Zoo Marketing

This post is from from my other blog here

I visited a small local zoo, today, with my wife and two young children. As we completed our first circuit we came to a pond with about 50 obviously healthy and well-fed trout circling in the water below an old-school candy machine that dispenses "trout-grub" in small handfuls for a quarter. As I watched, the space around the dispenser was never empty for long as family after family arrived to feed the waiting fish. It was clear how clever, even if not unique, this system is. Your clientèle pay for the privilege of maintaining your assets, so you not only avoid the cost of feed, you make a profit on it. The zoo also has animal feed packages available for purchase as you pay for admittance. For the low, low price of $2.50 you can have a small ice cream cone filled with a handful of animal pellets along with one banana. Cost of goods? Can't be more than a few dimes. The zoo makes a significant % profit off these small purchases. The families visiting profit by the experience of feeding a giraffe or lama, and watching a gorilla catch a chunk of banana out of mid-air, something they will surely remember and tell their friends about (not to mention the hundreds of pictures bound for Facebook that will come from these zoo adventures). What's impressive is that the zoo has found a way to offer their customers a remarkable experience that is profitable to the zoo. Here's the challenge: What can you do in your business to make your menial tasks a remarkable experience for your customers? This might require taking a completely different look at your company and the way you do things. Trust me - it will be beneficial. Did I mention that at this zoo, you can get really close to the action?