The Marketing Agency Talk

I just followed 2 links from ReallyNiceVacations.com to SuperiorRugs.com. The first link text I clicked was “cheap rugs” and it led me to it’s home page. I followed another link text that said “area rugs” and it brought me to a “clearance area rugs” page.

I understood that the writer was highlighting the fact that we can find affordable rugs at this website. However,  to use “cheap rugs” on a company whose name is SuperiorRugs is a little weird to this marketer here. Cheap can be an attractive and  luring word but it can be derogatory as well. It is a word to be used carefully in all marketing message - verbal or written. In fact, I recently recommended a friend to amend his self-introduction elevator speech. He always called himself a freelance safety auditor. Freelance means you work independently but regrettably, a large part of the market sees freelancers as cheap labors offering services at average quality. You and I know that’s not true but a lot of people felt differently. We hired lots of freelance copywriters and designers to help us during peak hours but we don’t call them “freelancers”. We called them “independents” and we encouraged them to do so too. “Freelance” and “independent” - Which word instill more pride and more values? I would substitute the word “cheap rugs” to “clearance rugs” as it is used at the rug company’s website. The latter is by far a more positive word.

The cheap rug section is aptly called “Clearance Rugs”. In no way did Superior Rugs gave the impression that the rugs listed there are of less superior quality. They were just clearing off old rugs to make way for new ones.

Consumer like to pay cheap price but they don’t like to buy cheap goods. Next time, when you are going to hold a sale,  give a reason for the sale - clearance for new stock to come in, best price for early birds … whatever. You can offer a cheap price but never ever give the impression that your product/service are of cheap quality. Go see SuperiorRugs’ site, it did not use the word “cheap” but the prices are (at the clearance pages)!