Whether you know it or not, we’ve been at war for years.

Our enemy?  The discount sites . . . the code farms . . . those not-so-secret online destinations where customers, some of whom might have paid full price to see your show, can now find a cheaper way in.

Discounts have their place on Broadway, and in almost every business market there is.  But what the all-to-easy to share information world wide web did to us (and to everyone from governments (wikileaks) to celebrities (hacked phone photos)), was allow people to find this information with a few keystrokes.  And therefore a lot of discounts that were intended to be private niche-audience missile shots of advertising, became public prices.

Simply put, here’s the new sales process for so many consumers (including myself), in play form.

LIGHTS UP on The CONSUMER watching television. He sees a commercial.  He likes what he sees.

CONSUMER:  I want to buy that (insert any product here).

Beat.

CONSUMER:  Hmmm, but I’d also like to save money. Who doesn’t?

The CONSUMER goes to his computer and opens up a window full of Google.

CONSUMER:  (Typing)  (NAME OF PRODUCT) discount.

CONSUMER’s eyes light up as a website after website pop up offering codes, coupons, and cut rates on (NAME OF PRODUCT)

The CONSUMER makes his purchase, gets his product and saves money.  He will do this again.

CURTAIN.

Admit it.  This is you, right?  It’s me, that’s for sure.  If my asst. gets a task of booking a rental car or buying office supplies or anything, for that matter, she knows to Google a discount first and fast.

It’s the way of the new world.

And that way puts such a large percentage of your sales (50% or more on some shows) in the discount bin, and out of your control.

Well, here we’ve come up with one simple way to wage war against these sites and gain back a little bit of control that we know you want.

It’s pretty simple, and very effective.

I’ll outline it for you tomorrow.

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