Why Isn't Back-to-School a Subscription?

Author:

Jonathan Salem Baskin

Source:

The annual back-to-school shopping season is nearly over, and this year we've witnessed major retailers throw at it bundles, up-sells, bulk discounts, co-branded promotions, free shipping, buzz agents and every other conceivable sales trick. And yet it's hard not to think that they've completely missed the boat.
 
Their marketing presumes that they've never before met their customers, and as if this year is the first time their target audiences have gone shopping for school stuff. The ad creative is frighteningly similar across brands, evoking variations on the theme of "we have low prices on whatever you're looking for." The fashion offerings are also quite similar, as buyers have spent the past year studying the same trends, interviewing the same third-party factories and otherwise chasing the idea that they can somehow exclusively address the identical buying whims of the same would-be customers.
 
Reality is distinctly different, isn't it? Every family shopping for school this year had to shop for it last year, save those of newly minted kindergartners. They have rituals around this activity, along with specified budgets and limited time to spend spending them. They already know the game, from who has the best selection, sizing and quality, to when to catch the best prices and how to facilitate returns. There's no possible way that one store will possess "the shirt" that everyone wants, or that it will for long.
 
So why aren't retailers strategically marketing their store brands and selling an ongoing relationship with their customers instead of ...
 
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