Directions: Look at the following picture and write an article on a marketing strategy: discount promotion. Your article should meet the following two requirements: 1) interpret the message conveyed by the picture 2) make your comments on the phenomenon You should write 160~200 words neatly on Answer Sheet 2. (20 points )
For the time being, many department stores, shopping malls and businesses often use a seemingly unfailing marketing strategy, i.e. discount promotion. As illustrated in the picture, they ]give it a full play and perform it in such a way that they’re actually casting a big net to catch every possible consumer. That’s exactly what the picture above seeks to depict. It’s justifiable /or their action as the competition between ever increasing stores becomes intense. Even so, we should not forget a precondition that the consumer’s interests should be guaranteed rather than be infringed upon by some fraudulent behaviors of certain stores. We are likely to suspect {heir real intentions when some businesses raise the price of a certain product first and then give consumers a discount or they sell the products with inferior quality in the name of a discount. Since no one is willing to accept a false discount or inferior products, he or she may think the shop is no longer trustworthy or even go so far as to make a complaint to the government agency which is responsible for regulating business behaviors. Consequently the long-term financial return of a promotion like this is not satisfactory for the one who initiates it. My point is businesses who apply the marketing strategy of discount promotion had better bear in mind that in no way do consumers resemble fish which can be easily manipulated by anyone who casts a net.