Soma For Sale, by Freddy J. Nager, Founder & Fusion Director, Atomic Tango LLC

[caption id="attachment_2847" align="alignright" width="267" caption="Enough "thick value" for ya, order Soma online c.o.d. (photo by Stu Spivack)"][/caption]

In my ongoing quest to find anything of value on Twitter, Soma price, I started following Umair Haque (@umairh), a strategy advisor who writes a  column for Harvard Business Publishing called "Edge Economy". Haque recently let loose a blast at someone else's article:

"i strongly rec everyone read http://bit.ly/GdroN and reflect on why its 1) bad business 2) ethically questionable + 3) lame."

That micro-rant sounded like something I would write, so I had to check the offending article out.., buy Soma online no prescription.

What sent Haque into a Twitter tizzy (a twizzy?) is an article by Mike Speiser at GigaOm.com, "What We Can Learn About Pricing From Menu Engineers." The article reported on self-titled "Menu Engineer" Gregg Rapp, who strategically crafts menus for restaurants, Soma For Sale. Rapp had openly discussed his tactics on the "Today Show," so this wasn't some dark surreptitious sorcery at work here. Online buy Soma without a prescription, Indeed, his goal is simply to get customers "to look for the more profitable items" on the menu, like crabcakes.

If you object to that, where can i buy Soma online, you object to for-profit business in general. My leftist side can certainly understand that. Soma For Sale, But for all you seasoned capitalists, does Rapp advocate anything here that's beyond the pale -- or even that innovative. Where can i order Soma without prescription, Consider that most supermarket floorplans and website layouts are designed to steer customers to spending more money. Just go to the wine section of your favorite store: notice how the cheap wines are on the bottom shelf and the more expensive wines are at eye level. Is that unethically manipulative, or just smart marketing, Soma pharmacy.

To overcome price sensitivity, Rapp's tactics include removing dollar signs from the menu and not calling attention to the prices. In addition, he recommends writing mouth watering descriptions.., Soma For Sale. Rx free Soma, Oh noes. What a horrible man. He writes words that make customers want the product?. How dare he?, purchase Soma online no prescription. Lock him up!

The Dastardly Deed Called Reference Pricing
Soma For Sale, [caption id="attachment_2852" align="alignright" width="300" caption="The NSX: sold right alongside commuter vehicles. How unethical!"][/caption]

The tactic that excites GigaOm's Speiser the most is putting an outrageously expensive item on the menu that makes everything else look cheaper. Buy Soma without a prescription, Again, absolutely nothing new here. Car companies for years have put outrageously expensive items in their showrooms that few customers can afford, such as the six-figure Acura NSX in the 90s, order Soma. The high-end sports car served several purposes: it created a "halo effect' over the entire Acura brand; if one sold, Acura made a sweet profit; and it provided a steep "reference price" that made the $50,000 sedan appear downright affordable, Soma For Sale.

Others who practice reference pricing include high-end hotels (with their ultra-luxury suites), wines (with limited edition vintages), Soma from canadian pharmacy, sports stadiums (luxury boxes for the mega-rich), computer companies (the 17" fully loaded MacBook I crave rings up at $4500), and so on. Are they ridiculously expensive, Soma for sale. Sure. Is anyone forced to pay those prices. Soma For Sale, No. Where can i buy cheapest Soma online, A Case of Anti-Semanticism?

The real problem here is semantics: "menu engineering" is a pretentious term that makes Gregg Rapp's strategies sound more complicated than they really are, and which enables him to charge higher prices to his restaurant clients.

Hmm, maybe I should change what I do from "brand design" to "brand engineering".., buy Soma online cod.

[caption id="attachment_2856" align="alignright" width="279" caption="The face of evil: for his next trick, Gregg Rapp will try to sell you a PC (clip from the "Today Show")."][/caption]

If Rapp were simply a "menu designer" -- and if he didn't look like John Hodgman's PC character in the Mac commercials -- his story might not have created such a stir. Indeed, he probably wouldn't have appeared on the "Today Show"; rather, he would have wound up in the back pages of Communication Arts, Soma samples.

Hell, the guy sure knows marketing, Soma For Sale.

The other problem is the hyperbolic GigaOm article, which contains tabloid-caliber passages like, Buy generic Soma, "Have you ever gone to a restaurant and found some ridiculously priced item on the menu. Of course you didn’t buy it — you’re no sucker. Or are you?" and "He helps restaurants maximize revenue by hacking common flaws in human decision-making." Gee, I didn't realize GigaOm was part of the National Enquirer family of publications, buy Soma from mexico.

No wonder Umair Haque came out swinging. Soma For Sale, Haque normally analyzes such topics as the financial markets and political leadership. Anything that smacks of deception raises his ethical hackles, Purchase Soma online, and I respect that.

But in the case of menu engineering, this is much a'twitter about nothing.

Menu engineering is simply smart menu design. Restaurants are for-profit enterprises, buy cheap Soma no rx, and they should think smart and hard about how they present their food in their menus. Are the photos top quality. Is the copy enticing, Soma For Sale. Buy no prescription Soma online, Will the prices scare customers away from a really good dish.

Menus, after all, are simply catalogs of edible products, buy Soma no prescription. Does anyone get on the case of catalog publishers for highlighting expensive products or writing enticing copy. In the online world, Online buying Soma, does anyone rip into Amazon.com for strategically featuring certain products or having professionally crafted product descriptions.

Think Beyond the Product: Defining "Real Benefits" Soma For Sale, Haque tweeted me, "i suggest reading what i've written about thin vs thick value and reflect. does menu engineering ever have real benefits?"

You could ask the same question about any and all marketing practices: Are there real consumer benefits to having Michael Jordan endorse your shoes. To having the product come in a shiny package with a cool brand name. Or to having a Super Bowl commercial with a catchy song and a sexy actress, buy cheap Soma.

Haque focuses primarily on product issues: how many direct benefits does the product provide. ("Thick value.") That's all fine and good, but it's also critical to get consumers to try those high-value products you've invested all that time and money into developing, Soma For Sale. Business history is filled with great products that never took off, Buy Soma from canada, or that were crushed by inferior products with superior marketing -- or simply a lower price. (Think VHS vs Betamax.) You can't just make a "thick value" product; you have to get people to buy it.

So there is IMMENSE VALUE in getting customers to overcome their price aversion to try those $9.95 crabcakes instead of settling for $3.95 french fries. The customers might love those crabcakes, Soma over the counter, and be thrilled that they tried them. Soma For Sale, In the process, the restaurant earns a higher profit, the waiter makes a bigger tip (based on both price and customer satisfaction), and the customers might come back again -- and refer their friends. Those are real benefits for all involved. Where can i find Soma online, As long as the price and food are truly as advertised, "menu engineering" is just smart marketing under a scary name. And it works: I've engineered some serious hunger just writing this, so I'm off to find some crabcakes, australia, uk, us, usa, canada, mexico, india, craiglist, ebay, regardless of the price.

Update 12/24/9: Everyone's doing it, Buy cheap Soma no rx, including gourmet Indian restaurants like Tabla in New York. According to the New York Times:

Tabla is just one of the many restaurants around the country that are feverishly revising their menus. Pounded by the recession, they are hoping that some magic combination of prices, adjectives, fonts, type sizes, ink colors and placement on the page can coax diners into spending a little more money.

Somewhere, Umair Haque is having conniptions and trying to coin new phrases to capture his indignation at marketing.

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