Re: GC Sale That's NOT

Sorry Mack, but while I too am not subscribing to the technique Mike is
stating, I believe he is correct. It is my opinion that many big businesses
thrive on the "quick sale, high price" method and do not concern themselves
with repeat buisness but rather on a high turnover of tranient customers.
Marketing techniques which include loss-leader advertising and phony "sales"
work much better than you can imagine. I'll bet that you yourself have
fallen for them, without realizing it, as a consumer in areas other than
guitars (in which you happen to be more tuned in).

I am in the optical business, for example, and find myself, as a smaller
independent, victimized by these tactics all the time. We spend more time
defending our service and pricing against the often misleading marketing
practices of the large chains than speaking to clients professionally about
their eyeglasses and contact lenses.

These practices work because consumers fall for them. That is the power of
marketing and promotion and the "fault" of consumers, who fail to educate
themselves, and not the "fault" of the big businesses, whose job it is to
increase their sales. If you want to "blame" someone, blame the mostly
price-conscious consumers who are driven by the appearance of price over
good service. Notice I said "the APPEARANCE of price", because that's an
important distinction.

Don't be misled by the statements made on a newsgroup by the posters here.
They may provide a false sense of belief in us that the consumer is getting
"smart" to these practices, but I guarantee you that we posters represent
only a tiny amount of possible buyers out there and are not representative.
GC will live on long after we're gone and on to some other complaint.

"Mack" <ICH0R0426@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:5jg4g.28590$HC3.13849@xxxxxxxxxxx
That's the spirit! You must have derived your business principles from the
astounding success of GM, which also believes that volume=revenue=profits.
They also don't believe in long term customer relationships. Who cares
about bad quality cars? More suckers will come in to buy more. Profit does
NOT necessarily coming from moving lots of merchandise. I don't dispute
what you say about the "sale" bringing in lots of people. When I went, it
was crowded too. How many of us will go back though? Not me!

"Mike Hartigan" <mike@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:MPG.1ebb42fa342589d989794@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In article <2rf4g.73$Nh7.50@trnddc01>, ICH0R0426@xxxxxxxxxxx says...
I think Guitar Center is a great stock to short. Abusing customer trust
in
this way is a sure sign of a desperate company that is trying to jack up
revenue at the expense of profit. Profit comes by building long term
relationships with us, the buyers.

Actually, profit comes from moving lots of merchandise. GC seems to
have a lock on that. Long term relationships are irrelevant as long
as they continue to bring in new customers using whatever marketing
tools they have at their disposal. Their seemingly perpetual
"Blowout Sale" never fails to fill the store with customers willing
to pay "40, 50, even 60 percent off list!" It's hard to argue with
success.

"JeffinMS" <tankerHC@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Tqe4g.48394$0Z4.34681@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Jim" <askme@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1252s59s193l9c3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The loss leaders and closeouts can be good deals.

I know what Loss Leaders are, but personally I have NEVER seen one. I
know
Wal-Mart does it, but I dont know of anywhere else. Let me know of one
at
GC, Id be interested to check it out. Maybe the B.C. RIch Warlocks are
loss leaders since thier only 99 bucks. Then again, maybe thier just
junk.

How about "Genuine Fender Stratocaster for $129". I've been to some
of their sales and have actually seen it. These are not Squiers. I
don't know if they're taking an actual loss on that, but they're
certainly not making a big profit on it. They also frequently sell
guitar stands for 99 cents, hand out string winders, picks, and
cables like candy, etc, etc, etc. And they sell a ton of guitars.




.

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