Hello Kenneth,

Thanks for the post...this is some very good info and advice! Thanks for sharing.

God Bless,

Marilyn

Hi, Kenneth, Sound advice but what about the other side of the coin? Go to any major retail outlet and you will see the very clever use of putting things in the wrong place. It is an accepted fact that many people, faced with a multiple choice of similar products will end up buying none of them. Five items doing the same job (MP3 players for example) displayed at the same place leaves the decision to the customer. Clever store managers, today, use 'dump' bins at the ends of rows to 'push' slow moving items by making them look like a bargain and giving the customer a simple 'take it or leave it' option - often at a price higher than the others in the 'proper' place. The customer puzzled by the earlier display now has his decision 'made' for him. (I have used this very successfully so I know it works - indeed, I have made impulse purchases through this clever form of brain washing). The trouble with rules is, they are made to be broken and, in the breaking of them is often the better result. You just need to know when to break them - and that, as they say, is another subject.

Hello Arthur,

Actually, your scenario above is in the 'proper' place as well. You speak "use 'dump' bins at the ends of rows" are design just for that and that is proper. It's perpose is as you state. For the 'care-less' shopper that does buy on impulse this does work. But the store(s) did design this concept and properly put it where it works.

So was a rule really broken? No.

Another use of 'misplaced' items are the upsells that hang from a pull strip. Let's say you are in the baking section where flour, baking soda, cake mixes, icings, seasonings and all are. Each item in it's place and neat and hanging from the top shelf is a pull strip featuring 4 measuring spoons on a card. Not really the right place? It actually is. It's not in the shelf with the baking goods and yet, can be found in the utensil's section. Similar to the 'dump' bin principle you gave us.

True marketing is a skill that is not easily learned by many. And many won't take the time to learn it well or 'properly'.

Thank you, Arthur, for posting some great thoughts here.

Kenneth

Thanks Kenneth, guilty of all the above but I am learning. Fortunate for me I have time on my side. Time to learn time to do it right. Thanks again

Ken, Putting things out of the category, can be useful as you have pointed out. The person giving out samples of cheese may not be in the dairy area but in the beverage area. Who wants cheese? By association, they have placed the cheese with wine, and other beverages because it is the person serving wine at a party who wants something to serve that is edible. What do they serve the cheese on? Crackers of course. This just happened to me. I purchased the crackers but not the wine nor the cheese. We at times have to use association, pair products, and on the internet redirect. We do it here when we post a thread and tell people to go to another thread. By association, I have directed people to my cookbook pages when I congratulate someone for an honor. I.E. Jenny our angel lady was being honored for POTW so I put up a recipe for angel food cake not where I honored her but on my cookbook site. Another good I idea I am now using is to put up part of an article and then redirect them to http://www.writingup.com?referer=12378 (actually I send them to the blog that has the full article). If they were interested enough to read the first part of the article, they will gladly turn the page and read the whole article on writingup.