Food Stamp Failure
By Paul Dumouchelle, Management Consultant, ADVISA
While driving through Bucyrus, Ohio, on my way north to a client located on the shore of Lake Erie, I saw what looked like a classic mini-fiasco in marketing strategy. What caught my attention was an abandoned convenience store, the snow underneath the gas pump canopy barely disturbed, and the promotional space beneath the empty gas-price sign proclaiming “WE ACCEPT FOOD STAMPS.”
It seemed a pathetic, desperate attempt to attract customers to a soon-to-fail business. What is most pathetic, though, is the utter wrong-headedness of the maneuver. Who wants to be seen as a customer of the store that advertises food-stamp acceptance? I suspect food-stamp usage is more tied to grocery stores, in any case, and if so, the message runs counter to established consumer behavior.
I feel compelled to include a disclaimer that I hope this observation is not understood as demeaning in any way to those who use food stamps. In January of 2009, with double-digit unemployment and an economy still suffering from a disastrous recession, food-stamp usage is way up and I’m thankful the tool is there for those that need it.
If the former convenience-store manager saw an opportunity in letting customers know about using food stamps in his store, I would have suggested doing it in a less-prominent way.
In my quick transit through Bucyrus, though, I saw several prosperous convenience stores on my route and the contrast with the food-stamp failure could not have been starker. I took it as another lesson in marketing basics – e.g. focus on your core competency, find ways to add value through service enhancements, product innovation, differentiation, segmentation and communication. Never forget, also, that when you abandon those basics and chase business through a quick-hit discount or a too-obvious and blatant appeal to a government subsidy you are forever cheapening your position – and that is the road to disaster.
