Targeting the Right Customer

I hear the refrain all too often: “We close most of the customers who come in, but we don’t get enough store traffic.” Getting footsteps to the door is one of the oldest and most complex management issues retailers face.

Things haven’t changed much since pioneer retailer John Wanamaker allegedly said, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; trouble is, I don’t know which half.”

But many things have changed. Newspaper circulation has been in a steady decline since 1990. Slightly more than half of Americans now read a newspaper during the week and only about 62 percent read the Sunday paper. That doesn’t mean folks have stopped looking for news; it just means they are getting it from additional sources.