Don’t Buy from Apple’s Fine Jewelry Store
I was listening to the radio the other day and heard this:
(In a man’s voice) “Don’t buy from Apple’s Fine Jewelry (hope no one out there has a store name Apple’s). We won’t let you buy now. We won’t even try and sell you now.”
The commercial goes on about a man gripping about how he wanted to buy his wife a gift but the store wouldn’t sell him anything and how he had to wait until next Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
This commercial was totally opposite from what I tell my employees. We hold two sales a year and I tell my employees to start pre-selling the Friday before the three day event to their best customer’s only. I tell my staff members not to mention the sale (beforehand) or while customers are in store. We have set dates we start making the calls and emails; usually a week before (when some of the advertising has just begun and continues throughout the week of the event).
Instead of taking this approach (which I learned from previous generation jewelers as well as many jewelers today) Apple’s took the approach of we want you to save money and encourage you to wait (Apple’s sells name brand designers and is a high-end jewelry store). I never in my wildest dreams would have taken this type of approach—but now that I’ve heard it—hell why not? Why not build the excitement? On the other hand; Do you want people to be in the habit of waiting till the next sale? It could generate high volume during the events? Could it hurt business?
What do you think of the Don’t Buy Campaign? Have any of you taken this type of approach? Did it work?
David Geller commented:
Although backwards, I saw a store as in a city "I hate Steven
Singer Jewelers". Its a great marketing ploy how steven Singer
jewelers made him buy a diamond ring for his fiancee. Billboards,
radio, TV. Go to their website and click on ANY button and see what
happens. www. ihatestevensinger. com David Geller
Kathryn Swanton commented:
As stated before, this is a great arena for Market Research. The
best way to find out what works is to ask the customers! They know
what they want.
Ritesh Jain commented:
Hi Shanu, I guess the best way to go about reserching this asking
the actual customers who turned up in your Last years sale ...
would they be intrested in waiting for the 3 day event or they can
walk in anytime and buy. That is what i think ... Ritesh
d.weintraub commented:
I would NOT use reverse psychology on my jewelry. I think that
people might take you seriously in today's soft market. I think
that bringing negativity in the picture is really risky. I'd rather
be known as the person everyone wanted to buy from, not the person
that got bad press regardless of the source.
JACK800 commented:
I believe your current method is the best course of action. If you
generalize the actions of a composite customer, you will probably
find that a visit to your store or any jewelry store is event
driven. They didn’t make a conscious decision to drive to
your store for the purpose of mindlessly wandering the aisles with
no other intent than filling a hole in their schedule. They drove
to your store for to shop for jewelry because some event in their
life called for a jewelry purchase. This event is predictable in
nature but entirely out of your control or influence; i. e.,
wedding, anniversary, graduation, birthday, etc. Changing the way
you currently handle your pre-event sales is only going to reduce
your profits and reduce your sales volume leading up to the
“sales event”. You may be able to infer some
competitive advantage by cannibalizing your profits with a
“pre-sale purchase delay”, but that advantage is easily
lost when your competition copies the tactic.
JACK800 commented:
I believe your current method is the best course of action. If you
generalize the actions of a composite customer, you will probably
find that a visit to your store or any jewelry store is event
driven. They didn’t make a conscious decision to drive to
your store for the purpose of mindlessly wandering the aisles with
no other intent than filling a hole in their schedule. They drove
to your store for to shop for jewelry because some event in their
life called for a jewelry purchase. This event is predictable in
nature but entirely out of your control or influence; i. e.,
wedding, anniversary, graduation, birthday, etc. Changing the way
you currently handle your pre-event sales is only going to reduce
your profits and reduce your sales volume leading up to the
“sales event”. You may be able to infer some
competitive advantage by cannibalizing your profits with a
“pre-sale purchase delay”, but that advantage is easily
lost when your competition copies the tactic.
anon commented:
It's a marketing campaign from the 70's. If you generate enough
traffic, would people be willing to wait to look, wait to buy, what
if someone bought the piece they wanted, before they were able to
get to the counter? It would be Filene's basement with people
fighting. or like Hit or Miss, a clothing store from the 70's where
women lined up around the block to get in, then ended up fighting
on the floor for a pair of designer pants. Salespeople were
frazzled, overworked, abused, and angry. the store was hot,
crowded, tempers flared. I doubt it would happen in the same
manner, or that crowds would jam into stores for the 'big deal'
like they did in the 70's, but it could get busy. My concern would
be for the better customers who shopped with me all the time. I
wouldn't want them to wait or be uncomfortable in a crowd of
bargain hunters. I would probably hold a private sale in advance
for them, like Nordstroms. Nordi's has a preview for it's members.
It's all very glamorous, depending on your level. Then a week later
the regular shoppers can invade the premises.
anon commented:
It's a marketing campaign from the 70's. If you generate enough
traffic, would people be willing to wait to look, wait to buy, what
if someone bought the piece they wanted, before they were able to
get to the counter? It would be Filene's basement with people
fighting. or like Hit or Miss, a clothing store from the 70's where
women lined up around the block to get in, then ended up fighting
on the floor for a pair of designer pants. Salespeople were
frazzled, overworked, abused, and angry. the store was hot,
crowded, tempers flared. I doubt it would happen in the same
manner, or that crowds would jam into stores for the 'big deal'
like they did in the 70's, but it could get busy. My concern would
be for the better customers who shopped with me all the time. I
wouldn't want them to wait or be uncomfortable in a crowd of
bargain hunters. I would probably hold a private sale in advance
for them, like Nordstroms. Nordi's has a preview for it's members.
It's all very glamorous, depending on your level. Then a week later
the regular shoppers can invade the premises.
