When does a special run the risk of having the opposite effect? How about when a special is really not a special and the customer knows about it? This happened to me recently on a routine grocery shopping journey.
I visited
a local HEB grocery store here in San Antonio, TX and as I strolled down the breakfast aisle I noticed many “Now Costs Less” labels scattered throughout the shelves. First let’s not even talk about the visual clutter this produces, but instead let’s talk about the message itself. I decided to take a closer look at one of these “Now Costs Less” labels and saw a box of Nature Valley Granola Bars for only $2.44. So I asked myself if this was really a good deal by looking at the original price. The original price for this product was a mere $2.45. That’s right, I’m saving exactly one cent by buying this product on special.
Now I don’t know about you, but this is definitely not something to write home about. Sure the marketing perspective here is that people will get persuaded by the big yellow sticker saying that they’re actually paying quite less and should consider buying this product now if they haven’t in the past. But if that’s the case, then my recommendation would have been to not show the original price and instead just say the price is now lower.
Nonetheless, I did not buy the granola bars because my desire of saving one cent was not greater than my desire to purchase some other items during this particular trip. Worst case scenario, on my next trip I’ll be paying an extra cent for them.
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