Thoughts on Marketing…

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, some retail stores saw more dollars in returns than in sales some days during the holidays. They also saw people returning trendy, expensive new clothes and exchanging them for less expensive, older styles.

Even more alarming for the merchants was a trend toward returning previously purchased items for cash.

Some stores, aware of a lack of consumer confidence, relaxed their return policies in order to assure customers that it was OK to take advantage of huge mark-downs. Many of those customers got home with purchases and changed their minds – realizing that a bargain is only a bargain if you can use what you bought.

Is all of this a sign of a trend that says we don’t need to have so much “stuff” or that we don’t need the latest and greatest?

If so, then we as marketers need to consider what we’re selling. Instead of “optional” items, we need to turn toward merchandise that consumers actually need.

So before you decide to start an on-line business or promote an affiliate product, think about it. Is there a different, more useful product that you should devote your time to marketing?

It will be interesting over the next few months to see how spending habits change.

Will consumers continue to pay double in order to eat pre-prepared foods, or will many return to home cooking and use their time instead of their money?

Will more parents insist that their teens wear Wal-mart jeans instead of the latest designer labels?

Will we drive our old cars longer? And if so, will that mean that mechanics will have more business?

Will businesses begin to “market smarter” instead of throwing money at newspaper ads? I think they should, and I’m working on a new e-book right now that will help local businesses grow without spending all their profits on advertising.

2009 will be prosperous – if we use our heads.