Brick and mortar advertising

The American consumer has been conditioned to respond to sales events.  Unless a specialty retailer has no competition, either physical or on the internet, many customers will not shop there if there is no special limited time discount.  An excellent example of customers turning their backs on stores is J C Penney.  When JCP brought in a CEO formerly of Apple he was going to reeducate the consumer to the value of "Everyday Low Prices".  Although the pricing was exceptional the consumer was not swayed to shop there because there were no sales with special discounts.  Well, he was fired for nearly bankrupting the company because you can't educate consumers to buy.  It is not a rational but an emotional decision.  Most consumers want the special deal.

The internet retailer has a totally different business model where people shop for the lowest price or special service and then click.

The challenge for the brick and mortar store is to advertise high impact sales effectively which will then enhance the brand as a value leader and give consumers in the market on that day for that product a reason to come in and shop.  Success is directly proportionate to how well a retailer advertises to the target customer.

Success in advertising

There are many small furniture stores owners who want to spend as little as possible on advertising.  They view advertising as an expense rather than an investment. This is understandable when ad dollars are misspent on the wrong media and or ads have low production value so the return on the investment is small.  The problem is unless they advertise effectively they continually lose market share to bigger competitors and the internet.

Defining the target customer, refining the message and the appropriate media is the first step toward success.  Small store owners with low sales growth should refresh their marketing by testing new ideas to find which are successful to generate a better return for their advertising dollar and increase market share.