In Response to Brooke's Post on Grocery Stores.

Do you believe the tricks work? Have you ever fallen for these tricks?

            I wouldn’t call them tricks as much as I would call them a strategy, but yes.  I think almost everyone falls into the trap that grocery stores set up for their customers.  It’s their marketing strategy to bring more money into the store than they would get for randomly placing items on selves.  Stores not only set up products in a way specific way for their target markets, they also emphasize sale items on shelves which are usually placed next to the same product of a different brand not on sale.  For example, if Hidden Valley Salad Dressing is on sale, it is more likely that Newman’s Own Dressing which isn’t on sale will be placed next to one another to draw customers to Hidden Valley.

            While grocery stores seem to have their marketing strategy mastered, other types of stores are starting to pick up on the trend.  For example Ikea, not only are you being lead through a maze forcing you through the entire store, at the end you are brought into the massive gallery where you can pick up the items you saw throughout the store.  You also find all of the sale items in one area and the larger furniture in the “lumber yard”.  Ikea seems to have created a brilliant marketing strategy for their stores and have also started to thrive from it.  Many times I find myself going to Ikea for simple room decorations and walk out with way more than I bargained for, and I am absolutely positive I am not the only one.  What other stores have you noticed focusing on the set-up of the store as the marketing strategy?