Buy One Get ... MULTIPLE ... ehhh !!!!

‘Them say that to be a good marketer first be a good customer.’

I heard them.

Last Saturday, I woke up as a customer.
As I was playing a customer, after breakfast I felt like buying something. I put on my walking shoes and reached Tirumalgiri Road (yeah, that’s in Hyderabad).

@ 10 A.M

Walking down the road towards Patny Center, one can find this medium size complex with a good number of small garments shops giving away stuff on humongous discounts. I had visited them once and found out that they had big labels in pretty old stock, so old that some denims even looked like ‘Pre-Owned’. I don’t see myself wearing a pre-owned denim , even if I get it at knock-off prices, so I neglected those shops and continued my journey. I went farther ahead and found ‘Koutons’, selling ‘Buy 1 get 5’ …. “what the hell!” I said to myself and went inside. See, I know something has gone terribly wrong with them. From being a premium brand they could somehow managed to become a street side brand which can only sell by giving big discounts. The image of the brand has got screwed up big time. Now because being a discount store has become their strategy, and because being a good customer I have already figured that out, I would not notice any discount given by them. But this offer was really big. ‘Buy 1 get 5’ … are you crazy?

INSIDE THE STORE

Anyways, I was already inside the store, checking their stock. I wanted to buy some formal shirts. I checked the price tag (a touch point with the brand) and divided it by 5. Why? Because for that one shirt I was getting 4 other shirts for free. And because I was playing a good customer, I decided that I would not get blinded by the offer. I would calculate the value I would actually get. One shirt was for Rs. 2.5K (what the hell!?! 2.5K??? boss they have definitely over priced them—a strong feeling of they-are-robbing-us was created).


THE CALCULATION

Divide 2.5K by 5; per shirt I would be paying 500 Rs. The crappy shirt material along with these-guys-are-thieves perception forced me not to buy anything from the store. Yes, ANYTHING. I did not even think of checking other things like denim or trousers. And I was out of the store with a bad feeling.

THE AFTERGLOW

I like afterglows ( ;) ) , pls read it the way I want you too.. So that u ‘feel’ it… give stress on feel please. Yes, that’s what you have to do … give stress on the words written in single quotes (e.g. ‘feel’) and the ones written in double quotes have to stressed and read “reaalll” slow …. Yes! You got it!! Ok, so let’s get started -

You know what? marketers should know that ‘everytime’ (gv stress here) I walk out of a store like this, I accumulate a ‘bad’ (nd here) experience about a brand in specific and about an offer in general. So next time, If you are thinking about giving me an offer like that, just keep in mind that I would already have some perception (good or bad) about the offer, and you would have to do something which

1. “Neutralizes” (read it sloooww) the effect of my perception (if bad) and
2. “Utilizes” (this one too) its effect (if it is good)

So what could Koutons have done to make me buy stuff?

1. “Reduce” their prices. Take a small hit on their margins and ‘ACTUALLY’ give me a value.
2. If they can’t do 1 then they should make an offer which makes me think that they are giving me some value. For ex-

Pricing a shirt at Rs. 2.5 K and expecting customer to digest it without having a ‘bad’ perception is just plain ‘stupid’.

Price it at 1500 and offer me ‘Buy 1 get 3’ deal. You will still enjoy the same margins and customer will also see a value in it. Why?

Get to know ‘Why?’ and what other things they could have done to get me in my next blog …..

Thanks for visiting.

K.R.O.
(Keep Reading On)