I was at an upmarket supermarket yesterday. While shopping around, I saw a bottle of maple syrup that my cousin gave me. He has gotten it free and probably didn't know how much it costs. I flipped out my mobile phone to take a picture of the price to show him how expensive it is. "What are you doing? What are you doing" a staff asked in a slightly raised voice as he moved a step towards me. He was stocking up the shelf two steps away from me when he saw what I did. Oh oh... did I just did something that is not permitted? I don't remember seeing any sign that taking photos are not allowed. I quickly explained that I'm just taking a picture of a product to show my cousin without elaborating further. The staff probably realized that he was quite rude in his tone and tried to explain his reaction. "I saw you carrying this recycle bag and I thought you are from there," he said while pointing to the bag with the competitor's logo on it. "Don't worry, I'm not a spy from any competitor," I replied. No one likes to be suspected. I was taken aback why this guy even entertain the idea that I am sent by a competitor to check out on their prices. If I were sent by a competitor, why would I take the photo right in front of him carrying a recycle bag with the competitor's logo? And is there a need for me to check out their pricing this way? In fact, this supermarket target the more well-to-do customers. They are found mostly in shopping centers and city area and often stock fresh produces and many imported products. Thus their prices are also more expensive. Their customers are probably less price sensitive. With the prevalent use of camera phone nowadays, can businesses still prevent people from snapping photos anywhere anytime? They can put up signs and stop people from doing so when they see it happening. They may want to prosecute the case and make police report. But the fact remains it's remotely possible to do so. More importantly, if a competitor is out to steal your idea (not just pricing), there are thousands and one ways to do so. But this does not mean you welcome your competitors with open arms. Could the way to prevent it from being stolen by your competitors is to share it? By the way, would you react the same way the staff did? Will you get paranoid if you see a customer snapping away in your shop? What will you be thinking? Is this person checking out my pricing? Despite being positioned as a higher-class supermarket, why did the staff still think that its customers are still shopping based on price? Don't do what they do.
Do what they don't do. Once again, Scoot advertised its promotional airfares on the papers.
It's easily recognizable for its bright yellow color (corporate color of Scoot) and witty headline. I decided to check out if the deal is good and head over to their website. On it's main page, there are three columns listing deals from Singapore, Australia and Taipei, which are not what this promotion is referring to. I clicked on the "Promos" link and it displayed a list of promotion prices which are also different from the ones advertised. I checked all possible links on their website without success. Perhaps the sale has not started, I murmured to myself. So I looked at the advertisement again to see if there is any information on the sale date and the travel period. I found none. In the end, I left a message on their Facebook Page to find out. If I remember correctly, Scoot usually indicates the sale date and time duration as well as the travel period on their advertisement. Could it be an oversight? But this is enough to frustrate their customers and create more work for themselves. Imagine customers who see this ad but are unable to make any booking. People will start flooding their Facebook Page with messages for more information. If queries are not answered promptly, customers are going to get angry. You can't expect customers to stay at your website waiting for the promotion to appears. What could be a potentially successful campaign can end up frustrating customers. Customer service will suffer if customers queries are not handled promptly. When you run a promotion/advertisement, make sure you check that all the relevant and necessary information are included. Use a checklist so that you do not miss out any important information you need to include in the ad. No matter how often and frequent you've been doing this, you will bound to miss out something at least once. If your advertisement is time sensitive, missing out on important piece of information can make your investment worthless. Especially for print advertisement where you cannot rectify the mistake. Even if you can rectify it, it will be costly and may not be worth the additional money spent. Check, check, check and double check. Do not assume. Check the ad yourself. Check it against your checklist. Get others to check your ad and against your checklist. Have a contingency plan. What if you miss out on some important information that is crucial for the success of your promotion/advertisement? Do you have a Plan B? Lastly, make sure everyone in your company knows about the advertisement that you will be running, especially those in the front line. Don't make a customer feed you information that you are supposed to know. Well, Scoot has all the resources and can afford such mistakes. But can you? This is one advertisement but broken into three parts. The second and last portions are enlarged so that you can read the content.
As usual, the advertiser has chosen a background color (dark green) with cream color wordings, which makes it difficult to read. Study the way they sell their course. Look at their headline and tie it to their content. What do you think of it? |
AuthorOutrageous Marketing Archives
May 2020
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