Make Marketing History

The views of a marketing deviant.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Change Or Die.

If you see an empty restaurant or an empty store, you're less inclined to try it out. Outside of Valentine's Day and Christmas, perfume sales are slow, but what is the first thing you encounter in a department store? That's right the empty perfume counters with their bored staff.

That doesn't seem the most obvious way to draw in passing shoppers does it? I was told recently that the reason for this was historical. The aroma of the perfume kept the stench of the street out of the store.

Your mother asks why those nice old department stores keep going out of business doesn't she? Not so much a case of the times changing, more a case of marketers not changing.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I used to work for an English language newspaper in Budapest, Hungary. Our restaurant reviews were a very popular section, but our photographer could not get the restaurant owners to allow him to take photos during business hours!

So all the photos accompanying our restaurant reviews were bizarre - empty places full of daylight. Not exactly the place you want to take someone for a romantic dinner!

My photographer friend argued with the restaurant owners for 3 years about this... then finally left the country!

2:24 PM, March 15, 2007  

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