Saturday, March 12, 2011

Response to Ashley Guidi



Ashley stated in her recent blog post:
"If we all took the time to question how often we go in to the store with a set list of items and actually stick to it, without grabbing that extra, "special buy", i think we would find that we buy a lot more than we actually need.
How often do you go into a supermarket and buy exactly what you need?"
I find this to be a very interesting question. My mother goes grocery shopping as much as twice a week sometimes and I always find her coming home with so much more than she went in to get. After reading Ashley's blog, I found a few points to be very interesting. She said that grocery stores put the most attractive products for children on the lower level so the little children are at eye level. I can remember back to when I was younger always begging my mom to get certain things. I think this is a good marketing technique for the grocery stores to use because if every customer purchases a few extras they can certainly generate alot of profit after just one day. I try and go into the grocery store with a full stomach because I find that I will purchase things that I want at that specific time. I think it is hard for people to stick to their lists because they'll see certain things on sale and it will trigger a new meal idea for the week. Once that idea pops into their head, they will need to find all of the other ingredients to make the meal and soon enough they have purchased 5 extra things! Another point that Ashley made was that there is always a display of candy and magazines at the cash register. People will just grab a pack of gum or a magazine and there's another $2. dollars. If you multiply that by 250 customers a day thats an additional $500 of revenue!

Segments of Windham, NH




I recently typed the zip code of my hometown, Windham NH, into "MyBestSegments" to see what types of variables and segments make up my town. The two that stood out the most and that I agreed with are: 



"Big Fish, Small Pond"

Older, upper-class, college-educated professionals, the members of Big Fish, Small Pond are often among the leading citizens of their small-town communities. These upscale, empty-nesting couples enjoy the trappings of success, including belonging to country clubs, maintaining large investment portfolios, and spending freely on computer technology.



"Country Squires"

The wealthiest residents in exurban America live in Country Squires, an oasis for affluent Baby Boomers who've fled the city for the charms of small-town living. In their bucolic communities noted for their recently built homes on sprawling properties, the families of executives live in six-figure comfort. Country Squires enjoy country club sports like golf, tennis, and swimming as well as skiing, boating, and biking.


I agree with these two segments because Windham is a very small and mostly residential with a fairly small population. For the people that live here, I see them being on the upscale side because Windham has the highest per capita income in New Hampshire. My family also lives on a golf course so I can relating to "belonging to a country club." Also, many of the businesses that are part of Windham are very small and can fit in with the "country" atmosphere that they describe. We recently built a Shaw's Supermarket and a Dunkin Donuts Coffee shop, but besides that, the shops and restaurants are mostly family owned or sole proprietorships. What does MyBestSegments say about your hometown?