HOME GELNTEM MERGHANT

BILL FISHMAN

Bill Fishman & Affiliates

11650 lberia Place San Diego, Ca.92128

N EVER OFFER anything free! tf I ! you do, you lose! | learned this lesson many years ago the hard way. As sales promotion director of a maior home center chain, I ran a grand opening promotion that included a coupon that read "FREE A Rigid Plasric Litter Basket for Your Auto."

The basket snapped over the window handles of the car. lt was a great premium item with our company logo molded onto it. I ordered 10,000 litter baskets; enough, I thought, to last me through the full month's promotion. I was wrong! | ran out late afternoon of the second day.

Coming back from lunch that afternoon, I spotted a kid about 9 years old walking along the street carrying 30 or so of these litter baskets nested into one another. "Hey kid," I shouted. ..Where did you get those litter baskets?"

"Want to buy one?" he yelled back. "Ya can have one for 35 cents." (Not a bad mark up for the brat considerins I paid 15 cents each and he got'em ior nothing!) When I didn't answer quick enough, he swung around the next corner and disappeared.

I raced to the store. Near the one check out, I found a pile of our grand opening tabloids with the ,.FREE" coupon removed. A quick check of the litter basket inventory and I knew I was in trouble. They were almost all gone. "FREE," I found out, is a dangerous word. To store employees it means that the merchandise has no value so they see nothing wrong with taking home a handful for their friends and neighbors. Customers coming through the check out counter intimidate the cashiers into "one for my Aunt Sophia and a couple for my neighbors." And. ofcourse, there're the enterprising kids who find sport in beating the establishment.

The Merchant Magazine

Today I have tightened control over giveaways. I won't let my clients offer merchandise FREE. Even a price of "50 with the coupon only" increases the value of the premium. The nickel and the coupon signify a control factor and it gives the cashiers a strong argument when pressured by customers for those extra items for their friends.

"l wish I could," they can reply, "but I have to account for every nickel and match the coupons at the end of the day." Customers understand that!

Another way of controlling the giveaway of premiums, and being a good citizen at the same time, is to offer a charitable organization the opportunity to keep all the proceeds collected. I've given away tree seedlings and invited a Boy Scout troop to man the giveaway counter. Our promotion read, "A Tree Seedling50 with this coupon." At the store exit. the Bov Scouts collected the coupons ani handed out the seedlings. A sign nearby read, "Drop your nickel in this containerAll proceeds go to the Boy Scouts." Almost all the customeri dropped coins larger than a nickel and there were plenty of dollar bills in the pot. The troops were happy, the customers were happy and we were happy to see the promotion coming off without a hitch.

I sometimes wonder if that kid in Detroit ever wound up in retailing.