Saturday, June 23, 2007
Rock-Paper-Scissors and Marketing Genius
Posted by: lain // Category: Burritos and Other Fine Foods, Marketing Tricks, Not As Cruel Games // 10:28 am
Yesterday I was talking to a writer from the New York Times, and she asked, “Why do you have a blog?”
I thought about it for a second, and I mumbled something about getting folks to think about the Wren’s Nest in a different context, connecting with the kids, something like that–blah blah blah.
I wasn’t really satisfied with my answer. What I should have done is point her to this:
Now don’t think I’m comparing my blog to the coolest marketing trick I’ve ever seen–I’m not.
As the almost always astute Seth Godin points out, California Tortilla is not only supremely clever, but they’re also putting a distinctly human touch on fast food, and spicing it up with a little competition.
Suddenly, getting a burrito has become an exchange between two people who share an intimate knowledge of how to play rock-paper-scissors. It’s not just cashier and customer anymore.
You can’t get much more boring than the idea of a house museum, kinda like how you can’t get much more routine than ordering at the burrito line.
So, why do I have a blog? Probably the same reason I wish I got to play rock-paper-scissors every time I go out for a burrito.
P.S. Who calls it Rochambeau anyway? Is that a northern thing?
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Never heard of Rochambeau. Definitely NOT a northern thing. Maybe northern France!
Very cool marketing trick of your own Lain - you are the 9th trackback under Seth’s blog post about Rochambeau….that’s pretty good placement for the Wrens Nest on a very hot blog!
Yup, pretty smooth, huh.
My son, as a 4th grader, was assigned to write a short story. He wrote about an afternoon trip for a fast-food dinner, 2 aborted visits to 2 chains, and finally ending up at McDonald’s for a satisfactory ending. He got an A for a grade..I sobbed, cried uncontrollably, later that night away from my son. Was his life so desolate, meaningless, that he would choose such a topic as fast-food, much less write about it. But it wasn’t burittos, and he hadn’t been sufficiently introduced to JCH as I had been as a 10 year old.
Jeez, Tom, way to lighten the mood.
Kidding!
It sounds like your kid needs to (a) visit the Wren’s Nest, (b) read the Brer Rabbit stories and (c) pick up his free tshirt.
We’ll blog about this later, but basically we’ve designed four different shirts, and for every five stories the kids (or you) read, they’re entitled to one free! Collect all four!
It’s like McDonalds. Only minus the part about getting fat, and more about the getting schooled, trickster-hero style. Plus, there’s probably less crying for you. Everyone wins!