Here in Texas, we take our consumption of meat very seriously. Whether it’s fine dining at a fancy steak hour, brisket breakfast tacos, or BBQ at one of many fantastic joints to choose from, us Texans definitely mean business when it comes to our brisket, chops and steaks.
There’s a fancy steak house here in downtown Austin called Perry’s that has a weekly promotion called Perry’s Pork Chop Friday Lunch. Every Friday from 11 AM – 4 PM they offer up an enormous, juicy serving of pure perfection. The pork chop is presented on a huge cast iron plate dripping in butter and its own juices. Getting the meat perfected is no small feat; in fact, it’s an exquisite 5 day process of drying the meat, curing it and finally roasting the meat in pecan wood for up to 8 hours. The pork chop is also paired with mashed potatoes and a serving of Perry’s homemade applesauce. The presentation alone of this huge cut of meat is definitely a top notch experience for diners. And they only charge their customers less than 15 bucks!
I often meet business colleagues for lunch here. In fact, I’m going today with one of our VP’s. I will most likely take pictures of my meal and post it to my social media outlets. In fact, I haven’t even gone yet and already, I am posting about it on LinkedIn! This is how excited I am about the experience that I am about to have this afternoon. The service is absolutely exceptional, the food is amazing, and the price is an absolute steal!
Perry’s Pork Chop promotion is a perfect example of experiential marketing at its finest. This restaurant is creating an exceptional *experience* – and it’s an experience that is being shared, posted, tweeted, checked-in (take your pick!) – Perry’s is emotionally connecting with their customers by using touch, sight, smell and sound to keep their customers coming back for more!
Consumers today, particularly Millennials, spend a considerable amount of time connected with their peers via online devices. In fact, a recent study showed that a staggering 65% of Millennials are disconnected from their devices for less than one hour per day! They are checking into the restaurant via Facebook, they are posting pictures of their Pork Chop to Instagram, they are Tweeting…
Businesses need to engage with their customers in a much different way because of today’s digital landscape. However, some brands simply have not adapted to the way customers today want to be marketed to. Those brands that are not serving up an exceptional Customer Experience to their customers are getting left behind.
Food for thought: how is your organization evolving your business tactics to ensure that you are creating brand evangelists and repeat customers? Are you creating *experiences* that will keep your customers coming back for more?
