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Entries Tagged 'PR / Media'

The ‘pay what you can afford’ restaurant

Differentiation / Positioning, PR / Media

by Mark Nagurski

Dan’s Restaurant in Biddeford, Maine has introduced a new pricing policy in response to tightening purse strings - pay what you can afford. If something costs $20 and you’ve only got $12, then they’ll serve you up $12 worth.

A few ideas to consider:

1. Remarkable and timely. The new policy is remarkable enough to garner national media attention AND taps into a very current topic - the credit crunch. Work those two points in your own PR efforts.

2. Solving a problem. The policy is addressing a key customer pain - no money. What problems could you solve for your customers, clients and prospects?

3. Business models are not set in stone. Why do you have to do it that way? What sacred cows could you slay in your industry? Could you adopt a different business model, steal someone else’s or tweak your own as a point of differentiation?

Most importantly, this restaurant is building loyal customers for years to come.

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June 20th, 2008 2 comments

Burger King’s £95 burger

Differentiation / Positioning, PR / Media, Word of Mouth / Buzz

by Mark Nagurski

Anyone who’s ever read Seth Godin’s books or blogs (and an awful lot of people have) will probably have been introduced to the idea of a Purple Cow.

A Purple Cow is something that is truly, actually remarkable, i.e. it makes you remark - ideally to your friends, family and colleagues.

Burger King have launched their version of the Purple Cow (Burger) - a £95 Wagu beef burger with white truffle and saffron bun. Tempted? (I am if you’re buying.)

We can guess that this one isn’t likely to challenge the Whopper so the idea must be about publicity and positioning BK as the premier fast food burger place (in a similar way to its Angus range).

Grabbing a few column inches and other PR fun aside, I wonder how effective this kind of move really is. Is remarkable all about the authenticity or are we happy to remark regardless? And when we do remark, is it less likely to drive action if the remarkable thing is designed for that reason alone - being remarkable?

Is a purple cow all that remarkable if you know someone’s painted the poor heifer up for the cameras?

Additional resources:
1. Link to Trendhunter article and more overpriced burgers
2. A recent Purple Cow story on Seth’s blog

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June 19th, 2008 No comments

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