Black Friday has passed. Now Cyber Monday is here. It's that time of year to shop, online, or offline. Stores are doing whatever they can to get us inside, or adding items to our shopping carts. SALES, SALES, SALES...!!!


We're all marketers, so we get the tactics they use. You know, things like: free shipping, 2 for 1, % off sales, etc... It all makes sense, and most of it works. But retailers need to be careful.
There's a line there that I don't think many retailers consider. That line is crossed when two things happen to consumers.
1. You try to fool us
2. You're wasting our time
Both are unforgiveable.
Case in point. A local holiday store in my neighborhood put a full page ad in my local newspaper advertising "HALF-OFF WREATHS!" My wife has been wanting new wreaths from the front of the house for years, so we planned a stop at the store during our weekend runaround with the kids.
When we got to the store, we went to the wreaths and thought they were very nice. I told the salesman that we'd take two at the half price the ad mentioned, only to hear this, delivered almost annoyed...
Salesman: "Oh, yeah, that ad says the second one you buy is half-price, if you buy one at full price first".
Me: "All I saw was 1-inch bold letters that said HALF OFF ALL WREATHS; nothing about that."
Salesman (said almost snarkily): "It was there, you had to read the fine print."
Me: "Thanks for wasting my time."
Nothing is worse than wasting a consumer's time. Nothing. If your objective is to drive people into your store, you really need to consider how they're going to react when they find out they've been "fooled." Now I will never, ever shop at that store again, regardless of what sale they have... because they wasted my time and tried to fool me.
That's a sure fire method for killing your brand. Think twice about your tactics. You may end up gaining a few more sales in the short-term, but losing lifelong customers long-term.