I recently was privileged to spend some time with Matt and Allison Sprouse, owners of Abode, a fabulous home store located on the square in downtown Knoxville, TN.

One bad habit that retail stores get in is doing sales every weekend. Eventually that strategy teaches consumers to never pay full price, resulting in lower margins. The strong brands we all know and love (iPod & Starbucks to name a few) don't work this way. Instead of lowering the price, they increase the experience.

Recently there was an event going in in the town square – great news – lots of foot traffic in and around Abode. What did Matt and Allison do? 20% off everything? NOPE! They offered free root beer floats. (I could talk here about how the root beer float fits their brand, but I'll save that for later). That Friday evening was one of their best in history from a revenue perspective. And they didn't have to discount prices to do it. They simply increased the experience.

Next time you find yourself about to lower a price, stop and have a root beer float first.

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