August 14th, 2023
When advertising your fashion, health, beauty or lifestyle brand, you need to grab customer’s attention in highly-saturated markets.
Whether in the shop window or online, the communications you use can make a direct impact on whether customer keeps on walking by or enters your brand to peruse and make a purchase.
The ‘hook’ is the piece of copy that comes at the beginning of your advert and draws in customers by grabbing or ‘hooking’ their attention.
Using ‘Sale!’ as a hook is a long-running, highly powerful and successful way to bring in customers and fire-up sales.
Look at Prime Day, the Boxing Day Sales, Black Friday and many other examples of how dropping price for a limited time can generate large amounts of income.
Hooked enough to take the next step.
An effective hook is one which doesn’t just grab attention fleetingly – it keeps it long enough for the customer to feel compelled to take the next step: making a purchase. An effective hook must be convincing.
Your fashion label may have the most beautiful, amazing items ever. But if only you like your brand, success hasn’t yet come. Designing and creating clothes is only the half of your business – your branding, advertising and sales process is very much the rest.
This is where a hook comes in. Whether it’s at launch or continued marketing, you need to use a hook to stand out and get noticed. Social media marketing, website copy, billboards, email campaigns (that’s your subject line) and more, each item in your marketing asset collateral will need and use a hook.
The power of the word Sale
Ah, discounts. Promo codes. Limited time offers. They all come from one big family - the Sale family.
Advertising a sale is a sure-fired way to ignite sales and take you out of a slump, compete with other brands, attract new customers, bring back past customers or simply clear stock fast.
The word sale does something to us when we see it. “Look! They have a sale on – let’s go!” It can even make you buy things you had no intention of buying and don’t even really want or like simply because they are on sale. The word sale is a compelling, fascinating, influencing, controlling and manipulative hook.
In today’s consumer-driven society, slapping Sale! on your website is so widespread it should be ineffective and yet somehow, it just keeps on giving. Some brands go as far as using unethical clickbait, purposefully misleading messaging (“Up to X% off”) such is the consistent power of using the word Sale! as a marketing tool.
Sale! psychology
Pricing psychology is fascinating. Behavioural experts have been studying it for decades – why and how is the concept of an offer or discount so effective? What exactly is the process that takes us from mildly considering a purchase to being all-in, credit card to go?
Studies of this ‘phenomena’ have shown that people who buy items on sale, at a discount, experiencing feelings of mild euphoria, excitement, happiness and a rush that leaves them feeling proud of themselves. Despite the actual loss of control in the consumer-transaction process prompted by using Sale! customers feel a heightened sense of taking back control by gaining items at a perceived lower cost. It can even lower stress levels – hence the phrase “retail therapy.”
Should the customer’s purchase be one they actually like, use and is of value to them, this feeling continues. These customers often return to the same brand time and time again, feeling excited that they can secure quality, valuable items which make them feel in control and good about themselves.
The problem with Sales
Despite all this, the feelings generated from impulse buys, bought only because it was at a lower price, are not so positive.
When customers make a purchase simply because of a limited time discount, that feeling of euphoria quickly fades. Such items are often discarded or given away leading to excess waste.
For brands, this is harmful. The customer-brand relationship has not been strengthened despite the sale and value of the brand has been damaged. When this happens again and again, brands which have previously had a good quality reputation, can be seen negatively. For luxury brands, running sales can be especially damaging when the high price-point is linked to the brand’s exclusivity and status.
For the customer, it can be equally damaging. The let-down, disappointment and even shame experienced by customers who realise they have lost control and simply purchased items because they were on sale, can be detrimental to their wellbeing. Repeated behaviour further fuels excessive consumerism, waste, poor decision-making and can even lead to addictive shopping habits and debt.
Alternative hooks to using Sale! that you can still use to spike sales and build brand awareness:
Running a sale is not always the right answer for generating a rush in sales and income. For ethical and sustainable brands, sales should be carefully considered.
So how can you hook customers in and boost your sales whilst maintaining your values?
Try these 3 more-convincing, more repeat-custom generating alternatives.
VALUE: No, not discount price value. Tangible value and benefits. Sell your items by emphasising why they are worth full price. Talk about the materials, manufacture, high-end feel, unique design.
Super-soft, brushed organic cotton you can wear time and time again.
EDUCATION: Teach your customers with a quick FYI.
Get ready for Autumn nights with cosy, sustainable woollen knits that keep you 30% warmer.
RELEVANCY: Make it personal. Show your customers you understand their struggles and know them.
Searching for vegan leather boots that suit your values AND style? Step right in.
These 3 methods should be your primary hook. Think of them as the headline to your campaign. If you find you still need more of a push to attract new customers, consider using Sale! as secondary ask to further validate your offer as a limited time deal. Luxury brands can benefit from ring-fencing their sale to elite communities and memberships as special access to reward brand loyalty.
Summed up:
Selling stock simply based on reduced price de-values your brand and encourages your customers to be fickle. Simply slapping Sale! across your site or shop window will not support your brand strategy or provide stable, scalable profit.
Make a smarter choice by running your sale in a way that speaks about your brand values and builds relationships based on more than knock-down prices. And the added bonus? You can use these hook strategies all year round.
If this has got your thinking about how to shake up your marketing, drop me a line at hello@goodwordsocial.com and let’s chat.