So today I saw about three different companies who were advertising that they were having an anniversary and as expected they followed this up by offering a sale to entice customers to shop with them. I then saw this person who had a huge list of companies and the dates which would be its anniversary as if one was keeping track of the birthdays when it comes to your friends and family. It was kind of interesting seeing this as there are a ton of businesses and knowing which business has its anniversary at what date can help you know where to to shop and when for possibly the best deals.

I guess in some ways it’s almost like having a a sales flyer ahead of time and while you won’t necessarily know exactly what is going to be on sale at least you will know what category of items you could hold off in purchasing as there may be better deals.

This is such a strange mentality I thought as today a person was telling me that they bought this cell phone for so cheap where the regular price is normally like $600 except this particular one was about $300 only. However, it was pretty clear that it wasn’t an authentic item and the funny thing was the person didn’t care if it was real or not. Basically, as long as people think it is the real thing then that’s all that mattered.

I know for myself either way in that instance it is a bad deal for the most part. Especially in this case where it is an electronic product which pretty much voids any kind of support and possibly missing features. Kind of better to just say if you can’t afford it then just continue to save until you can. Or better yet, get something that you an actually afford in a practical way. I’m still amazed at times how there are stores here that openly sell counterfeit products at like an open store at the mall yet they still stay in business for years.

Since I use a computer naturally I have been hearing all the news about the new Windows 8 operating system that is coming out soon. The funny thing is news wise it wasn’t so much the update itself that has me thinking but rather the price that the company has opted to list it as. From what I read, people can upgrade the software for about $40 which is a lot cheaper than what you would traditionally expect. Even for myself I am usually one to hold off in major upgrades like these until the price drops. But I guess with this strategy they are trying to get more people on-board faster.

It makes me curious too if offering it at the cheaper price will actually increase profits for them as the assumption from many is that lower prices will simply eat into your profits. However, in this case there might just be so many more people who say $40 is cheap that they will end up buying it. It’s interesting too that they are offering this discount price to even people who are still using the very old Windows XP. For the operating itself, it sure looks like a tablet. I wonder if that means everyone is going to start buying touchscreen monitors for their desktops now too.

Today I actually saw two different companies which coincidentally were have an anniversary this month. Usually most company often hold some kind of sale where in many cases that is what people expect. However, one of the company instead didn’t slash prices on any of its products and services but rather they literally just decided to hold a public party of sort as its strategy was to just build a crowd and publicity in hopes in the long run that will get their company out there more.

That’s not too bad of an idea I think as I think that way you are milking the opportunity more as things like a crazy sale can happen very often where most people would just treat it as something nice. However, especially if you have been around for awhile I can easily see how making your organization’s anniversary public can generate so much attention in other ways which would indirectly bring in business. For example, maybe it will catch the attention of some business editor who would then be interested in finding out more about the business where if it has been there for so long there must be something good to find.

Of course, you could integrate a good sale and marketing buzz strategy which would probably be the best way to do it if you have the resources.

I have been noticing recently that for a lot of launches when it comes to anticipated items companies of course want a lot of people to pre-order their products or services usually as it of course guarantees sales that way to a certain extent. In many cases pre-ordering just means that you guarantee yourself a copy. However, what I noticed is that many companies are now giving people who pre-order the items a day or two ahead of time to get the product compared to the general public.

From the looks of it this method works too as everyone seems to have an elite mentality this way where it’s like they are getting something the majority is not. Kind of interesting as you may think you need to offer for example a limited edition collector’s item to do so when something as simple as this works as well. I guess in the end it is more about trying to make people feel that they are in a class of their own.