If my memory serves me correctly, I mentioned a quote that went along the lines of,
“Marketing is a game of perception.”
‘Till this day, I still don’t remember where I found that quote. At this point, I don’t think I’ll ever find out.
But it does remind me of a story in an article I read not too long ago about JCPenney.
I’ve heard complaints from time to time about fake discounts on Black Friday, where retailers would inflate their original prices, then apply a huge discount to make it seem like customers are getting a good deal, when really, they still end up paying around the original price point.
Well in 2012, JCPenney decided they want nothing to do with this tactic anymore. So they priced all their items low and got rid of coupons.
Although it was clear that they had their customers’ best interests at heart, it backfired on them terribly.
It was so bad that their total sales dropped 20.1% and their online sales dropped 27.9%.
At first glance, it may seem like their failure was mainly caused by ditching the fake pricing tactics, which isn’t wrong, in my opinion. The fake pricing tactics do make customers think they’re getting a good deal.
Side comment:
You see phony Internet Business Mentors use fake pricing tactics all the time. When they promote their products at the end of a replay webinar that they claim to be live, they always sell them at a huge discount, which has always been the original price from the start. The crossed out prices are nothing but made up inflated numbers.
Going back to JCPenney, the reason for their failure goes deeper than that.
Because they got rid of coupons, their customers don’t feel the need to visit their stores anymore.
Why?
Two reasons.
Coupons give discounts, which everyone wants to take advantage of. And they have expiration dates, which creates a sense of urgency (Which is equivalent to a phony Internet Business Mentor’s tactic of using countdown timers).
And as sad as it sounds, some people are addicted to shopping for deals, which is known as bargain hunting. But it is what it is.
Hope this info will be helpful in some way, shape, or form.
Otherwise, if you want to brush up on your email copywriting skills, check out my book, How to Become an Email Titan.