Bribing your Customers with Maple Syrup and Candy.

Unique Shopping and Retail Experiences That Help Differentiate

This past weekend I took my family to Kings Landing Historical Settlement, a local New Brunswick historical park where they served a pancake breakfast with all the maple syrup you could ask for. After the breakfast, patrons lined up for an experience to taste a small sample of maple syrup candy rolled in snow. Never tried one before? It is an old traditional treat that the early settlers would make each spring when the maple sap started to run and maple syrup was in full production.

Last Saturday morning patrons were lined up by the dozens to pay $2 for a small sample of this sweet maple treat. For a small candy treat, that you would probably expect to pay maybe 50¢ for in a store, they were selling literally hundreds for $2 each.

Why? That’s easy. The patrons were not buying a candy treat. They were buying the experience of watching the maple syrup being hand-poured onto snow and then rolled onto a popsicle stick. They were buying the experience of enjoying a candy treat that was savoured by our ancestors a hundred years ago.

That got me thinking. What kinds of experiences can we offer in our retail stores? At Green Village Home & Garden, we already do lots – from a butterfly house and display gardens to ice cream parlours, events & workshops (more on these in later postings). But what else is there that we might be able to offer our customers? What other unique experiences http://jennyscustomerinsights.blogspot.com/2009/02/importance-of-customer-experience.html can we bring to them that they may not otherwise easily experience?

What kind of event or experience can you bring to your customers that will create excitement and get them talking about you, instead of your competitors down the street?

Who was it that said, ‘Don’t sell the steak, sell the sizzle’

Here is an example of a retail boutique offering a unique experience and this is a store that sells everything from strollers. clothing to woodcarvings. Both are finding ways of providing a unique retail experience.

Andy