Analyzing Customers, Best Buy Decides Not All Are Welcome - from the (Wall Street Journal) WSJ.com. There’s a guilty addiction many of us love: Best Buy. Although I don’t go there as much as when they opened a few years ago, I still have a sweet spot for the blue store and big yellow logo. Call me a fan of complimentary colors and DVD’s. But all that might change. Now hold the phone, you might say- that WSJ article is from 2004. Yes, but the marketing strategies are coming into play now, and it was news to me just today thanks to another one of my favorite RSS reads. Point is, Best Buy drills its salespeople to size up incoming customers, label based on type, and sell accordingly.

Angels - Buy new, marked up products, without waiting for markdowns. Devils - Use rebates, stock up on loss-leaders and flip on eBay, use unfair internet knowledge to exploit BB’s lowest-price guarantee. Barrys - Upper-income and family men. Sell them action movies and cameras. Jills - Cluless suburban women. Short on time but you can hook ‘em if you talk about how good a product will be for “the family.” Buzzes - Early adopters, buyers and showoffers of the latest gadgets. It gets worse. Check out the article.

Filed under: Speak Easy