Mad Marketing

We have a radio station in the Washington DC metro area that is top-rated, WTOP. It's terribly expensive to advertise on it, I looked into it a few years ago and it just about took my breath away. $ 50,000 per month to get good market penetration and decent drive-time slots. And that was only for a minimum package, it could be $ 100,000 a month to really drive business home. Well, little ole Keeping Room doesn't have that kind of money.

However there is a guy on WTOP who has been on there for three years now, and he's got that $ 100,000 a month package I suspect. He's a roofer, and his catch is "Pay Half Now, Half Later" and "Half Price Sale is ON!". Name of the company is Nu Look Home Design, Inc., and I find the commercials rather annoying, but apparently they work and work well, as who could afford to advertise at that rate if they didn't? I have a customer who has been a customer of my store for over twenty years (and I use him for my roofing work). I said to him one day "What's the story on this NuLook guy that is all over the radio, what's his operation all about?"

"Oh, THAT guy. People get taken in by those commercials with the "Half Price, Pay Me Later" line and don't realize how much they are actually paying for a roof, we come in under their "deal" price regularly, and we run our own crews, he doesn't. He has a revolving group of roofers that bid jobs and we have been called to go behind them at times and fix the mistakes because their warranty work is....well.....you know."

So how does this relate to your furniture buying? Well, careful when reading / seeing all that "SALE" stuff thrown at you. Is it really a deal or is it smoke and mirrors? Is the merchant going to be there if there is an issue to get it taken care of? In the rush to buy on -line do you even seen a physical address? You might be surprised how many of these web-based manufactuers operate out of a spare bedroom in their home. Careful out there!