Stop Selling Discounts - Start Selling Ideas A short course in creative selling in print by one of America’s early Masters - Frank Irving Fletcher Today, and yesterday, retailers have relied heavily on discounting to drive store traffic. The belief it that if discounts are not offered, shoppers will go to the competitors across the street that offer them. However, this belief blinds retailers and marketers to the wonderful opportunities available to drive traffic to their stores without resorting to the “discount reflex”. The secret is to stop selling discounts and start selling ideas. As an example of this concept, let’s take a trip back in time and study the ideas of Master Copywriter and Ad man, Frank Irving Fletcher. You probably haven’t heard of him. But if you were alive in the late 20’s through the 30’s you would have known him as one of the greatest copywriters of the century. How good was he? He was earning $200,000 a year in the late 20’s as a freelancer. What made him good? Here’s a clue... During the early 20’s he spent 4-years at Macy's in New York. As I studied his ads of that period, what struck me was how many "events" and “Big Ideas” he created and advertised – he didn't rely on price like most of the compeitors. Even when he mentioned prices - he postured the “Idea” first in the ad. Yes, while at Macy’s, he did use loss leaders and discounts. But mixed in was a healthy dose of events and ideas. He created fashion shows, shows educating women about new fabrics and materials, he created an entire floors dedicated to Summer Camp instead of featureing items and discount price, He set up an entire departments dedicated to new games from china and created a fad. Fletcher was a master at selling entertainment and theater as much as merchandise and sales. All this designed to create traffic driven by ideas, not discounts. I’ve captured some examples below for you to make comparisons. Take a look at "Macy's day" - a pure concept... Look at "Macy's Camp Floor”. Then look at "Camp Lord & Taylor" to see how his competitors approached the same advertising opportunity. Take a look at "Macy's day" - a pure concept. Want to escape the discounting trap? Take a page from the great Fletcher’s secret playbook: Sell ideas - not discounts. He was selling ideas, they were selling discounts. Example #1. Fletcher sells a big idea - the competitors sell items and prices Example #2 Fletcher turns a visit to the store into a shopping safari, including things for the kids to do, and a travel itinerary. See below this ad to see what his competitors ran on the same day in the ad right next to this one. Both ads took the same amount of print space, ran side by side on the same day. Which pulled more traffic into the store? It’s no contest. Example #3 Here’s an an example where he does mention prices - but before he does, look how he sells the Wedding Day! Fletcher paints a picture of the entire day and builds emotional excitement before ever getting to the prices that his competitors typically led with at the time. Example #4 Here is another example of Fletcher creating an event to draw in store traffic. Copyright 2007 Robert Stover