Strategy 3: Tout Exclusive Items
Do you carry any items that no one else has? Many smaller retail shops do. Maybe you have items that you have exclusive rights in a given territory, that’s good enough? Let people know that you are the source for these items. Tell them why you carry such items. What are the advantages of buying these “Great” items from you? Talk to your customers. What features does your product have that others don’t?
If you don’t have exclusive items tout your exclusive internal benefits… It may be your warranty or your return policy. Tell your customers how they will benefit from these exclusive benefits &/or products? Show your customers how you have helped them make an educated decision. If you can, seek out exclusive products from your manufacturers so you can set yourself apart from your competition.
If you are a manufacture investigate this matrix. If you sell products into a number of stores in an area, what would the effect be if you gave each store one exclusive item to sell? What an advantage it would be to each shop to have exclusive items. They can tout that they are the only shop in town with the model.
If you provided an exclusive item from each class or category you offer each business could add that to their benefits list? There is no greater selling point when a shop can say, “No one else in town has this great product!”
Examples of Touting Exclusive Items
The cataloger Filson thinks this is so important that they dedicate an entire spread, two pages of their catalog, valuable selling space, on their exclusive fabrics.
The spread features four fabrics: Filson’s 100% Virgin Mackinaw Wool, Filson’s Tin Cloth, Filson’s Shelter Cloth, and Filson’s Cover Cloth covering 2/3 of the page.
The remaining 1/3 highlights 6 additional exclusive products: Filson’s Feather Cloth, Filson’s Sarari Cloth, Filson’s Brushed Twill, Folson’s Moleskin, Filson’s Rugged Twill, and Filson’s Bridle Leather. No selling only touting their exclusive products.
This strategy can be used to give more meaning to your advertising and give another reason for customers to come in and visit. Tell them what they are missing by not stopping by!
This strategy was taken from my forthcoming book called "Benchmarked: What The Best Of The Best Do To Keep Customers Coming."
Monday, April 16, 2007
Tout Exclusive Items
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
I suppose that this is a good strategy, however I think that maybe often times it is hard to find that something special to sell that noone else has. I you can find a product that fits into your niche then by all means do it.
Eric Facer
Heather Allen
I think have exclusive items is a huge adventage and you should definately advertise that.
I think I will say that I will agree and in will disagree. This is because some time it is good to carry a cool new stuff and some time it is just usless because it is too new or you have no use of it at all.
I believe that companies do not take enough advantage of this when marketing a product. You have to let the customer know why you are different from the 5 other similar items that they could buy. If you don't make that impact, it can cost you sales. A lot of the products I buy that are middle to higher priced, I'm looking for the difference maker. The thing that will help me have the most bennificial outcome.
danny s
Exclusive items can be a draw to people often times leading to impulse buys, I think that the people in logan Utah that have the most interesting items are the asian shops and hispanic markets, they often times have things that other people might have never seen before. Good idea tout exclusive items, could lead to increased sales.
Eric Facer
Sheryl Morland
Book stores both brick and motar as well as online make it easy to tout their products at a price they only can give you. I made such a purpose last month and saved over $20 using a touted exclusive book online shopping network. It was quick and easy and I would buy from them again.
We often see this used in advertising. Because of the reputation of the company, we credit their products with more uniqueness. An example you brought out in class was Ralph Lauren, how they have created this reputation of very high-end product, then a lot of their sales come from discount sales. Or Apple, their major product, IPod, is an incredibly exclusive item in that market. Everyone has tried, but no one else has been able to have as much success with their music player, because it's just not an IPod. -Tessa M.
Post a Comment