Lawrence Gee | Marketing, Internet, Creativity, Strategy

Give Me What I Want, When I Want It

I spent part of the past couple of days trying to find this album - Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds, Live at Radio City Music Hall.  You would think that a release from a major artist would be easier to find.  However it took 4 stores (1 online and 3 brick and mortar) to get it done.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been seeking out new music to play on my commute to work.  On Tuesday, I knew the new Dave album was coming out so I made a visit to Target during lunch.  It was priced at $11.99 but was totally sold out.  Instead of driving to another store, I decided to wait until later that night to just purchase the album on iTunes.

When I got home and checked out the iTunes store I was annoyed to see the album selling for $12.99.  For the same music and less product and packaging, it costs more?  Of course out of principle I didn’t buy it.

Today, during lunch I visited Wal-Mart and low-and-behold it was not in stock there either.  It wasn’t until I visited Best Buy next store was I finally able to purchase the album (btw- for $11.99).

Selling is a simple concept - provide a timely solution to a customer’s need that is greater than or equal to his/her willingness to pay.  In the cases of Target and Wal-Mart, they missed the mark on being timely.  They simple didn’t provide the product when I wanted it.  iTunes missed the mark in that it was charging a price that was more than I was willing to pay.  I simply didn’t feel the product they were offering justified the price.  Best Buy won out because they gave me what I wanted, when I wanted it, and a price that I felt was fair.  Simple concept, not always done correctly.

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