The Grand Poohbah Speaks:

I recently had the pleasure of experiencing a marketing epiphany while having my car washed.

Let me explain. On Saturday, I got a call from a friend saying that a local family had organized a car wash to help raise the last few thousand dollars they needed to qualify for a first-time buyer mortgage. She explained they were “this close” to achieving their dream of raising their kids in their own home (rather than apartments) and were asking the community for help.

They first had enlisted friends and co-workers to put out the word (referral marketing).

They had xeroxed little “thank you” fliers that expressed their gratitude and explained how the money would be used (education and acknowledgement).

They had their youngest son (an adorable 6-year-old) personally handing out the fliers to each driver as they pulled up (curb appeal).

They had free water and doughnuts to munch on as our cars were being attended to (added value).

And the whole family was unfailingly cheerful and gracious from start to finish (customer service).

Waiting for my car to be done, I’ll admit I got a little choked up thinking about the beauty of so many strangers helping this family move into their new home. And as I drove away, that’s when the epiphany happened because just 2 blocks down the street I saw a regular commercial car wash advertising a price that was half what I had just donated.

I found myself smiling because I realized in that moment just how irrelevant the price was. The commercial wash would have been just as good (perhaps even a skosh more thorough), but because the family had endeavored to put a human face on the service they were offering, to help me feel a connection to them as individuals, I was happy to give them my money.

That sense of connection and feeling of good will was as much a benefit to me as was a clean car.

The moral of the story is to remember that value, not price, is what people are coming to you for.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 1:19 pm and is filed under Offline Marketing, Business Planning, Market Research. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.