I went to Jack in the Box last night and ordered a Sourdough Combo. (Yes, I wanted a free holiday ball.)
“And can I get a small fry on the side?” … A modest request, right?
“I’m sorry, there is no small. Would you like a medium fry?”
<pause>
“Fine.”
Y’know … it really irks me that almost all of the fast food chains have eliminated the “small”. Am I the only one that doesn’t want a SIXTY-FOUR OUNCE soda? I remember when I could get a “small” order of fries for 79¢. Now I get the same thing, but it’s called a “medium” and it costs $1.09. Do they think that I’m deceived? Man. It’s not like everyone would have stopped buying “smalls” if the price had been raised to $1.09. All they managed to do was insult me.
There’s an excellent article at fastcompany.com that discusses a few fascinating marketing issues like this. I followed a link that looked worth reading from the webword newsletter:
Cleaning Up Brand Clutter — “Make simplicity a selling point. Look at BMW. They’ve got the 3-series, the 5-series, and the 7-series. You know instinctively which is the entry-level car and which is the top of the line. You know that the 540 model has a more powerful engine than the 528.”
Responses to “Marketing 101”
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I completely agree. What is this business with for 25 cents more, you can SUPERSIZE!!!! i have to end up getting a damn happy meal and have the cashier laugh at me handing me my plastic toy. ghetto 🙂
It’s all worth it for the holiday ball though. I’ve got the damn things all over the place.
We are all getting used to being treated like **** by the marketing geeks and accountants that are running corporate America.
Where can we go to get anything resembling good service in the retail sector? Where can we find a clerk who can make change? I want everyone, I mean everyone, to open up their window, right now, and yell out “I’m masd as hell, and I’m not taking it anymore!” (stolen from the movie Network)
errr, thats “mad as hell”…….
speaking of supersized – ‘supersized’ from what? there’s no ‘large’ in canada anymore. why not just call it a ‘large’? why not just say ‘our large is now larger’ and make everyone (ie me) feel like i’m getting my money’s worth.
is it me, or is the font in this text box ludicrously small? what did you use, 2 point? i can barely make out the letters.