ANLA Management Clinic Quick Hit: The art of "selling air"

The Retail Swap Shop at the ANLA Management Clinic in Louisville, Ky., was a great venue for retailers looking for new, easy-to-implement ideas. To wit: The practice of "selling air."

Here's how it works: Say you have a plant you want to market. It looks lovely in and of itself, so you'll likely fetch the market rate if you display it in a generic container. But why settle for displaying it in a generic container? Why not pot it up in a colored container, slap a bow around the container, throw in some tall "dead branches" painted white, atop of which is a colorful butterfly ornament that you add before moving the items to the display floor?

Suddenly, you have the same basic item you wanted to market -- only with bells and whistles that cost very little to add to the mix but which give some vertical "oomph" to the package. Just as suddenly, you also don't fetch the market price; you realize a possible substantial profit on something that looks to be much more valuable than simply a plant in a pot.