Sometimes the best way to keep customers coming back is by staying in touch with them

Over a year ago I walked into one of Calvin Klein’s factory stores.  Prices are a bit cheaper, but not much, unless you go to the very back of the store of course.  Granted, some of what I saw here was the same as what I found in the other closeout stores or Macy’s but then again some of it wasn’t.  It was neatly organized and everything was easy to find.  When I made my purchase the casheir asked if I wanted to be put on their mailing list and gave me a white card.  If I spend $500, whenever that finally happens (because I am indeed cheap) I can get $50 in merchandise.  Cool, forget about it and act as though it never happened.

Well, until I started getting coupons in my email like every week for additional percentages off of merchandise.  Now normally unless I was in Williamsburg I wouldn’t even consider seeking out Calvin Klein; typically their boutiques aren’t very well placed in department stores and when they are they tend to be small and obscure, lacking presence.  In a lot of smaller midwestern markets you won’t even find the label unless you’re at a high-end discounter like T.J. Maxx.  Often they don’t have your size; which isn’t a problem at all at the factory stores.

It made me think, “hmm.  Maybe I’ll just stop out there”, because I like the idea of using a coupon to get something extra off.  Is it as cheap as it would have been if I had just waited until the end of the season, no.  Is it really worth $10 in gas to go out there just to spend $30, no.  But the novelty of it is nice.  What discounters, and even any more department stores, often lack is atmosphere and a sense of community.  Back in the day I would go out of my way to enter Kaufmann’s merely because of the way that it felt.  What was the store in Pittsburgh like, what about the Youngstown store, and so on and so forth.

To my dismay many of the existing Dillard’s stores had turned into swap meets where the entire store was like 90% off, all of the time.  They kept that charade up for years; but one thing that was never lost on Dillard’s was the sense of atmosphere that was conveyed.  Simply being in the store was an exeperience, made you feel important for a change.  It was the last of a dying breed; in fact I felt this same way about the Elder Beerman’s in Dayton, beautiful atmosphere; when they closed the one downtown it was a sad day indeed.

That store had lost all sense of what it was or could be.  It had nothing to do with the suburbinization of shopping; this was long after the fact.  It had everything to do with getting lost in the shuffle of the downtown transition; from a seedy place into a high-end area serving the employees of downtown.  Reynolds and Reynolds took over the spot, they may have put a coffee shop in their similiar to starbucks; it wasn’t for anyone else anymore and so you just keep it moving. 

If the Calvin Klein store was actually in the city and you didn’t have to take the automobile out there it would probably get 10 times as much business.  It would probably also get robbed frequently.  But the point is, those emails make me think about going out there again.  Sure I love the label, yeah I never use the coupons, butI can work towards that $500, so I can get my $50 gift certificate.  Did they make a lot of money off of me, sure, but you also spent $7.50 to have the migrant workers wrap your presents at Christmas in the department store as well, so who cares.

My other subscriptions; RSS for shopping don’t do this.  Nautica just now emailed me after like 2 years; Polo Ralph Lauren tries to sell me on the “look for this season” but isn’t pushing their sales, and aren’t offering any coupons.  Plus I can get Polo Ralph Lauren anywhere, I’m sure a drug store in Detroit is selling it somewhere.  In that city you can get alligator shoes in just about any department store you go into, and they don’t have them in the middle of the store on the fifth floor so you can’t steal them either.

If you’re not staying in touch with your consumer.  Constantly, they forget about you.  They move onto something else; if you put money and resources into the consumer you will build up some brand loyalty.  Should Calvin Klein actually send actual coupons I don’t have to print off on my printer; yeah they should.  But are those emails an effective marketing tool; perhaps they truly are …