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At 12:57 PM 7/18/96 -0400, Richard Chalk wrote:
>I have tried several times to sell high-end thinkpads on the internnet, and
>the usual attitude seems to be that if it's 3 months old, and has been
>replaced by a newer model, then it's worthless!
>
>For example, I posted a 760CD Pentium 120, new, manufactured in March of
>1996, and priced at $6500+ . IBM has now announced the ED at $7,000, with
>limited availability, and I get comments like "Who would want that obsolete
>piece of junk???"
>
>Excuse me? I thought a P-120, with all the bells and whistles that come on
>this machine would still be desirable at $1500 less than the 760ED, but the
>best offer I got was $3500.
>
>I think I'll try the local newspaper...
Precisely!
One of the first rules of marketing is to know your target audience,
then know how to reach them.
The problem most of us run into is that we think the Internet is a
good place to sell stuff. NO WAY! It may be a good place to BUY stuff, but
certainly not for selling (well, it depends on what you're selling).
What you have to keep in mind is that the Internet, even with its
increasing popularity, is filled with relatively knowledgeable computer
users--usually that means nutballs that have to have the latest & greatest
every time something new is released each week (just look at Robert, for an
extreme example!). That means anything you've taken out of the box is worth
very little to these people--you almost couldn't give it to them. Hence,
you're using the wrong avenue to reach your buyer.
The *real* buyer you want is someone who's not so bent on being on
the "cutting edge" and doesn't have as much access to information as these
other Internet folks. Hence, he sees something priced less than the
brand-new stuff (that's all he has to compare to), and sees it as a better
deal for him. The way you reach this guy is *NOT* the Internet, but
probably something more traditional--like the newspaper.
Like many of the rest of you, when I got a new machine (a 701C), I
was interested in unloading my 750C. I too posted on the 'net (last
November) and was met with some absurdly low offers that really depressed
me. Just over $1,000 or so. Soooo...I invested a whopping $30 and put an
ad in the Sunday L.A. Times. I got my asking price of $2,000 a week later,
after shagging down a number of phone calls. Sure, some people bickered for
a lower price, but even if I had given it to them, it beat--by FAR--what I
would have gotten selling it over the Internet. Sure I had to hold the
buyer's hand for a little while and help him get started, but those couple
hours or so were worth it to get that difference in selling price. In a
sense, *that's* what he "paid" for it is the lack of that need that
partially depresses selling prices on the 'net.
And that, friends, is Marketing 101 for today. ;-)
-------
Randy Whittle whittle@usc.edu
USC Graduate School of Business http://www-scf.usc.edu/~whittle
Women often ask, "What do men really want, deep in their souls?"
The best answer--based on in-depth analysis of the complex and subtle
interplay of thought, instinct, and emotion that constitutes the male
psyche--is that deep in their souls, men want to watch stuff go 'bang'.
- Dave Barry, October 2, 1994