Look, Up in the Sky…Ham & Eggs $3.99???
One of the great things about going on vacation is it gives me a chance to look at marketing from the eye of a relaxed consumer, and listen to what other consumers—namely my kids—think about campaigns they see.
During our week in Maine, our eyes were looking skyward when we saw a small plane pulling a banner advertising the $3.99 ham and eggs breakfast special at Rosa Linda’s in Saco, ME.
My seven-year-old son was curious about the ROI of this marketing effort. Or more specifically, he wanted to know (a) what it cost to have a plane fly your message over the beach every single day, (b) why this restaurant wanted people to know what their breakfasts cost, when we always seemed to be closer to lunchtime when the banner flew over, and (c) why did people eat ham for breakfast?
All good questions. I wondered about all this too (well, not the eating ham part). It would have made more sense to promote a lunch or dinner special, given the time of day. When we drove by Rosa Linda’s one day, I noticed a sign for a $13.99 two-for-one dinner special in the window—why not plug that? And how do you judge the ROI of this promotion? Is the special a secret known only to those smart enough to mention they heard of it while on their boogie boards in the surf?
My son was also puzzled by the girls handing out Pantene shampoo samples outside the beach/amusement park area at Old Orchard. “They’re handing out shampoo? Why?????” he asked, thinking the young ladies must be clearly bonkers. Who needed shampoo when they were about to go ride a flume and eat fried dough?
Actually, this was pretty smart. Folks who were going to jump under the showers outside the beach after a swim might appreciate the chance to try Pantene to wash the salt water out of their hair. And as for the ROI, I suspect there was a coupon in the packet folks could redeem—we didn’t take one since we were there to ride the rides, rather than the waves, that afternoon.
Of course, one major category of marketer my son has particular interest in is the fast food chains, more for their toys than their culinary offerings. We stopped at McDonald’s three times to eat during our holiday, twice for lunch and once for breakfast (even though they didn’t have ham). My two sons were quite enamored of the Batman toys they currently have on offer.
On the third visit—before we hit the highway to go home—the McD’s we stopped at only had Batman and the Joker, the two toys which we of course already had. But the manager at the counter told me to just to another McDonald’s with the unopened toy and they would exchange it.
Really? I had no idea. After lunch, we got in the car and hit the road. After about a half hour, I pulled off at an exit to get everyone a cold drink and see if this swap could really happen. I ordered our shakes and waters and then meekly asked, if it wouldn’t be too much trouble, if they’d change our Jokers for something else.
Oh sure, the woman said—and set to searching through about 50 Happy Meal boxes to find a different toy for the kids. She was able to find one Black Manta ship, which I took even though I knew it would cause fights and I’d have to soon stop at another McD’s to get another toy, which I did. And the exchange again went very smoothly. (My hubby was convinced the first two nice McD’s were an anomaly and that I’d have to pay for another toy to keep the peace with the boys.)
So big customer service points to the golden arches from our vacation. Ham be dammed.
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Related Topics: Promotions, Direct Marketing, Branding, Database/CRM, Advertising/Media, General
September 3rd, 2010 at 9:36 am
I wonder how many $3.99 breakfast plates they would have to sell to get their money back on the plane ad? New plan, spend one summer attempting to collect email address by offering a discount coupon from a table tent and the prior to the following summer start email marketing to those people. They don’t have a website either which I think is the next order of business for them as well.
September 3rd, 2010 at 11:44 am
Perhaps the owner is an aviation buff and has found a tax write off/loophole, as the ROI seems unlikely to be in the black.
September 3rd, 2010 at 11:50 am
Or maybe their brother-in-law owns a plane and cut them a deal. :-)
September 24th, 2010 at 6:17 pm
McDonald’s has found a recipe that few others have been able to dig up or recreate. They take kids with no real customer service experience and almost uniformly create smiling, polite and eager-to-help hosts for your mealtime experience. Their continued success across many locations and years should be a lesson to every business. Great service is not dead; it just needs to be nurtured continually. Ronald, you da man!