I was visiting my Mom down south driving down I70 and I couldn't believe my eyes. I asked my husband to pull over so I could take a picture. There is was clear as day a big promotion sign that said:
"Buy a truck. Get a gun".
When promoting your products and/or services and you want to develop an incentive to drive higher sales, remember geography matters. This Ford sign would get little traction in the state I live in. It perhaps might even get the community worked up and yield a protest or two. But, it appears to work where it's at. Now, of course I haven't seen any results but I was recently back in that state a few months later and the same dealership had a different promotional sign. This time the sign said: "20% off trucks plus get a gun." So, that tells me that the gun promotion must be helping to drive truck sales at this dealer.
More now than ever in the current state of our country it's important to not only know your customer demographics but their psychographic preferences too. What value system does your product or brand help create? Or, that you can tap into that resonates with your customers? What attitudes and beliefs truly make that connection to your brand or products?
When looking at the Ford profile of a customer it too differs along geography. That is why there are more trucks sold in certain states than others. Of course, there are cross-over demographics and psychographics. But you should really know the profile of your customer to help you understand what will motivate them to buy.
I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the sign because I'm not their customer. The sign wasn't talking to me. The promotion incentive was not developed with me in mind. But, it was a reminder to me that geography matters.
Sonya Ruff Jarvis, is the Managing Member of Jarvis Consultants and Founder of the eRetailer Summit. Sonya has extensive experience in creating original innovative solutions to overcome major business challenges. Sonya has spent most of her career visiting headquarters across global industries and has built strong business relationships across diverse brands.
Sonya has a M.B.A. in Marketing. She is married and has a daughter and they live in Fairfield County Connecticut.