Today, February 9th, is National Pizza Day. It is a great day for the 93% of the population who eat pizza monthly. It is also, however, a great day for pizza companies everywhere. Pizza chains thrive on special deals, offering sales and specials constantly, often the more pizza you buy. National Pizza Day is no exception, as no one wants to miss out on the extra business that the national holiday will bring in.
While offering special deals on pizza and the art of selling are not directly related, sales is a subset of marketing, and many of the principles apply. One such principle is urgency. Urgency is a powerful motivator to get customers to realize they need a product or service. It’s extremely helpful to close sales when people might be slightly hesitant. However, Hubspot partner David Weinhaus says that manufacturing an urgency will often backfire. Coming across as pushy is not helpful, and being deceptive even less so. On the other hand, drawing out their sense of need through genuine interest in their plight is extremely helpful. Not only does the authenticity help clarify your intentions to the buyer, but the more they are aware of their need the more they look for a solution. Naturally incentivizing people is always a win-win.
National Pizza day is a natural incentive, creating a sense of urgency for people who like pizza. On this day, unlike any other during the year, people have an excuse to indulge in what may be a guilty pleasure at another time. Understanding and addressing the barriers that people have to sales is essential to making the sale, and urgency is great at doing just that.
BoweryJE22
That is correct that the outcome of urgency can come across as being pushy. I have, personally, never been one to buy items when urgent matters are at stack. However I had no idea that having a day called National (fill in the blank) could create a window of urgency to the public. That is a good way of creating urgency without crossing barriers.
It is interesting that such “occasions”, like National Pizza Day appear as normal days that are funny for us consumers but are profitable days for pizza companies everywhere that take advantage of this special day. While I may not see the urgency in such an event as “National Pizza Day”, but I will see the urgency and the fear of missing out on other occasions such as Black Friday. Great writing!