Brand Loyalty

With few exceptions, most consumers place their loyalty on where they can get the best price on a given item they wish to purchase. Many try to apply this to live animals, including discus fish. In the US those who go for the lowest priced discus fish usually endure regrets, some profound regrets. The reason this price driven shopping mentality falls flat is very basic. When a consumer purchases a manufactured item, each item in the market place is identical, having an identical model number, made of identical materials in a strict quality controlled environment. So finding the best price makes a ton of sense. Can you smell what's cookin? Price driven shopping does not make sense where discus or live animals are involved. Selling the cheapest discus out there means one thing right off the bat - it is an imported discus that was purchased dirt cheap, probably for under two dollars. Marking that fish up to $10. or $12. provides quite the margin of profit, very appealing, especially to the greedy types. Of course if a store purchases those fish the price will go up to somewhere between $24. to $39. apiece. Here is where the rub comes in - this type of discus will absolutely carry disease, parasites, deformities and other assorted sundry problems. How can I be so sure?

Discus that are bred and raised for wholesale markets are not culled to remove the defects from too much inbreeding, and are produced as cheaply as possible. Every corner that can possibly be cut is cut. This is evident in puppy mills. In any animal or fish breeding operation you will find both conscientious and reprehensible breeders. Discus fish bred and raised in these conditions are the type fish that cause all the heartache to unsuspecting hobbyists who enter the discus fish hobby by purchasing these fish. As long as there are hobbyists who come along looking at price alone as the critical factor in making a discus purchase, those who sell these fish will continue to do so. Because they seldom see a repeat customer, they are constantly looking for new unsuspecting hobbyists to sell to. That begs the question, how do they keep finding them? Actually it is quite easy.

Massive marketing campaigns are necessary to keep their name thrown up on any web page having anything to do with or remotely related to the subject of discus. They post nice looking pictures with fancy names that catch the buyers attention. The hobbyists do not realize that what they see is definitely not what they get. These sellers also play word games. They rename common strains with a name unlike anyone else, hence, they alone have this new "strain". And they take names of fish that are popular sellers by their competitors and offer them at a lesser price, thereby giving a better price on the "same" discus strains. The new hobbyists assume they are getting the identical discus offered by another seller at a better price. Of course, there lies the glitch. The discus do not come from the same bloodline and same breeder and are as different as night and day, similar in name only.

By the time new hobbyists do a little research and discover who to avoid in discus sales it is usually a little late. Funny thing is – if someone took the names of these companies literally, it would be end of story. If the word gets out enough and folks stop buying that garbage, it would force them to either step up their game and clean up their act or step out. Are there tell tale signs to look for? Yes. If you are considering buying discus from a company that offers many types of tropical fish for sale, you would be better served to visit a pet shop since that is where these fish are all destined for. Don't fall for phony feedback that the seller created themselves. Call them on the telephone. Ask for the names and phone numbers of very recent satisfied customers who had discus shipped to them in another state. Look at the shipping options. If second or third day shipping is offered, forget it. Shipping live animals or live fish through the post office is illegal in the US. They get around this by marking the box as containing live plants. Not a lot of honesty there. In a nutshell: Buyer Beware. Wholesale type discus are far, far removed from high quality, top grade, healthy discus fish.

I do know something about healthy, high quality discus fish, reasonably priced of course. That is what I am all about. I have learned that as a seller, if I treat my customer as an individual I respect and recognize as vital to my business, I make new friends built on a foundation of trust and respect, and they do think of me when considering another discus fish purchase.