With other types of advertising you are trying to move people into your store, but Malcolm Gladwell, in “The Science of Shopping” wrote: As the retail market grows more cutthroat, storeowners have come to realize that it’s all but impossible to increase the number of customers coming in, and have concentrated instead on getting the customers they do have to buy more. Have you advanced to this realization? I hope so!

Let’s carry a point to the absurd and think about it. Harry, of Harry’s Hardware advertises windshield washer fluid on the radio for 39 cents per gallon. It’s a rock-bottom, margin-eating price, but even if I need windshield washer fluid unless I’m driving right in front of his store when I hear the message, I will not react. Perhaps not even then, for there is simply not enough “pull” in his message to influence me. On the other hand, if I am inside his store and see on his “Another Salesman” screen that he has windshield washer fluid for $1.23, and I have a need now or soon will have, I will buy the fluid!  Price is simply not the issue, but rather the timeliness of the message in relationship to my need and my position in space are more relevant. “Another Salesman” would deliver the message to Harry’s highest-opportunity customers. Low cost advertising plus higher margins on advertised products is a winning combination.