Marketing Facts (How Weird Buyers Really Are!) Bare Facts

Thank you Paul!

I especially liked the part about Black Pearls, too bad we don't all have friends with stores on the 5th avenue

Along the "Black Pearls" story line - True Story:

In college, I worked for a VERY upscale Madison Avenue caterer. He was definitely ahead of the food curve, and would import stuff that few people (at the time) had ever heard of, much less tasted.

So one day, he finds himself with almost an entire shipment of fresh crotin de sauvignol (small goat cheeses) that were becoming increasingly pungent and wrinkled as they languished in the case.

He handed out samples. No joy. He tried slashing the price. No joy. Then he tried bundling them as an upsell. No joy. He moved from one side of the case to the other. No joy. People just weren't interested.

Finally, the light bulb went on. He marinated the crotins in EVOO and herbs de provence for a week. Then he placed them front and center in the shop window, lots of open space around them, and bearing a price tag that was TRIPLE the original price.

The entire lot sold out before the end of the day.

After that, we would split the shipments of crotins and marinate half of them. The marinated ones would always sell out faster than the fresh. It never seemed to occur to any of the buyers that they could buy the fresh cheese for a pittance, and do their own marinating for a few pennies. They happily paid the triple price - without a murmur.

Go figure...