You Get What You Pay For
I reached for one tissue and got 6!
There’s a wise old saying: “There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man’s lawful prey.”
This came to mind after buying Winco’s house brand of tissues. I consider tissues to be generic merchandise, so why pay $1.89 at Target when I can pay $1.38 at Winco?
Besides, I was already there buying other stuff, and needed a box of tissues for my car.
Today’s technology allows you to pull out individual tissues from a box. It’s a minimum expectation for every brand, and prevents embarrassment from sudden sneezes or allows gentle guidance out the door for that spider.
Surprisingly, this technological advancement wasn’t the case with my new acquisition. Here, I grabbed one tissue, only to discover 12 more immediately following in an unbroken chain.
It seems the manufacturer didn’t adequately cut the paper. This led to the hygienic version of a magician pulling 20 handkerchiefs out of his sleeve.
Regular readers will have already figured out that I thrive on the idea of being different from everyone else in the crowd. But that difference should be in addition to offering whatever your competition provides.
Because, as I learned while driving at 70 and a sneeze came upon me, it’s hardly cost-effective to force me to take a dozen tissues when I only need one.
Realistically, even as I do my regular shopping at Winco, I’m now going to think twice before buying their tissues ever again. Their inferior product quality doesn’t reach the minimum bar of deliverable that I’ve set.
So even if I must pay more at Target, Costco, or elsewhere, at least I’ll get what I want.
Regardless of your industry, this offers several useful lessons:
Customers do pay attention to whether you’re delivering what they think they’re buying.
Deliver what the competition offers, THEN find ways to be different.
Short-term, price attracts customers. Long term, they’ll look for quality.
Here’s the bottom line: tomorrow’s success depends on investments you make today, whether it’s in people, technology, or vendor relations. And as my friends at Winco reminded me, cutting corners can easily drive away the very sales you’re looking to make.
And that’s nothing to sneeze at.
With that said, I wish you a week of profitable marketing.
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