Tricky sales tactics

I have worked in electronics retail in the past. It is an interesting endeavor, especially when there are no sales incentives. The whole approach is very interesting, and I feel in many ways gives marketing a bad name, even if the sales tactics used by floor staff aren't tactics endorsed by the company's marketing department.

After my six hour drive from Scranton PA, (break was awesome by the way) I sat down to peruse reddit.com before working on an essay due later this week and saw an interesting thread discussing slanted sales tactics. The original poster spoke about how Best Buy was tuning lower priced televisions to standard digital channels, and the higher priced ones to High-Definition to help convince customers to spend the extra cash.

This doesn't surprise me, though I am not aware of them using that tactic at Best Buy 341 in Dickson City, PA. From my experience, this was probably the most likable Best Buy you could venture into. Most employees were really helpful, and the managers were pretty reasonable as well. Other Best Buys that I've been to had terrible staff that were ill-informed and seemed put out by your merely coming into the store. I'm looking at you, Wilkes-Barre.

I digress, the thread highlights some interesting sales tactics. The aforementioned one is the most detrimental to a brand's image though. If I were a rep for a lower priced television set, I would make sure that the TV's are placed on High-Def stations, or playing a Blu-Ray DVD. If consumers are to see my product, I want them to have the best image in their heads as possible, not the image some middle-manager who bosses around a rag-tag team of punk kids wants it to have. Electronics companies need to be very aware of this, and control their image quality accordingly.

While I was selling, we didn't have too many sneaky tricks. Computers are a little different than televisions. Of course things were placed out and planned for maximum sales, but that's not tricky, that's just common sense. We also started high and worked our way down. Much like the tea salesman at Teavanna did trying to get me  to buy $80 worth of tea. My manager taught me the most amusing trick while I worked there though, and once you do it three or four times, you don't feel bad anymore because it was so useful.

Say for instance you're shopping for a new memory stick. There's ten different brands in front of you, and you can't decide which one to get. A sales associate walks over to you and asks to be of assistance. You explain what you want, and he replies with his knowledge about the product, and the quality of the brands. You then take a moment to decide, but before you realize it, he or she has picked the most expensive one (or the one that's on sale if they need to be moved) and placed it confidently in your hand. You think for a minute and realize that this one is the one you want because this person who has built a trusting relationship with you in three minutes feels this is the best fit. When in reality, the sales associate just wanted to move on as quickly as possible and still make a sale.

I swear that worked 85% of the time. I always went for the most expensive one but not to make more money for the store. I found after a couple of tries, that if I give them the cheap one, or mid range one they either think I'm insulting them because they are poor or that they don't know better. I decided to give them the most expensive one and let themselves shimmy down the price points as they pleased --unless there was an item on clearance sale. Then I gave them that one.

there are a ton of comments to peruse through, it's definitely worth a look.

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/mr7th/reddit_store_owners_what_tricks_do_you_use_to_get/

Marker advert

Saw a fun and interesting advertisement today. It was voted up to the top of reddit.com. Good ads tend to float to the front page. Last week I posted asics, this week I present Faber Castel:

Trying to relate this to Marketing Metaphoria. I will think of things when I wake up.

Gorillaz

Gorillaz is possibly one of my favorite acts of all time. Mostly everyone in the U.S, U.K and AUS are familiar with them, and they have a reach that extends to other countries as well. My first experience with Gorillaz was when I was twelve or thirteen years old. during summer vacation one night (one of many throughout my life) I couldn't sleep. I kept staring at the ceiling. My parents were very strict with my bedtime even until I was in high school, so often times I would stay up all night reading books, drawing pictures, or listening to Nirvana, Sublime, and Limp Bizkit on my head phones. I admit it, I like Limp Bizkit when I was a kid, but so did everyone else...don't judge me!

I digress! Anyway, I would often stay up late trying to entertain myself until I could fall asleep. At this point in my life I was starting to get a little more rebellious, and decided if I couldn't sleep I was going to watch TV. I knew that The Cartoon Network would show Japanese animation late at night that was uncut unlike the daytime episodes. I crawled out of bed, cautiously opened my door, stepped into the hallway where I proceeded to hold my breath and tiptoed as stealthily as I could past my parents room, down the creeky stairs, and into my living. I didn't turn the lights on. I didn't need them, I was so used to seeing in the dark and feeling the atmosphere around me for objects that I felt as comfortable as I do in the daytime. I found the T.V, turned it on, and immediately muted it as to not wake my parents. I turned it up so I could hear it just enough  without waking anybody. 

I put on The Cartoon Network hoping Gundam or Dragonball would be on in all of their uncut glory. Instead what was on was a series of animated music videos. I'm not going to lie, I was really disappointed --I was risking getting grounded for music videos? Well, I was already in front of the T.V so in my prepubescent mind I thought "fuck it," and proceeded to watch the videos. None of them were particularly spectacular and I was considering bed, when Gorillaz popped on. At first glance I knew I liked them. I hadn't even heard the music yet, I just liked their design and knew that they had to be good. I didn't even know what I was hearing. It wasn't like anything I've heard before. I stepped out of normal. It had elements of rock like Nirvana, some reggae touch like Sublime, and wasn't at all like Limp Bizkit!

What was intriguing was their incorporation of different genres of music in each song. Four songs were aired that night, and each one was different than the the last. They combined rock, reggae, electronica, hip-hop, and world music into a colorful tapestry of awesome. I watched each video, mesmerized by the cartoon characters and groovy beats. It was the closest to being on drugs I would come to for a long time. 

Gorillaz is a musical project with four main Collaborators. Damon Albarn, Jaimie Hewlett, Mike Smith, and Cass Brown make up the original and current members. They employ a wide range of additional musicians from around the world. It creates a unique sound with a grungey brit rock feel.

Well, that was long winded. 

tl;dr: Gorillaz have been inspiring since I heard them when I was 12ish. I have been listening to them ever since and love their visual art.   

Artist Date: Afro Cuban Slap Bass

Being a bass player without a band is a lot like being a samurai without a master. I'm all ronin, and I don't have the time to fix that! Unfortunately its very easy to become stale without constant playing --which I do. I practice rock, blues, reggae, and funk quite a bit. I have been more interested in world music and jazz lately, so when I saw a method book highlighting afro-cuban slap bass I was intrigued.

I shelled out the cash for it, and brought it home immediately to try it out. Luckily it has tabs, since my reading is a bit rusty. Or maybe it would have been better if the tabs weren't there so I would have to get used to reading notation again.

Anyway, I started playing through the first two songs, and I never felt so middle aged when playing. I don't mean old, I just mean the music feels a little more sophisticated and geared towards a cultured and older crowd. It's pretty laid back compared to what I normally practice, and is awfully open  for improv.

I'll keep playing with this sound a little bit, but I think I would like to explore music from, other regions still!

Interesting Asics Advert!

I have in the past purchased many Asics brand sports shoes. They made some of the best wrestling shoes anyone could hope to buy, and were often worn over Nike, Reebok, or Adidas. Asics, a sports apparel company from Japan, is not a popular brand of exercise shoe however. Though they have been more and more recognized for running as of recently, they are still not as powerful of a player in the sports shoe market. Here we see a unique add highlighting the speed of a marathon runner while he wears his Asics shoes:

Interesting packaging and and adverts from a pharmaceutical company

Today while I was browsing the Internet and eating cereal (my normal morning routine) I came across a thread talking about an interesting list of ingredients.

Each product has a unique ingredient list. For instance the one for allergies says "if you dislike pseudoephedrine sulfate, you will be happy to hear that Help, I have allergies, contains none. If you have no opinion on the matter, most likely you will not be happy or sad."

After perusing their website a little bit, I came upon their youtube page. Let's just say it's interesting.  On their main video they position themselves as "a new kind of drug company--a drug company that promises you less." Let's just have a look at two of their videos. They're unique...

Oh you think that video was interesting do you? Sure it was funny, but it had a message. This next one I found on their page is the most bizarre piece of work I've seen by them

I imagine this is for help's new 2cb product line help, I need to party and is probably not intended for minors.

These ads lead me to the question, are pharmaceutical companies allowed to be weird and quirky? I understand what helps trying to do with their idea of a drug company that sells you less. They sell the drugs unmixed with other drugs. Often times we see acetaminophen (Tylenol) mixed into drugs they ought not be mixed into. This can have adverse effects in a wide range of situations. Some people are allergic to acetaminophen, some people will drink while using these medicines, and others may use these drugs (especially the sleep aids) for recreation, and the acetaminophen will have adverse effects on their bodies. That isn't to say they don't sell acetaminophen, they just don't blend it with other products. 

I don't know what to make of this. I like it, but whether or not it will be effective with consumers who don't spend their time on the Internet looking at stupid shit all day is up in the air.

Street art follow up

Here is the finished work.

Street Art

It always fascinates me when people use points of view and perspective to create art. There are many examples of this out there. I put on display one that's currently being created (as in the guy is working as I type this.). He is creating a Lego themed portrait.

Sarasota, FL

It looks so cool so far, and I really hope the artist(s) post a follow up of the completed work for everyone to see.

ケロロ軍曹☆ or Sgt. Frog

If you like cartoons or Japanese animation, consider Sgt. Frog. It's a story about a sentient frog being and his friends from outer space. They try to take over the world, and have hilarious adventures. There's a narrator, as well as random subtitles saying funny stuff. It's got a lot of energy, and keeps me entertained through out an entire episode!