Furniture wholesaler uses Odenza promotion cleverly to increase sales
What is DirectBuy?
When you own your own business, customers may discover some positive things about your company and some negative things. One of your jobs as the owner is to do what you can to eliminate some of these negative things. One company that successfully eliminated some negative opinions is DirectBuy, specifically DirectBuy of Edison, New Jersey.
DirectBuy is a membership buying service for homeowners. Headquartered in Merrillville, Indiana, this company offers discounts to their customers who pay for a membership. The membership discount can be anywhere from 10% to 45% off retail price and includes discounts on over 1,000 products from over 700 different brands. Some of these brands include Mohawk, Lazzaro, Stein World, Elk, Loloi, Vermont Castings, Barca Lounger, etc.,
How can DirectBuy afford to do this? Well, when retail stores buy from furniture manufacturers, they have to make money from the sale. In order to do this, they markup the price of the product, which includes what the store pays to get the product, plus overhead, and what the store needs to make a profit. With DirectBuy, however, these markups don’t apply because the furniture is directly sent from the manufacturer to the customer.
Sounds pretty great, right? DirectBuy claims that it’s the largest members-only franchise in North America. They have locations all over the U.S., some of which are doing pretty well. For example, the DirectBuy in Boston was recognized for its 20 years of participation with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) in October 2007. Also, Direct Buy of Ottawa received the Consumer’s Choice Award for Business Excellence in 2007 and 2008. Finally, various DirectBuy locations in Vancouver and Coquitlam won the Consumers’ Choice Award for Business Excellence in 2008.
However, to get this membership you have to pay an upfront fee which can be expensive. This is where DirectBuy had to come up with an incentive to overcome this possible objection.
DirectBuy’s Membership
When you sign on with DirectBuy, most of the time there is a contract term required. This is why some people might have doubts about investing in a membership.
Edison, New Jersey’s Marketing Strategy
While this might be true in some cases, DirectBuy of Edison, New Jersey discovered a pretty effective marketing strategy to alleviate some of the costs for customers. The branch’s Marketing Manager, Pete D’Auito, outsourced with the Odenza Marketing Group to plan a fun, complimentary 4-day, 3-night cruise promotion. When customers signed up for a membership (or if they were on the fence about it), they’d receive a travel certificate for a cruise that was worth $1,000 (they only had to pay for taxes and airfare, which was made clear to them at the time of purchase).
D’Auito wanted to find a marketing strategy that would encourage customers to invest in the membership. The honesty and legitimacy of the travel incentive really paid off as it gave customers something extra for their money in addition to another reason to buy the membership. When asked about the success of this special promotion, D’Auito said, “No question, the cruise incentive has helped us build our membership base.”
Benefits of Offering Travel Incentives
Offering a travel incentive is a great marketing strategy for any company. D’Auito and DirectBuy received two benefits; they offered a travel incentive to their customers as a way to gain more memberships, which their customers would easily enjoy and their customers received a complimentary gift for their investment. Other benefits from this kind of offer include generating a healthy sales competition among your employees (which can be a bonding experience), increased loyalty from both the staff and your customers, and the universal appeal of this special prize.
An enjoyable vacation can create a very positive image of your company in your customer’s eyes. It implements a sense of trust and generates loyalty that they’ll want to tell their friends about.
This special prize also has universal appeal. After all, who doesn’t love to go on vacation? Vacations offer a break from life’s stresses. Your customers will be able to relax and create memories with their loved ones that they’ll have for years to come. A travel incentive also has more long-term value than say a gift card, gift with purchase, etc., because of those memories.
Also, a travel incentive provides you with a great marketing strategy as you can offer it as a special prize during a contest or special promotion, or even just as a way to bring customers in. DirectBuy in Edison chose to offer this special prize as a way to get more memberships. All customers had to do was sign up for a membership and they got the Carnival Cruise line vacation planned by the Odenza Marketing Group…simple.
What’s even better is that the Odenza Marketing Group did such a great job in planning this special promotion that all of Edison’s customers had nothing but positive things to say about their vacation. Without the Odenza Marketing Group, DirectBuy of Edison and D’Auito wouldn’t have been able to offer this special prize to their customers.
It’s important to realize that if the trip isn’t planned out correctly and mistakes are made, it defeats the purpose of the marketing strategy. In fact, the negative experience might shine a negative light on your company more-so than if you never offered the vacation in the first place.
The Odenza Marketing Group and How They Can Help Your Business
With that being said, it’s smart to outsource with a company like the Odenza Marketing Group. D’Auito did this for his DirectBuy branch and it worked out very well for him. Planning a special promotion like this one is no part-time task as it’s very time-consuming and things like currency conversion, local laws, local customs, possible language barriers, etc., need to be considered. Also, companies that specialize in travel incentives, like the Odenza Marketing Group, will know how to get their hands on the best deals at hotels and on flights, and of course, on cruises. As mentioned earlier, if mistakes are made when planning this special prize it can really hurt your company, so it really is a good idea to outsource.
When you hire the Odenza Marketing Group, you’ll be working closely with their award-winning sales and marketing teams that offer exclusivity in your area so that you have an advantage over your competitors. They also offer a free consultation with free marketing and support materials so advertising this special promotion off is a breeze. Additionally, according to a study conducted by Concordia University, Odenza is the leading travel incentives company in the market. Also, their certified and very experienced travel agents know exactly what needs to be done so that your customers have a fun, safe, and well-planned vacation. Best of all, the price you pay for this special promotion is very reasonable and according to Pete D’Auito, “The trips are a good investment. It was a great choice.”
This marketing strategy provides you with something to offer your customers that will help close more sales. Don’t forget, you have to spend money to make money and outsourcing with the Odenza Marketing Group is a great investment.
Expanding on How this Marketing Strategy Helped DirectBuy of Edison, New Jersey
Still not convinced? Pete D’Auito, the marketing manager at DirectBuy Edison was very pleased with the service the Odenza Marketing Group provided. He gave Odenza a 10/10 satisfaction rating stating that “I’ve had customers tell me they had more fun on Carnival than on the most expensive cruise liners out there. The trips are a good investment. It was a great choice.” He also really saw the difference in the store’s sales numbers as the special prize really helped them gain many new memberships.
D’Auito wanted something of value to offer his customers when they were on the fence about signing up for a DirectBuy membership. This special offer alleviated some of the membership costs as it gave customers something else for their money besides the discounts. It was that little extra something that D’Auito was looking for to help DirectBuy of Edison, New Jersey. Working with the Odenza Marketing Group to plan this special promotion really paid off for him and DirectBuy as it was an effective marketing strategy.
