Monday, February 12, 2007

Is closeout shopping smart shopping?

Big Lots is getting ready for a leadership position in the closeout industry. To do this they launched a 27 million dollar television campaing nationally. This was to reinforce that closeout shopping is really smart shopping to its customers. Big Lots made some commercials with some famous people that everyone would know. They made these commercials for another reason also. That reason was because "They were the leaders in what they do but they need to act like the leaders". That was a statement from the CEO Mike Potter. The campaing introduce Big Lot name brand items into more households. Thirty-seven percent more household to be exact! Don't always let the commercial get to you and then go out and buy the product... This is not always a good thing.

1 comment:

Stephanie Gelo said...

This article represents how producers try to influence the demand curve for their products in a favorable direction (such as to the right). The article focuses on the fact that the marketing department for Big Lots is increasing the amount of money allocated toward advertisement in order to make people excited. Generally, advertisement leads to a shift in the demand curve since more people are willing to buy the product.

Another topic this article brings up is the fact that some goods are inferior. The marketing leader expressed his want for there to be more higher income earners shopping in Big Lots because the majority of shoppers are in the middle class. Reason being, higher income earners are able to afford higher quality goods as compared to the average goods sold at Big Lots. Thus, Big Lots aims to make their products act more as a normal good.

In terms of buyers, they must adhere to the saying "all buyers beware" because they have to be smart enough to know if they really are getting a deal on the product or not. That's what makes the U.S. market free, everyone is able to do as they please. Obviously producers are going to present their products in an appealing way in order to make the most profit. If the customer doesn't feel like he/she is getting a good deal, then he/she can go somewhere else.