Postcards from the edge

June 16, 2010  |  by Jackie Bunnell

We want you back! That’s what was emblazoned across an oversized postcard sitting on my kitchen counter, along with the rest of the day’s mail.

I picked up the card, turned it over and saw that it was from a beauty products specialty retailer in my town. It said that they were aware that I hadn’t been in the store in a while and they wanted to entice me back. I was a bit taken aback by this because, you see, I had broken my pattern only once and they caught me! Let me explain….

I’m not overly picky about my cosmetics and toiletries, as a rule. I don’t mean that I’ll buy just any ol’ thing, but neither am I the type that will drive 30 or 40 miles to the next town where one can more readily find an astonishing array of high-end specialty cosmetics.

I am, however, a bit obsessive about fingernail polish. Over the years I’ve come to learn that one truly gets what one pays for in this particular category. Through notable trial and error, I landed on one brand that I deemed far superior to all others. I’ve been using it ever since.

Until recently, this polish was available only at specialty stores. There’s one of these stores in my town, though it’s a tad out of the way for me to go there. No matter. Every few months, I would make the special trip to this special store to get my special nail polish. This had been going on for 10+ years.

Then, one day, I was in the local superstore. I was wandering around the beauty products section, looking for something or other, and there it was – my obsessively preferred brand of nail polish. Interesting, since I had just read about an evolving trend where more and more specialty brands are showing up on the shelves of non-specialty retailers.

Now there was no reason for me to make that special trip to the special store to get my special polish. The selection at my superstore wasn’t quite as extensive, but I managed to find a color that was “acceptable.” Hence, when the postcard arrived, I had not been back to the beauty supply store in a couple of months or so.

That one purchase, that one time, and I was caught! What surprised me was the implication that they had been paying pretty close attention to me. I wouldn’t qualify as one of their heavy buyers but I was consistent. They obviously noticed the break in my pattern.

And I guess they really missed me. They offered me a coupon that meant I could get my obsessively preferred nail polish at less than half price. As a bonus, they offered a hefty discount on their salon services – something I’ve never tried at their store.

You know, that postcard also reminded me that the color selection for this polish at my superstore is not as extensive as I would like. It also got me to wondering if the specialty store had some new colors for the new season. I’m thinking I’ll go check it out when I get back to town.

In the meantime, I’m off doing some ethnographic field research. Here at Callahan Creek, we’re always curious to learn more about consumers’ perceptions of specialty brands, plus when, where, why and how they go about shopping for them. I wonder if any of them have received a special postcard lately.

Stay tuned. We’ll keep you posted about what we learn.