You get what you pay for
Those of us who don’t have endless supplies of money love discounts. We shop at stores offering close-out offers on merchandise at 50 percent off, 75 percent off and sometimes even 90 percent off. Stores typically close out items that they were unable to sell. The items may have been discontinued, defective or are simply ones that consumers didn’t want. Sometimes stores close out their entire inventory before they go out of business.
Whatever the reason, we love a deal.
So when we received an e-mail from The Des Moines Register informing us that we would receive a free ad as part of a chamber membership, we thought we would take advantage of it.
Yes, even we have marketing challenges. Our toughest is to convince readers and advertisers that our publications, unlike daily newspapers, are not faltering. So we submitted our free ad with a headline that stated, “Who says print is dead?” and a bar chart showing our publications’ growth in circulation. Despite the Register not stating any stipulations for the free ad, we were told ours was unacceptable.
The Register’s Peggy Hanian e-mailed us, stating “after review of the copy that was submitted for your free ad we will not be running the ad. The content of this ad has a negative connotation directed towards our industry and (sic) feel it is not in our best interest to run it at this time.”
A negative connotation? They should be used to that.
Not in their best interest? We didn’t know that was a requirement.
To be honest, we weren’t surprised by the response, but we did laugh when we received the free ad offer and thought we would play along. Even if the ad did run, we didn’t expect results. The Register clearly isn’t reaching as many people as it once did, and the ones who do still subscribe are not our target market. We aren’t selling hearing aids or tombstones, after all.
The greater question that arises from this process deals with the Register’s motivation to offer free ads. Are times really that tough that they have to give their advertising away? Not at 50 percent off, 75 percent off or 90 percent off, mind you, but free.
We can only draw one conclusion from this: you really do get what you pay for. CV
