Should You Serve GIANT Coffee Drinks?

Powerful moments create memories, and strong memories create repeat customers.

Everyone hates a gimmick, right?

They feel cheap, flimsy, like a half-assed approach to standing out.

And yet, there’s something about a quirky experience, a fun surprise, or an unusual feature that captures our attention.

We crave uniqueness.

In The Power of Moments by Chip and Dan Heath, there’s a story about two pancake houses down the road from each other.

They could stick to “just good pancakes” and compete on quality, but realistically, pancakes can only get so good. There are only so many ingredients you can add or flavors you can combine.

So these two pancake houses had to think of something else.

Giant vs Tiny

One pancake house started making their pancakes the size of football helmets. The giant cakes made news and attracted people who love larger-than-life foods.

The other pacake house made their pancakes the size of silver dollars (bite-sized). They were cute, easy to eat, and attracted a whole different kind of customer.

When people look at Google Maps and see these two pancake houses, they aren’t flipping a coin to see which one they go to because they don’t know how to choose.

They can easily identify which restaurant looks more their style by seeing pictures of the the giant vs tiny pancakes.

Go big, go small, but don’t be normal.

(Like I wrote about in this newsletter: Stop Trying To Be Blue Bottle Coffee) 

Get a little wild with creating interesting, memorable experiences.

If you’re worried about it feeling gimmicky, test that new experience on customers you have a good relationship with and ask for feeback. They’ll be more than happy to help you find fun ways to stand out that don’t dilute your mission or quality.

And, as always, let me know if you come up with anything really fun ?