Outrageous Audio has turned its busy retail shop into a carnival with games and wheels to spin for prizes.
Why, you ask? To generate excitement. Owner Blane Hartleb recently switched merchandising tactics from discounting and low price specials to no discounts. He says that more than a sale price, people want an emotional attachment to products and confidence in a shop. So to bring emotion to the sale, he turned his store into a fun atmosphere.
The result is sales are up 40 percent and the salespeople are excited and invested.
If a customer makes a purchase in the store from $25 to $1,500, they get a roll of the dice, which determines which game they play for a chance to win a prize. Buy a product from $1,501 to $2,500 and you roll the dice twice for more chances at prizes. For purchases above that, you roll the dice three times. The carnival runs until the end of the month and may be extended.
“I learned that people don’t want sale prices; it’s all about emotion,” said Hartleb. “We’ve been rebranding and selling more than we have ever sold before in 40 years and at higher margins than we’ve ever had.”
His pivot away from running sales began this year with a visit to ChatGPT that suggested the company stop discounting to get the most out of its advertising, and Outrageous advertises a lot.
First, it stopped running ads based on price. It eliminated budget brands from the store–No speakers under $100 per pair. “We’re no longer going after that $199 CarPlay customer.”
In February/March, it ran TV ads during the Portland Trail Blazers games and it began to see a higher end customer.
Among the customers that came in from the ad were two ladies in their 60s. One had just purchased a used Lexus and wanted the stereo upgraded. She had never seen a subwoofer or amplifier before. She spent $2,400.
“There’s a different clientel out there. We upgraded our store. ChatGPT looked at our stores and pointed out the problems. We repainted the inside. It said the color scheme was wrong. Now the showroom is gray with blue LED all around the ceiling. We got rid of all the posters outside–no more banners that make you look like a 7-11.”The store brought in Musway for DSP. “We already had Focal Utopia, but now we’re selling it,” said Hartleb.
“Here’s what we learned, ‘Do you want to deal with fifty customers that spend $199 on a deck and not make any money or two customers that each drop $5,000?'”
