Don’t just charge $45 for an Egg and Bacon McMuffin!

Marketing is about providing a quality experience for your customers. An experience that says to them “Yes, you are important and we’re delighted to have you as a customer.”

On the Gold Coast, Australia at the moment we have what’s called Indy. Indy is a car race. It is a very social event and it all kicked off yesterday with the ‘Indy Breakfast’.

350 people had breakfast at a local venue. 17 drivers attended. They all sat together at the front.

This is how it pretty much went

1. Walk in and sit down.

2. Get served a Egg and Bacon McMuffin (they called it Eggs Benedict – I’m pretty sure it was McDonalds!)

3. The drivers got up on stage and answered 1 question each from the MC. The crowd then asked questions – 3 questions in all.

4. Leave.

What a boring, dull, uninspiring, badly run morning!

People don’t want that. They want an experience.

Use some imagination in what your business does. Here are some ideas for the Indy people:

1. A driver and an Indy Girl (Indy traditionally has models that promote the race) on a table for 1/2 hour. When that half an hour is up, they move to the next table. That way every single person at that breakfast would have met and interacted with someone they wanted to meet.

2. The drivers couldn’t eat breakfast. People continuously came up for autographs. DON’T have the drivers sit there and sign autographs. Have the drivers wander around the tables asking “Okay then! Who wants an autograph?”

3. Set up some video racing games. Have a raffle where the winners take on an Indy driver on the game. If they beat him they win a decent prize.

4. Bag of goodies. Everyone loves free stuff. 350 motor sport enthusiasts were the captive audience. Most car companies would fall over themselves to get a sample of their product into a sample bag to these people.

Business breakfasts or lunches or dinners are never about the food

They are always about the experience.

My experience of paying $45 for McDonalds was very poor. My assumption now is that the entire Indy experience is as equally as dull.

And that means the Indy brand is diluted. That’s bad for business.

Use some imagination in your business. Do something different, something fun, something that your customer will remember……..don’t even get me started on what banks could do whilst you stand in line for 15 minutes!