Las Vegas and Improving Your Odds of Success

Before speaking at the JCK show in Las Vegas I visited a casino or two. I picked up a booklet that provided information about the advantage the casino has in various games- called the house advantage. Mathematically, the house advantage is a measure of how much the house expects to win and it varies by region, casino and game. The chances of winning are maximized when playing games like Blackjack and Video Poker because they both involve an element of skill. All other games are purely independent events meaning that the chances of a specific outcome remain the same and are not influenced by previous events.

Let’s improve your odds of winning by influencing events. This can be done by making events dependent on marketing and sales and merchandising management skills, techniques and talent. It’s time to trade in abundance of intuition and a rabbit’s foot for skillfully planned product offerings and promotions. The way to improve your odds of being successful, especially during these unprecedented economic times is to develop a clear understanding of your customer’s approach to fashion, accessories and jewelry. It’s not enough to know gemological side of jewelry . . . the 4C’s is not a full house when it comes to playing the odds. Know what brands of clothing your current customers prefer and what sort of jewelry they prefer to wear to complement their fashion statements.

When jewelers can correctly project the type of jewelry that customers attracted to their store are most likely willing to purchase; they greatly improve their odds of success. Creating more product turns/transactions is so important for all jewelry companies. More sales improve the odds of success. Having the right products at the right price greatly improve the odds of success. Retailers need to develop a new level of in-depth knowledge of their targeted customers and what sort of stimuli will be required to motivate them to buy . . . now.

Relying on intuition when selecting products and purchasing products based on personal preference reduce your odds of success. Don’t roll the dice on your future by buying what you like. Improve your odds of success by learning how to target market and develop merchandise buying plans based on the fashion/accessory/jewelry preferences of your targeted customers. Create your own house advantage through more targeted purchasing and selling.