Marketing Fridays — Discounts: The Gateway Drug

Starting today — until I get sick of it — I’m going to share a new post every Friday morning specifically on marketing and the principles that guide it.

I met a crack addict once. It was at a drug education class I attended in high school. I still remember what he said about trying crack for the first time.

“Think about the best feeling you’ve ever had in your life. Multiply it by 10. That’s not even close to how good your first crack high is.”

The room was silent. It was chilling. I’ll never forget it.

We know how the story ends for most of these people. They keep chasing that first high. But their bodies build up a tolerance and they keep needing more and more crack to get them high. Before long they’re spending more and smoking more for less the effect. The tailspin ensues.

Of course, “chasing the high” applies to almost anything.

Enter the fire sale. 20% off. 30% off. Buy 1 get 2 free! WE’RE MOVING INVENTORY!!!

Do it once and you’re going gangbusters. Maybe even the second time. And the third and the fourth time.

But then you keep trying to sell more during limited-time incentives. And with each passing time it returns less and less. In part it’s because the rest of the world is doing the same thing. And no reasonably intelligent customer still believes everyone can possibly be the lowest-cost provider of anything. Because China exists and so does the Internet.

And now you’re loading more and more into the sales promotion shotgun. And every time its fire becomes embarrassingly weaker. Eventually you condition your customers to wait to buy anything until you’re giving the store away like Josesph A. Banks every other week.

You need to know this trend will continue forever. And all you’re doing is chasing a high — pure euphoria. The short-term kind that’s bad for your overall health, of course. But it’s a little euphoric nonetheless.

The second part of it is because anything that works well right away decreases in its return over the long run. That’s just a fact of life.

On the other hand, things that get better over time hurt like hell to start. Another fact.

Kind of like losing weight.

Or planting an apple tree. Any idea how long it takes for an apple tree to product edible apples? Years. Does the farmer at the orchard give up after 6 months when the apple still isn’t producing? Of course not.

The opposite of smoking the sales and promotional crack is treating people with remarkable care. Tending to their needs. Helping them find the right solution even especially when it might mean less money in your pocket for that particular transaction. Becoming irreplaceable.

Do things that are so different and unexpected that your patrons can’t help but talk about you to someone else. If who you are and what you do really is good enough, faith in this approach should not be hard to come by.

Just ask the crack addict.

Or the apple farmer.