From the Mouths of Babes: A Kid’s Take on ROI
IF YOU STILL THINK not everyone is considering the importance of measurable marketing, talk to my kids.
As we frolicked on the beach during a week off in Maine this summer, we saw a small plane pulling a banner advertising the $3.99 ham and eggs breakfast special at Rosa Linda’s in Saco, ME, every single day. What was my seven-year-old son’s first question about the spectacle? The ROI, of course.
More specifically, he wanted to know (a) what it cost to have a plane fly your message over the beach every 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?
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 near the end of our trip, 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 clearly be bonkers. Who needed shampoo when they were about to go ride a flume and eat fried dough? What were they hoping to accomplish?
Actually, this was a pretty smart locale for the giveaway. 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.
Next Stop: San Francisco If you’re headed out to DMA:2010 Oct. 9-14, please stop by the Penton Media booth and say hi. I’ll be there, as will Sherry Chiger and Richard H. Levey. We’ll be covering the show for Chief Marketer and Direct via our main Web sites, the Big Fat Marketing Blog and Twitter (@bethnviveiros, @Sherry_Chiger, @chief_marketer).
See you on the left coast!
