Today Only! 40% Off!

Wednesday, January 21

Today Only!  40% Off!

Everyone loves a bargain, right?  How disappointed are you going to be when you find out that today’s special means that today’s post is just going to be 40% shorter?

We had a limited shopping day.  First stop – The supermarket.  Giant in Hatfield.  We drive right by two supermarkets chock full of food.  Why?

Well, Giant is a nice, clean supermarket with great selection.  And it offers gas discounts.  The more you shop, the bigger the discount.

Lansdale Shopping Score:  Zero (I would have if I could have, but it’s something not available in the borough)

And next – the Giant gas station to use our 60 cent per gallon discount.  60 cents per gallon!

So – regular gas is at an astonishingly low $1.97 per gallon.  Which means we get it for $1.37 per gallon.  Which means we just saved $12.92.

TWELVE DOLLARS AND NINETY-TWO CENTS!

Which is why this one is:

Lansdale Shopping Score:  Zero (But I could have)

Now I’m not naïve.  I realize that I probably spent that $12.92 in the Giant supermarket via inflated prices.  No one gives away free gas.

And, bigger picture, I do understand that gas is cheap because of the implosion of the global oil market caused by the downturn in the Chinese economy.  And I understand that I have lost exponentially more in my retirement account because of this than I have saved in Giant gas reward discounts.

But I still like saving money.  Or the feeling of it.  Kind of like buying a lottery ticket.

So what do we learn from this in Lansdale Borough?

Some of our merchants, service providers and restaurateurs could do a better job luring in customers with advertising and promotions.

Now before I get a flurry of hate mail, I am certainly not grouping all Lansdale business people together!  Some so a good job of promoting themselves.  But others could stand to take a few lessons.

How much money do you spend on marketing?  This is from an interesting article on Chron.com:

“The U.S. Small Business Administration recommends spending 7 to 8 percent of your gross revenue for marketing and advertising if you're doing less than $5 million a year in sales and your net profit margin — after all expenses — is in the 10 percent to 12 percent range. Some marketing experts advise that start-up and small businesses usually allocate between 2 and 3 percent of revenue for marketing and advertising, and up to 20 percent if you're in a competitive industry. Still other marketing experts counsel a range between 1 percent and 10 percent, and even more depending on how long you've been in business, competitive activity and what you can afford. It's apparent from these differing opinions that the percentage of gross revenue for marketing and advertising depends mainly on whom you ask. They're probably all correct if you know their assumptions.”

Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door.  Not quite.

Build a better mousetrap and don’t promote the fact, and the world will beat a path to your competitor who has a crappier mousetrap, but spent money on advertising and promotion.

There are lots of great resources on-line to help you better understand how to spend marketing money.

Here’s an interesting blog about customer loyalty programs: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31990/7-Customer-Loyalty-Programs-That-Actually-Add-Value.aspx

Here’s an article on Shopify about 3 Time-Tested Retail Sales Promotions That Drive Foot Traffic and Build Loyalty:  https://www.shopify.com/blog/16124952-3-time-tested-retail-sales-promotions-that-drive-foot-traffic-and-build-loyalty

Perhaps one of the best things we can do, as our citizens start their grassroots effort to revitalize our borough is to bring in some marketing experts to run some seminars.  See if the borough would be willing to match funds raised by business owners to get these experts.  Supply classroom space.

Success will be a public-private cooperative endeavor.  It has to be.

So, today’s score:

ONE need met outside the borough when I could have stayed here

ONE needs not fulfilled by a Lansdale establishment.

Let’s see what today brings!