{"id":12736,"date":"2009-04-19T14:09:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-19T19:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/BrandTwist.com\/?p=12"},"modified":"2018-10-18T20:15:01","modified_gmt":"2018-10-18T20:15:01","slug":"trading-in-not-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandtwist.com\/blog\/brand-experience\/trading-in-not-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Trading IN, Not Down"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_8uAPsVQ1eAg\/Set3JMECwzI\/AAAAAAAAAJ4\/3PMCUM8xse0\/s1600-h\/welcome.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 131px; height: 103px;\" src=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_8uAPsVQ1eAg\/Set3JMECwzI\/AAAAAAAAAJ4\/3PMCUM8xse0\/s320\/welcome.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\"id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326481984036455218\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I was at the Argyle hospitality conference last week and there was a lot of talk of consumers trading down.<\/p>\n<p>This behavior is an unfortunate result of the current economic climate, and one leaving a lot of brands wondering how to protect their market share.<\/p>\n<p>The morning after the conference I was watching CNN on the treadmill in my hotel gym and an alternative expression caught my attention. During an interview on the show- Jim Skinner, McDonald\u2019s CEO, attributed his brand\u2019s unique market growth to &#8220;consumers trading IN\u201d .<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of how you feel about McDonald\u2019s I think this is a really interesting concept &#8211; and one with potential applications for a wide range of brands.<\/p>\n<p>Trading IN gives me a mental image of opening a door, spreading out the welcome mat and making someone feel valued and invited. <\/p>\n<p>Trading IN cleverly shifts the conversation away from price (no doubt value meals are positvely impacting McDonald\u2019s growth) towards the concept of <em>choice<\/em>. <\/p>\n<p>Instead of implying compromise, trading IN implies options. A smarter way \u2026 a new discovery. It validates a consumer&#8217;s decision.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s an unprecedented time in consumer marketing. Old behaviors have gone out the window with a dizzying speed. But many consumers are adrift. <\/p>\n<p>They know the old choices won\u2019t work, but many haven\u2019t yet settled on new options. This doesn\u2019t just mean taking a high price or mid priced brand and trading down. It could mean finding a new choice. <\/p>\n<p>For example, money spent on destination vacations could be re-invested in family sports equipment like bikes, roller-blades or even wii fit that allow them to spend quality time in a new way. <\/p>\n<p>Trips to restaurants could be replaced by local cooking classes or a new BBQ grill that satisfies a quest for culinary adventure but with a different spin. <\/p>\n<p>Think about these new orphaned consumers, maybe it\u2019s time for your brand to invite them IN. <\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s my point of view. What\u2019s your twist?<\/p>\n<p>What are products or services are your trading in to?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was at the Argyle hospitality conference last week and there was a lot of talk of consumers trading down. This behavior is an unfortunate result of the current economic climate, and one leaving a lot of brands wondering how to protect their market share. The morning after the conference I was watching CNN on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,30],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12736","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-brand-experience","7":"category-brand-strategy"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandtwist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandtwist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandtwist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandtwist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandtwist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12736"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brandtwist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16700,"href":"https:\/\/brandtwist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12736\/revisions\/16700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandtwist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandtwist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandtwist.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}