Over the holiday break, this ad ran in the Oregonian at least twice. My guess is that it ran all over the country, and the people who designed it didn’t feel like customizing the ad for specific markets.

Which means they blew it. 

Brooks Brothers wants their prospects to respond in one of three ways: ordering online, calling their 800-number, or visiting their store. Logically, the retail store is where people would go if they wanted to try on a suit and get it altered. But Brooks Brothers doesn’t tell you where the store is.

The downtown Portland Brooks Brothers store has only been open a few months, in a mall that’s seen some hard times, and a lot of their target customers don’t even know it’s there. This would have been a perfect opportunity to tell them about the new store, lure them in to save money on shirts — and measure them for a suit or two.

It would not have been hard to leave room for store addresses in each market that had a retail store. But someone at Brooks Brothers couldn’t be bothered, and they’ll never know how much money they lost.

Today’s lesson is: if you want your prospects to do business with you, make yourself easy to find.

By the way, you can find me at 503-323-6553.