How to Get Out of The Discount Doom Loop

The dreaded Discount DoomLoop. We’ve all been there…that moment when you feel sick to your stomach when you realize we’re becoming a business driven by discount events.

Yes, of course, you went through the annual forecasting process, searching far and wide for levers to pull to hit the revenue growth goal bestowed upon you from “on high” (CEO, Board, Investment Bankers, etc).

After all, it’s so easy to write some words on an annual marketing plan document and fill some spreadsheet cells with numbers.

It’s a totally different thing to feel it, viscerally, when it’s about to happen: The next discount event.

Well, now we’re here, middle of Q1, and it hits you: “Are we really going to run the 2nd discount event of Q1??”

It just doesn’t feel right.

This is the straw that breaks your back.

But what can you do?

Aren’t you locked in?

Yes, you and your leadership team found a way to come up with a rationale to hit the growth number the Investment Bankers told you is required in order to hit the exit multiple everyone wants when you get acquired in 2026.

However, it’s impossible to fight the feeling that continually adding discount events to hit some made-up growth number can’t end well.

“It won’t be too long until we have a discount event every single month,” you think to yourself.

And, if you do nothing about it, you’re right.


So again, what can you do about it?

There’s no single answer.

However, here are some tactical applications to consider:

✅ Objectively show that this is heading in the wrong direction.

Because these discount events are spread over many years, and we spend the vast majority of our time in the weeds of the day-to-day, we forget what the 5 year trend truly looks like. Not that the chart in the image is perfect, but something like that would blow minds.

✅ Remind everyone of the facts. The strongest brands have the strongest price insensitivity.

There’s no way around it. As price sensitivity goes up, brand strength goes down. As brand strength goes down, profits go down. As profit goes down, asset value goes down. As asset value goes down, the potential for a “big exit” goes down.

✅ Decide if you’re playing Finite or Infinite Games.

Finite games are when everything is focused on some finite end in mind, the exit, the IPO, etc. Infinite games are when you play because you love the game. You can play Infinite games forever. The truth is that not everyone on your team wants to play Infinite games, and that’s simply the reality.

✅ Know that every brand goes through this process of getting into the DoomLoop, feeling the short term benefits, and then realizing, “holy sh*t is this the path we’re on?!”

This is part of the process of growing up as a brand.

✅ Rip the bandaid, or do it gradually. There’s no right or wrong way to exit the DoomLoop.

The only wrong way is to ignore and continue the trend. Don’t add any more. Choose one discount even to remove this year. One more next year, etc.