NW Marketing

Its time once again for parents and students to shop for back to school neccessities.  I do feel sorry for the parents, during these hard times – how do you know whats essential for your children to have?? 

I started an online search to see what was out there. I googled “back to school”, surprisingly a Wal-Mart ad didn’t pop up. So I went to their website to see what good deals I could get.  On the front page was a few items for college students, you have to actually search through the site to find anything else. Which to my surprise was not much. I guess Wal-Mart is scaling back this year.  I remember as a buyers assistant for pillows and mattress pads – we would always be hectic this time of year trying to get the stores set with the dorm neccessities.  However now kids are opting to go to college near their homes.

How cute, you can actually build your own school kit. Now it does come at a cost, but it does save you the hassle from having to go store to store. I’m going to say that was my fave marketing strategy. If I had kids – I seriously would do that!

I was disappointed that really no ads I saw stood out. Just about everyone is offering some sort of discount and free shipping.  One retailer had some pretty cheap deals, however there were limits – most “limit of 3″.  Now if you only have 1 child, that would be great.  But what happens if you have more than that.  I do know that most of the basic items, like pencils, paper, etc – retailers do take a HUGE profit cut hoping that they will lure you in with those deals and get you on the bigger items.

In conclusion – again, i’m glad i’m not a parent and having to deal with this mess. I do wonder what we as marketers could do next year to drive up sales? If the economy stays this way, it will have to be something drastic.