Picwing Blog

From Wikipedia (Hansel and Gretel):

The inhabitant of the house, an old woman, invites them in and prepares a feast for them. The table is covered with candy, nuts, pancakes and other sweets. The woman, however, is a witch who has built the house to entice children to her, so that she can fatten and eat them.

My sister recently decided to dramatically reduce the amount of money she spends at Barneys. About a month later, she receives a handwritten note from a Barneys employee in the mail. Among other flattering words sown throughout the letter, the employee invites my sister to come into Barney’s for an absolutely free facial.

She is unable to resist: She goes to Barneys to get her free facial. She hasn’t come back yet, but I know how this story ends: She’ll come back with bags full of Barneys clothing and merchandise costing much more than the free facial she received.

Barneys fully understands “Hansel and Gretel Marketing” (credit to my sister for coining the term). This is the way it works:

1) A computer system at Barneys tracks the weekly spend of their regular clients by looking at data from the client’s Barneys credit card (this is another reason besides high interest rates why department stores push so hard for their credit cards: They can track individual customers).

2) When weekly spend for a customer drops below a certain threshold, an automated alert is triggered: They assign one of their employees the task of handwriting a letter to that customer, enticing them to come into the store for a free facial.

3) Customer comes into the store for a free facial (who can resist?), but it’s too late. The allure of the store is too hard to resist. Weekly spend on the department credit card is back up to normal.

Who knew the witch in Hansel and Gretel was such a marketing genius?

[Update] Just talked with my sister. She did indeed spend $230 while at Barneys. I showed her this post and she wanted to add a few points:

- The tactic works pyschologically to make her feel indebted

- It also makes her feel like she saved money on the facial, so she can spend with less guilt