Hmm…. I like this advice very much! I myself as a consumer am a creature of habit and I like what I like. Price is not a factor for the things that I feel necessary to enjoy my day. So I agree with Ken in the fact that if brands will focus on what their customers truly want from them rather than price, they will be able to sustain a better business. I saw this all throughout the last few years….the companies that did not experience as much of a set back as others were all ones that understood the value of quality…in how they made their products, treated their employees and what they delivered to the consumer. One customer who is a true fan will buy ten times as much as the groupon chaser who is just looking for the next deal. There is no foundation for true success in that….and I hate to say it but those generally are the customers who are most likely to complain, return or be a pain in the butt to your employees! Just saying…..I used to wait tables and there was a reason I hated getting a table that had a coupon out when I approached. I instantly knew I wasn’t getting a good tip and that they were going to be high maintenance. Quality over quantity….always wins!!! -Julia

A Race to the Bottom

I grew up in the Northeast and from about the age of 8, I used to ski just about every weekend.   By age 15, I considered myself a darn good skier conquering the black diamond trails without too much difficulty.   I possessed the typical 15 year old bravado, not intimated by any trail or any passing skier.   During a visit to Killington, I came upon a trail that had an exclamation point for a trail marker.   I had never seen this type of marker and approached the edge of the trail with a bit of trepidation.  I looked down and saw a trail that was incredibly steep, narrow and had 5 foot moguls on it.   I asked my buddy if he thought the trail was “doable”?   My friend was also a good skier but not in my category (I said to myself).   He passed but with typical teenage abandonment, I said “see you the bottom” and started down.  

The trail was icy but manageable, for about the first 100 feet.   I got about 15% of the way down the trail and thought to myself “Holy crow!   I am in WAY over my head”!   I stopped on the side of the trail and wondered what to do next.   I looked back up at the trail head and realized it was far too steep to sidestep(on skis) back to the top.    Looking down at what was before me looked down right catastrophic.   I was indecisive.   For a moment I thought that I would take my skis off and carefully walk down.   Again, I opted out of this path as I felt it was too risky to stay upright on my feet.   The only other option was to slide down on my butt.   As their was a lift line overhead, humility precluded me from taking this path.    In the end, I would ski down very, very carefully and stop about every 50 feet to plot my next 50 feet.   I made it, but not without two spills and one major wipe out.

I use this story as an anecdote to what many small business’s are doing to get more customers in their stores.   Groupon, Dailydeal.com, Dailysteals.com, Slickdeals.net are all sites dedicated to offering a discount in exchange for generating traffic to your store.   I have spoken to enough retailers to know that once you start focussing on price or deals, it is extraordinarily difficult to get your customers off of this tact and you must keep promoting price to get people in your door.   I drink a lot of diet coke.   I only buy it on sale(which is every other week) because I know it will be on sale.   I also drink a lot of Propel which is never on sale.   However, I love Propel and if I am need of a soda fix and my DC is not on sale – I will drink Diet Pepsi.   One or the other is always on promotion.

Dominoes for years, made up for lackluster pizza by price promotions(Two large two topping pizzas for $11.99).   Last year, Dominos changed the recipe and made pizza that people actually wanted without thinking of price first.  They also vastly improved their site to make it easy to order.   Look at their stock price as of late.

Chasing price is a race to the bottom!  

Ken Proctor
Front Man
Twig Footwear, LLC
Ken@twigfootwear.com
www.twigfootwear.com
832-748-1865