Marketing Lesson 134: Sly and The Family Stone

The more I travel through Airports, the more I realize that each one has a pace, a vibration and a tempo all its own. There are differences in airport personnel, food shops, even the security people, we fondly call the " TSA search people", are different.

Sunday, 2pm in Denver and the airport is decidedly different than midweek. More business guys in blue jeans, more families, more seniors and more ladies in very casual, but still stylish apparel. But the airport services don't change. It's still the same old bar and grills, fast food joints and an occasional "theme" restaurant trying to be representative of the local market.

Surprisingly , most of the eateries are less than one quarter full; but I notice many people eating from brown paper bags they probably packed themselves.

Deductively, I reasoned that passengers probably packed their own food because:
it is less expensive
it is food they want.
it is healthier.
past experience has conditioned them to believe that airport food is "terrible."

No doubt it is all these variables have contributed to seemingly less patronage.

Now think about your center

If you change or add more family friendly food items on weekends, do you think you would generate more business? If you had a special Saturday night cosmic bowl menu., would you sell more food?

How about special weekend beverages; not just booze, but things like milk shakes, ice cream sundaes, root beer floats or even glasses of milk and chocolate milk?

If you already have these items, why not create a 1/3rd of a page quickie menu for the weekends and then distribute them from 9a to 6p all weekend long.

Do the same for after 9pm when a different market segments visits the center.

You just might get some more customers to pay attention get some interest, build some desire and get some action and buy your food or drink more frequently

Its marketing mantra # 134 from Sly and The Family Stone: "Different Strokes for Different Folks."

So what are you doing differently?