A Prescription in Marketing

My wife and I ate dinner tonight at a local Red Robin restaurant. They bill themselves as having “Gourmet Burgers and Spirits.”

While we didn’t have any spirits, we did try their gourmet burgers. They were good, without a doubt. But the one thing that stood out was their “bottomless steak fries” that you get with every burger. Indeed, any sandwich, I believe.

Why is this important?

Well, not only is it a great benefit, even a USP of sorts, but it’s steak fries, not normal fries you get everywhere else.

That ups the value for sure, but I noticed something else. Something extremely clever on their part.

See, when they brought our burgers and steak fries to our table, I noticed they didn’t give you a huge amount of fries to start out. It wasn’t a particular tiny portion either, but it was far less fries that you’d likely get at any other eating establishment.

Except—you didn’t worry about it, because you could have as many as you want. It was bottomless!

I know what you’re probably thinking. Yeah, so?

Think for a moment what happens at any other restaurant who serves a lot of fries, but DOESN’T have the bottomless thing happening. They wouldn’t give you as few fries as Red Robin did, because you’d say, “Hey, they’re ripping us off. This is all we get?”

So they pile them on and give you a good amount, much of what you don’t end up finishing. That’s a lot of wasted fries when you add up the number of patrons served over any length of time.

Now look at the Red Robin model. They give you a smaller portion, but you don’t mind because you know you can always ask for more. But the thing is, most people don’t.

Most people’s eyes are bigger than their stomachs, and a smaller portion of fries is just fine in the end, especially with half-pound burgers!

Sure, there are some who want more, and they’ll get it. But Red Robin is doing two important things here:

1. They’re cutting costs, which in this day and age for many restaurants is crucial to stay in business, with oil and food and delivery prices being what they are.

 

2. They’re presenting this cost-cutting as a huge benefit. Who else offers bottomless steak fries?

It’s a huge value builder, and best of all, they don’t even need to deliver in most cases. In fact, I’ll wager they have to cook far less fries than most thriving burger restaurants, because of their model.

Absolutely brilliant! They’re perceived as adding more, but in actuality they deliver less. And this isn’t a shady or sleazy strategy of any kind. Their patrons really can have as much steak fries as they want. It’s just that what they think they want is often different from what they actually want, or in this case, can eat. I’m sure you see where I’m going with this.

Now I know they aren’t the only ones doing some variation of this. Not by a long shot.

But it’s a good lesson. And it’s not just for restaurants.

A marketer I know once told me he offered a product with a limited bonus. The bonus was a free consultation with him on the phone. He sold out the bonuses, and you know how many people took him up on it?

Zero.

But that bonus still had both a real-world and perceived value. The fact that nobody took him up on the bonus didn’t make it any less valuable.

Perhaps there are some opportunities in your business to beef up your offer and USP by going the extra mile. Even if you don’t have to!

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