2-Minute Marketing Muse

Holy greenbacks, Batman!!  I have never seen retailers scramble so desperately for a piece of the tax-refund pie.  Economic stimulus checks have become retailer catnip… intoxicating and addictive. 

In a slow (looks like a recession to me) economy, where gas prices are absurd and jacking up the price of everything from lamb chops to light bulbs, retailers are feeling the pinch as the rest of us tighten our belts.  So, what can they do to pry the extra $600 from our hands? Offer to make it $660 if you put it into a gift card.

Really, it’s brilliant.  Retailers get guaranteed dollars in their stores; consumers get free money in their wallets.  Everybody is happy.  Not as happy as we’d all be to pay $1.49 for gas rather than $3.49, but hey, those oil execs need $1billion in golden parachutes and China needs fuel to permanently overtake all world manufacturing and eventually buy and sell all our butts, don’t they?

But, I’ve diverged.  The truth of this new marketing strategy is that it is no skin off the noses of retailers.  It seems like they’re giving away “free money”, but the truth is that they can make it up by running one less coupon campaign (and they’ll probably save even more since they won’t have to print the darn things).  Sure, maybe there’s no free lunch, but who cares?  People just see more value on the gift card.  (As a matter of fact, the majority of the people getting these economic stimulus checks view them as free money from Uncle Sam.  Knock-knock?  Anyone there, McFly?  THIS IS NOT “FREE MONEY” people.  We already paid that money to Uncle Sam.  Please realize that Uncle Sam has no money except for the allowance WE give him.  It’s about time we took some back since he’s been getting greedier about how much he takes and more foolish about how he spends it.) 

But again, I diverge. 

So long as people read the fine print on each retailer offer and make sure the cards don’t expire, I think most people will be pretty pleased with the extra bump up, and most retailers will be relieved to know they’re getting some cash flow in these tough times.

Some retailers offering to plump up your rebate if you spend it with them:

Lowes, JC Penney, Sears, KMart, The Home Depot, Kroger, Starbucks, Bed Bath & Beyond, Gap, Pier 1 Imports, Borders, and Blockbuster.