THE WRAPPING IS THE PRESENT

 

 

My daughter was telling me about a posh Indian restaurant called Dishoom, apparently it’s very popular with ‘city boys’.

These are the traders that work in the financial institutions, trading big money on stocks and shares all day.

There are lots of posh, expensive Indian restaurants near where they work, so why is this one so popular?

It turns out, it’s all to do with a 15% loyalty discount.

But these guys love showing off how much money they’ve got, they wear gold Rolex’s and drive BMWs and Audis, why would they care about a measly 15% discount?

The answer is they don’t, it’s not the 15% discount it’s the way it’s presented.

If you’re a loyal customer, Dishoom gives you a token to play a game called Matka.

To play this game, at the end of your meal you get to throw a single dice from a brass cup onto a brass tray.

And here’s the part that keeps city boys coming back: if you throw a six, the entire meal for your whole table is free, including all the drinks.

This adds up to hundreds, sometimes thousands, of pounds.

That sounds wildly extravagant and of course city boys can’t resist, this is the sort of high stakes bet they love.

But look at it from the restaurant’s pov, the dice has six sides – that amounts to a one-in-six chance of winning, or 15%.

So one free meal every sixth throw is the same to the restaurant as a 15% discount.

Of course, a 15% discount would be way too boring to attract city boys.

But the chance of getting your mates together to eat and drink as much as you like and bet it all on the throw of a single dice, is irresistible.

And, if they do win, the high is amazing and the story circulates amongst all their mates over their phones for ages afterwards.

Which means all their mates want to go and have a shot with the dice.

And if they win, they save the receipt and tell the story again and again, because they love gambling and they love winning.

This creates the kind of word-of-mouth advertising you can’t buy, and they didn’t have to, they just had to repackage a pretty standard 15% loyalty offer.

Of course, you have to get your audience right.

If I was the customer, I wouldn’t be interested in throwing dice, I’d prefer the guaranteed 15% discount, which is why I’m not a city boy.

But they understand their customers and how they’re different to other customers.

They understand it’s the wrapping that makes you want to open the present.

Of course, you could just wrap a present in brown paper, it’s the same present inside, and yet the value seems a lot less.

We should know that, we’re in advertising, that’s our job.

For instance, on Valentine’s day and anniversaries I would always get my wife flowers, like most men do.

The difference is, I’m in advertising, so I would be thinking how can I increaser the value of the flowers?

I need to look at my market, what is the value of flowers to a woman?

It isn’t just the actual flowers, it’s other women seeing the flowers and commenting.

So I didn’t just buy the flowers and take them home.

I had them sent to her office, but I got them sent to the wrong address, I got them sent to the office next door.

So the receptionist would leave her desk and bring them round to Cathy’s office.

She gave them to the other receptionist who carried them through the office to Cathy’s desk.

All the while, other women and girls are going: “What lovely flowers” or ”Who’s the lucky girl?” or “I wish my husband would send me flowers”.

And then they sat on Cathy’s desk all day long getting compliments.

By the time she brought them home, they’d created many times more value than the cost of the actual flowers.

All by understanding the market not just the product.

By understanding that the wrapping is at least as important as the present.

If we’re creative, that’s our job.