Beware! Bait-and-lure web ads

• Peter Bray
• 26 June 2008

Photo credit: Anthony Geernaert

I recently had the unpleasant experience of being dragged through a Westfield shopping plaza, looking for bamboo toothpicks (don’t ask!). While traipsing around, I noticed advertising signs in many of the shop windows, each offering discounts off recommended retail prices – usually with a tiny caveat below saying ‘up to’.

It’s one of the oldest marketing tricks in the book, known in the trade as the ‘bait-and-lure’. First, get the buyer interested in a tasty bargain, then gradually reel them in to a more expensive purchase.

Very old-school, very effective, and not just confined to bricks-andmortar retailers.

This cheesy technique is also used on the internet. Web retailers do their best to grab your attention by advertising a product at a loss, or creating an offer that sounds too good to be true. Usually, it is.

What’s worse, these ads are invasive and intrusive. Nothing is more irritating than having an ad pop up over the page you’re trying to read. Bizarrely, most advertisers just don’t seem to get this. Pop-up advertising is the brand equivalent of the two-dollar shop: throw in your cheap sale items, make a few dollars, and hope that no-one notices how you sold the product.

The web isn’t the place for cheap spruiking, yet I’m seeing more and more online malls that are the netequivalent of shopping in a Bangkok back alley. Brand values are lost, quality of service is irrelevant, and everything comes down to pricepoint. Brands revert to bait-and-lure as their point of difference, advertising a particular product for 80 per cent below its recommended retail price, or offering ‘three for the price of one’.

What happens when we stooges click on the pop-up ad? More often than not, we are taken to the brand’s home page, or linked to an online catalogue. This is frustrating and hinders, rather than helps, sales.

If you’re thinking, “Aha, I’m going to jump on this advertising trend and make myself some megabucks”, read on. You could find yourself investing in serious long-term damage for the benefit of a dubious short-term profit.

Firstly, today’s consumers are used to the web being quick and efficient. If I click on a link, I expect information to be there. If I click for one thing and am given an irrelevant smorgasbord of options, I’m out of there.

Believe it or not, most web consumers don’t want to have to think too much. Even though there are millions of websites out there, most people only visit the same five or six each day. If you advertise a particular product online, it’s essential to make sure that ad links directly to the advertised item.

Secondly, people online are less accepting of anything they deem deceptive. If an advertised product is not available, you will not only lose a sale, but that potential customer will probably never shop from your online, or offline, store again. Why should they? They can now shop online anywhere in the world. The playing field for retailers has never been more level.