What can we as Marketers learn from client #9?
Posted by Scott Dunn on March 16, 2008
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What does $4,300 buy you? Put another way, what service could you possibly sell with a market value of $4,300 an hour?
After a series of informal, highly unscientific polls, we pretty much all agree that Eliot Spitzer, aka Client 9, paid $4,300 for something. It wasn’t the girl — he had to ask the dispatcher to remind him of what she looked like. Was it the sex? Kris Kristofferson once wrote, “Ever since the first I had, the worst I had was good.” So if it wasn’t the girl, and we all agree that there’s no way on the planet, even with the most bizarre fantasies imaginable that it was the sex — what did Client 9 buy? Starbucks sells coffee, right? Coffee is much cheaper in other places, and even Consumer Reports showed that McDonald’s coffee outperformed Starbucks in taste tests. So if it’s not coffee they’re selling — what is it? Is it the funky jazz and the baristas and the heavy cardboard cup with the now-considered designer overwrap?
In my head — there are two questions at the core here. One (and I guess the least important for this discussion) is how in touch are we, as consumers, with what it is we’re buying — really? Are we aware of why we do what we do — why we think we love Starbucks? I guess this is where I really don’t want to believe we’re all a bunch of lemmings.
But the second issue is — as marketers, how in touch are we with what it is we’re peddling? Do you know what it is you’re selling, really? Tiffany’s understands what they’re selling and it’s not the jewelry. Starbucks used to be crystal clear on what it was marketing, too. What about the rest of us? If we run a restaurant, is it just the food?
What are your thoughts?
On a side note, if anyone out there can come up with something to market for $4,300 per hour, give me a call!!
David Bradley said
Scott, I am a restaurateur and I can confidently say “it’s not just the food”! In some restaurants the food has more to do with it than other restaurants. Supply and Demand. At Chuck E Cheese it’s not about the food, right? Some resorts and vacation destinations it’s all about the atmosphere, especially if there is a captured market. I would say in most cases if you do not have good food you are doomed in the restaurant business because that is your product, but it is certainly not always the case.
You are marketing the total package of your restaurant. Now that may revolve around your good food, but even if you have good food you need to have decent service. You also have to have an atmosphere that works, and cleanliness.
People don’t go to Starbucks just for the coffee, especially if the coffee tastes better at McDonald’s, according to consumer reports. We can point the finger at what Starbucks is doing wrong right now, but they grew so rapidly for a reason. What did they do right? The total package! Good coffee – yes, but also served to you in a cool atmosphere, with funky jazz music playing, and in a fancy cardboard cup with a designer sleeve. Maybe you can get a good cup of coffee at McDonald’s, but it is the total package that Starbucks marketed and the total package that we purchased.