5 Small Business Marketing Secrets from Big Box Retailers

Big box retailers like Target and Walmart have marketing down to a science and rarely do they stray from these tried and methods.  It’s worth it to take a look at these successful retailers to see what strategies they use that might work for your business too, advices marketer Wendy Kenney.

1.         The Secret of Reach: Big box retailers understand that the secret of success is in the numbers, large numbers that is.  So they focus on reaching out to the masses through media such as television, radio, newspaper and direct mail with a focus on their target market.  The idea is the more people in your pipeline, the more people you can convert to qualified buyers.    Now if you own a small home-based business, I’m not suggesting you advertise in the Sunday paper to gain more customers.  However, the law of large numbers remains true.  To be more profitable, reach out to a large quantity of targeted prospects.

2.         The Secret of Consistency: Big box retailers also understand the concept of out of sight, out of mind.  That’s why they employ a consistent advertising strategy.  Grocery stores mail out sale ads every Wednesday and put them in the Wednesday newspaper.  Consumer goods stores like Target put out ads in the Sunday paper.   Furthermore, they use strategies like social media, email marketing, and television advertising all in an effort to keep their brand in front of their target customer on a regular basis.

3.         The Secret of the Loss Leader: A loss leader is a marketing strategy in which a business offers a product or service at a price that is not profitable.  Stores like Walmart, Target, and Best Buy understand that in order to entice consumers into your store to buy there’s no better way than to offer a great deal on a product they may want or need to use every day.  The idea is that the customer will buy other, more profitable, products once they get into the store.   Of course, be careful when using this strategy.  Make sure the manufacturer allows you to price your product as a loss leader.  Also make sure that you have enough of the item in store.

4.         The Secret of Psychological Pricing: Studies have shown the consumers have emotional reactions to the way that prices are displayed, and make decisions accordingly.  Because of the way we read numbers, $19.99 appears significantly less than $20, and therefore appears to be a better value.   This could work well for a business that is focusing on being a value leader.  Walmart takes this one step further by using prices ending in numbers like 8, 4, and 3, perhaps as another way to cement their low price image.

Another pricing strategy, when offering a discount or a sale price, always make sure you show the original price as well, this shows context so that the customer can determine if they are indeed getting a great deal  and value.  Perhaps your item is not on sale but the manufacturers recommended price is $49.99 while you’re selling it for $39.99, showing this difference can clearly communicate value to the customer thus encouraging them to buy.

5.         The Secret of New: There is something exciting about discovering new things which is why you see stores like Target rotating inventory, moving things around, and selling Halloween candy in August.  Newness is noticeable, newness is fun and newness sells.  If you want buyers to keep coming back time after time, bring in new stuff on a regular basis and give them another reason to visit.

As a business owner, you can have the best product, best pricing and best service in the world, but unless you market your business (that is tell your potential buyers all about it) you won’t make a lot of money.  By employing the marketing strategies of big box retailers like Target and Walmart you’ll soon be on your way to sales success.

Traffic Jam in Super Bowl

When Americans tune into the Super Bowl on Feb. 6, they should expect to see as much metal as they do pigskin. Car marketers, having woken from their recession-induced ad slumber, are doubling down for Super Bowl XLV in Arlington, Texas and setting the bar sky high for auto companies and their ad agencies to craft commercials unique enough to break through the clutter and capture viewers' attention. At least eight different auto manufacturers have purchased airtime. What's more, many of them are buying more ad time than they have in the past, and raising the ante with two or three commercials sprinkled throughout the broadcast.

Ad Age reports that BMW North America will return to the game after a decade, seeking to use the Super Bowl as a stage to launch a new slate of cars. General Motors, which had sat the past two games out, is back in with a focus on Chevrolet. Chrysler, the only U.S. automaker to show up in the last Super Bowl broadcast with a single ad for Dodge, is back in and this time wants at least two brands in the game. Audi of America is making its fourth consecutive Super Bowl appearance and will be in the game's first commercial break.

Indeed, many automakers are bouncing back, posting healthy sales results after bankruptcy filings, government bailouts and recalls, and like Mercedes, they have news to share about new models -- in BMW and GM's case, electric car models. It all adds up to car makers heftily contributing to the record sellout of the game. News Corp.'s Fox, which is broadcasting the game, booked 80% of its ad inventory by June, and by October the network announced the Super Bowl was sold out.

Now comes the real challenge: After spending all that money, how do you get your messages to cut through? Since so many car ads look the same, the chance of their being recalled by consumers is low. Most top broadcast-network shows have a car ad in nearly every commercial break, often showing an automobile or truck traveling on an open road or city street while pop music plays in the background.

Making things worse, car makers over the past two years have grown more conservative, trading humor and emotion for retail-oriented messages. Steve Wilhite, who spent 20 years at VW of America and was the client behind Arnold's famous "Drivers Wanted" campaign, describes car advertising these days as "absolute dreck," "mind-numbing" and "uninspiring." Experts say carmakers will now have to work doubly hard to avoid familiar tropes or themes.

To combat the problem, ad-buying agencies representing many top automakers usually ask TV networks not to run ads from competitors during the same commercial break. Even so, these rules only apply to national commercials, and ads from local stations can sometimes run in the same ad pod. Ad buyers with knowledge of automobile marketing have often said that consumers' ability to recall individual car ads gets weakened as more of them air.

One big car advertiser hopes to stand apart from the pack by not joining it. Ford Motor Co. will advertise only during Fox's pre-game coverage, said Matthew VanDyke, director of U.S. marketing communications at Ford.

Hey, Taco Bell, Where’s the Beef?

Last week a law firm claimed that Taco Bell is using false advertising when it refers to using “seasoned ground beef” or “seasoned beef” in its products. According to the law suit, the meat mixture sold by Taco Bell restaurants contains binders and extenders and allegedly does not meet the minimum requirements set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to be labeled as “beef.”
Attorney Dee Miles said they had Taco Bell’s “meat mixture” tested and found it contained less that 35 percent beef. The lawsuit does not seek monetary damages, but asks the court to order Taco Bell to be honest in its advertising. Irvine, Calif.-based Taco Bell spokesman Rob Poetsch said the company denies that its advertising is misleading. “Taco Bell prides itself on serving high quality Mexican inspired food with great value. We’re happy that the millions of customers we serve every week agree,” Poetsch said. He said the company would “vigorously defend the suit.”
Jon Andersen with the Andersen Law Firm wrote an article about advertising law. Here’s what Jon wrote:
In a recent reported matter before the Nation Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus was an objection to some press releases released by the company, PrintsMadeEasy, Inc. Among other things, the press releases announced that the Business Cards Association of America had given its “annual” award for “Top Business Card Provider” to PrintsMadeEasy.com.
The award was issued by a “blue ribbon panel” that ranks business card providers on their service. The release then went on in some detail about the reasons PrintsMadeEasy.com was selected for the award (as well as a few disparaging remarks about competitor VistaPrint).
As you have probably already guessed, there is no “Business Cards Association of America”! There was absolutely no truth to the claim that any award was issued by such an association, let alone an “annual” award, nor was there a “blue ribbon panel” which ranked business card providers on their service.
Squirming in the face of the enormous falsehoods, PrintsMadeEasy tried to duck by saying that the press releases were really not advertising and furthermore, they (PrintsMadeEasy) did not control the content of the press releases which were prepared and distributed by an outside public relations firm.
Needless to say, NAD wasn’t buying any of that bit of guff and determined that the press release was nothing short of a paid commercial message by the advertiser. No joke! Advertising practices such as this should be hammered, and hammered hard. Here both the company and the PR firm were completely dishonest and deserve any suffering that may have resulted from this activity.
Probably no business is more competitive than food. From white tablecloth restaurants to supermarkets to farmer’s markets, the variety of offerings is mind boggling. So, making a product stand out is no easy task. In the recent past, the move on the part of the large consumer packaged food marketers, the thrust of the pitch seems to have been to involve health benefits.
For a while, the products seemed to focus on their “lack” of bad ingredients, i.e. no fat, low sodium, reduced sugar, etc. If we eat the advertised product, we will reduce our risk of the adverse health effect associated with the product in an unaltered state. And the advertising followed suit, with headline claims on how to lower your cholesterol by simply using the advertised product and, oh by the way, also following a low fat diet. And so it went.
Now, the trend has shifted from what is removed from the product to what has been added for our benefit. It is a world of additives, the “vitamin enriched” products, such as orange juice and even water. And vitamins everyone thought they understood. There is even a chart on most products detailing your daily recommended vitamin level, and the percent of that level a serving of the product delivers.
Then Dannon struck gold with its Activia yogurt. And a new advertising theme was created, “biotics.” Probiotics! Prebiotics! And the theme now is how these ingredients, work with your body’s natural systems (digestive, immune, etc.) to provide health benefits greater than ever.
Of course, advertising, spreading the word on these new ingredients and the health benefits jumps in with both feet, citing clinical studies, test results, statistics and other supportive “scientific” evidence. Many of the claims border on the claims made for products that most reasonable consumers know are not true, the “lose 30 pounds in two weeks with X-Loss” sort of thing. But these are “big-league” companies. So the question is real benefits or just marketing hype? How do we tell?
Ah, a California (where else) law firm is seeking to have a jury tell us. Representing a female named Patricia Wiener (and seeking to have the case expanded to a class action, mostly because there is not much money to be made in one plaintiff), a lawsuit has been filed against Dannon alleging that Ms. Weiner has been damaged because of the deceptive advertising for its DanActive, which duped her into buying the product. The law firm takes great issue with Dannon’s claims of “clinically proven” results. Lesson: Is your claims substantiation evidence court-worthy?