My family is moving from Carlsbad, California to Chicago. You now have proof that I’m insane.
We have 14 years of “stuff” that needs to go away. When it comes down to it, about the only truly precious possessions are photos.
After the local charities had their fill, we held our first ever moving sale.
I was thrilled to find good owners of a few cherished belongings. For example, I had two signed lithographs from the Rolling Stones Voodoo Lounge Tour. I received the framed art from the band after I signed a deal to market their first CD- ROM in the early 90’s. I still love their music, but it was time for the prints to be gone.
A 9-year-old girl with big brown eyes almost freaked when she saw them. She’s a raving Stones fan, and I knew that she’d love those prints the way I once did. I made her Dad an offer that he couldn’t refuse, and for the price of a pizza, his daughter owned a piece of rock history.
From the moving sale, I found several great marketing lessons that apply to all businesses.
The first and most fundamental lesson is this:
There are two types of customers and they require two types of advertising.
1. People who don’t know they want to go to a moving sale, and
2. People who do know they want to go to a moving sale.
If you understand this principle, you’re way ahead of most marketers.
To reach people who don’t know they want to go to a moving sale, ads generally consist of strategically placed signs. These people are opportunists.
The vast majority of advertising is directed at this group. Television, radio, newspaper, direct mail and outdoor advertising are used to persuade customers who were not actively making a purchase. These ads create demand.
This advertising creates brand awareness, influences future decisions, and makes shoppers aware of problems that need solving. Used properly, you’ll greatly increase your potential customer base and spur demand. The downsides of this advertising are that it’s harder to target prospects and requires multiple impressions and continuity to have an impact.
To reach the people who want to go to moving sales, you need to advertise where they look for moving sales. This includes classified advertising in newspapers, online sites such as Craigslist and Kijiji, and community bulletin boards where sales are posted.
For most businesses, this is the best possible audience. They’re actively looking to buy and are gathering information to make the buying decision. The three biggest types of advertising to a seeking audience are Yellow Pages, search engine marketing and classified advertising. This type of advertising is called “directional” because it directs customers to specific businesses.
The beauty of this advertising is that the audience is highly motivated and is far along the buying cycle. The downsides are that this group is a small subsection of the potential market and the advertising is highly competitive.
Balance advertising for creating demand and directing demand, and you’ll drive both quality and quantity of customers to your business.
Lessons from our Moving Sale [4:50m]:
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