Marketers and brand managers have for decades relied on a common formula to drive the occasional, somewhat last-minute, oftentimes-emergency purchase. It’s not that complicated, but it’s very expensive.
When the customer needs something, and needs it now, the traditional formula meant you had to have already established such great brand awareness, such significant unaided recall, that the prospect thought about you first and made the call. This required extensive advertising to prospects all the time, where 95 percent of those prospects have no immediate need for what you’re selling.
You don’t need a plumber…until you really need one. Same for cracks or dings in your windshield.
Same, in most cases, for tires. I spent a couple hours in a local tire franchise waiting room a couple weeks ago on a Saturday afternoon. Eighty percent of walk-ins had some kind of emergency or urgent need. This particular chain spends a ton of money on brand advertising,...
