media you use (can fit less data on post card versus multi-page brochure).

Unless your business is the size of Kmart and Walmart might you be missing the point that their buying power, sourcing ability, design and production ordering capability, and their inventory turn strategies and abilities (particularly in the case of Walmart) puts them WAY ahead of the pack?

Instead of arguing who's right and who's wrong, run a split test. One piece of each style mailed to similar lists, then measure the actions taken and the conversion rates to sales.

As to your thinking about lower income people having lost their sense of style ... you might want to temper your response there because that kind of broad, sweeping statement from you as a retailer does you few favors.

Why?

Because you see the shorter term "sure thing" of the higher income sale and by doing so you potentially ignore the longer term potential value of that lower income buyer, which is a huge, huge mistake.

At the moment, I'm a low income buyer. But here's the thing. When life improves and when those low income buyers become higher income buyers, their spending habits change. But their memories of how they might have been treated as a lower income buyer? Those things don't change. So treat every buyer as if they're Donald Trump.

A sale is a sale.

On the part of the lower income buyer, the value and pride of ownership as a result of that sale ... it means more to that buyer if it's taken them a while to save the money to buy the item in question.

Regardless of a business owner's presumptions about a buyer, a buyer is one step up from someone who's just looking, and therefore, that much closer to becoming a longer term customer.

To target this customer niche and their buying power—weak though it may appear to you, although in reality, all those little dollar amounts add up—there's nothing to stop you introducing layaway payment options, or interest free purchase options, or rental options.

All worthy, all valuable, and they all work.

Tell these buyers about these purchase options in your marketing and see what works, then refine the process.

The more you make buying from you easy, effortless, and pleasurable—no matter how rich your buyers are, may be, or might appear—the sooner you'll see sales from all buying sectors increase.

The business owner that looks down his or her nose at any buyer—and here I'm not saying that this is what you're doing, but it's how it might sound—the business owner that does this might just be doing themselves harm over the longer term.