First I want to let you know that I appreciate your persistence.  You take the time every week to re post nearly the same ad.  You even changed it this week to try and make it sound like a wonderful deal.  Unfortunately you don’t quite have the price set correctly.

You advertise a used mint condition Nikon D40x that will be sold without a lense.  Your asking price is $375.  I’m sure this price seems reasonable to you, but for anyone who is shopping for a DSLR camera it makes no sense to pay nearly $400 for this camera used.

Why? You may be asking, well a quick browsing of the current offerings of your competitors, retailers, shows that the D40x is no longer being manufactured by NIkon.  It has been replaced by the D60.  The D60 is a newer camera, produces pictures of the same resolution, and can currently be purchased for around $600-$650.  This is a new camera and also comes with a lens. As you own the camera I’m sure you are aware that the D40x like the D60 and the D40 require an AF lens to auto focus.  The low end lens for this camera is currently retailing for around $150.  This means anyone who purchases your camera will need spend $525 to use a used camera.

Now I understand the need to make your money back, but since I continue to see your camera appear on my RSS feed, you may need to consider lowering your asking price.  Not by much, sell it for $300 and I bet you sell it within a week.  Remember it’s a digital camera and the price will only continue to fall, sell it soon or risk having to drop the price even further.

Sincerely

Conner

So what do we have

1. Great application
2. Great Launch Platform
3. Wide scale exposure for free
4. An initial class of users that will help improve your product
5. Oh and don’t forget the $50,000 they won by being the best presenter

See marketing is not hard and does not have to be costly. Just be good at a few things and use them to your advantage. In this case, the founders have great presentation skills and a compelling enough product to warrant entrance to the event. Now they have had a successful launch that should lead to profitability if their business model is sound.

Even though I think the slogan is a terrible mockery of a great slogan by Target, I do like parts of the strategy.  The use of the study by Global Insight to highlight real savings to consumers is great and will probably make a positive impact.  But the whole strategy just makes me think that Wal-Mart wants to take the same place in the minds of consumers as Target, yet want to still be known as the least expensive.   I think it is going to be very difficult to shake the low-class and cheap feel most of us feel at Wal-Mart by stealing Target’s slogan yet claiming $2,500 in savings.

If Wal-Mart really wanted to use that study for it’s benefit, why not go out into the real world, find a family that was forced to switch to Wal-Mart for it’s shopping due to a layoff or an unexpected increase in expenses and ask them to recount how much they saved by shopping at Wal-Mart rather than their competitor.  A feel good story with hard numbers to back it up, that sure sounds like a winner to me.