Make the most with what you've got.
Local Mexican restaurant, El Jardin, gives us a lesson in Marketing.
Marketing and communications lessons come in all shapes and sizes. Apparently, so does queso dip. This restaurant's customers and employees needed to quickly understand a complicated product offering with multiple price points. The message needed to be simple and easy enough to understand that it would work in English and Spanish at a glance.
The restaurant could've hired an agency to solve this for them. The agency likely would've suggested a detailed to-go menu. The bilingual menu would've listed all the prices and sizes of the products they offered as add-ons to their regular menu. It may have even had pictures to entice customers even more. The agency might've also suggested a large lighted sign to hang near the counter. The sign would've been a beautiful extension of the restaurant's brand identity. Matching colors and typefaces tastefully sized and arranged and clearly organized into a hierarchy anyone would easily understand.
The problem is, this restaurant is small and has an even smaller marketing budget, but they have someone on staff who understands the power of a great idea and that's worth a lot. By making this sign using actual cups in different sizes and clearly marking the prices and offerings on each, they not only solved their marketing problem, they also added a point-of-sale display that's likely to boost sales. The best part is it probably took them about 15 minutes to make it and the total marketing cost was about $2 including the posterboard and the Sharpie®.
I've been thinking about this for a couple days and here's what I think we can learn from this.
1. Low-tech isn't always bad
2. A good idea is a good idea regardless of execution
3. Point-of-sale displays can create awareness. (We never knew we could actually ask for a whole pint of guacamole.)
4. Understanding customers needs leads to the best solutions
5. Simple visuals tell a story fast
6. Good ideas don't have to be expensive
After seeing this, if we ever get asked to design a P.O.S. poster for a Mexican restaurant, you'd better believe there will be little cup graphics in all different sizes with prices written right on the cups.