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In article ,
says...
On Mon, 20 Oct 2003 03:30:09 GMT, Mark & Juanita
wrote:

This of course brings up a good point. If every major retailer has this
sale,

... and somehow Woodcraft did not learn from others' experience

See my answer to this below.

Woodcraft could certainly have taken advantage of knowledge gained
by other retailers' results with this sale; their promotions were advertised
and although the "while supplies last" disclaimer may have been present,

According to the Marketing Manager from American Clamp, each of the
vendors who were going to commit to the promotion had to place their
orders in the Spring. Thus no retailer, including those yet to have a
sale (if any, now), had an opportunity to go back and order more based
on the previous sellers' experience.

That may be true, but they did have the opportunity to see how the
sale was received and perhaps revise their approach to minimize
potential problems.

I don't think most Woodcraft customers expected that they would be
dealing with a "Who" concert sellout type of phenomenon.

Nor did Woodcraft.

But Woodcraft saw what happened to the other retailers whose sales
occurred before Woodcraft's own sale. To blindly continue with plans as
formulated smacks of a rigid, non-adaptable corporation.

but I also think Woodcraft screwed up royally as well, especially since
they had the benefit of other retailers' experiences in this regard.

See above. They may have had the benefit, but they didn't have the
opportunity. I don't think you could be any more wrong.

What do you mean they didn't have the opportunity? Their sale
occurred after the other sales, they saw the demand. Did they have the
opportunity to buy more supply? No. Does that mean they had no other
alternative other than to march blindly on with their advertising
campaign and prominent "Huge Jorgensen Sale" banner on their web page?
Absolutely. Plans give a direction and purpose to corporate efforts,
blindly following the plan after new information is available is a
recipe for disaster.

Frankly, it doesn't matter whether I'm wrong or not, you can portray
Woodcraft as a victim of circumstance -- if customers stay away, it
doesn't help them. Maybe this is all a tempest in a teapot and WC
didn't hurt their overall rating in most customers' eyes. If so, then
no big deal. The problem is that it doesn't take too many irate
customers to significantly affect market share. I'm merely pointing out
that Woodcraft did have options and opportunities to learn from others'
and chose not to.

LRod

Master Woodbutcher and seasoned termite

Shamelessly whoring my website since 1999

http://www.woodbutcher.net