A man will go across the street to save a nickel on gas but a woman will drive a mile for clean bathrooms. The interstate gas station battle front seems to have missed that point entirely. The market believes the local gas convenience business is the same as the interstate gas business by the way they build their franchises and market their product. They seem to have missed a huge opportunity; the demand for clean bathrooms grows in direct proportion to the miles one has driven from their home.
Billboard after billboard you read the following on the interstate:
Gas Station, food, fuel, beer
Gas Station, fuel, beer, food
Gas Station, beer, food, fuel (This one is rare, they keep the beer in the back on their marketing, let's be safe)
Safe is an overpriced skill in marketing, safe will give you average results at best. Nowhere does safe rear it ugly head than in platitude filled corporate marketing crappola.
Plat-i-tude (noun): A flat, dull, or trite remark, especially one uttered as if it were fresh or profound. You can learn a lot about marketing just by getting out and taking good notes. 95% of what you will find is full of platitudes. The idea being, if I just copy what they are doing, than my results will be at least know worse that my competition. Being no worse is no formula for fat margins, niche markets and happy shareholders. Platitudes are boring and annoying. "Imagine a gas station selling food and gas that is so unique!"
What about the bathrooms? Why not use it to your advantage? How about this billboard.
Our bathrooms are so big, bright and clean, you will forget to buy gas!
Everyone welcome!
Or
Forget the beer and gas, you have got to see our bathrooms!
Everyone welcome!
Gasp! What have you lost your mind, you are going to let anyone in your bathrooms? Even the non-customers?! Isn't the idea of marketing to take non-customers and convert them to habitual paying users? Can you think of a better way to make that happen than invite the entire state to see your fantastic can? After the look on my wife's face when she returned from the bathroom, it confirmed why they want you to pay first. No sane human would buy anything that would go into their mouth after they see how you take care of your bathrooms. Get their money first boys! I know, "bathrooms are for customers only" is all the rage, so is charging 50 cents for three minutes worth of air for your tires. Do you think the five bucks you get from the ten desperate drivers with low tires will make up for the permanent brand damage and ill will you create by nailing them for two bits each? It is the small things that are so memorable because they are expected to be neglected.
That is why they jump out at you when someone takes the time to market the small details. For example, In-N-Out Burger gives you a soda with the straw already in the drink. Look at the straw, the top one inch of paper is still intact, the rest removed. Nice touch. Clean, totally unexpected and thoughtful. Big company mentality does not have time for that noise; they focus on only the big problems. It comes from their inbred genetics of old mass production mentality. Think small, in a noisy world slammed by options, the small differences really jump out.
So where are the bathrooms in all this, they are expected to be overlooked right? Now I am not saying you need to go overboard but this is marketing remember? We measure and respond, not bet and hope. I don't care what the analysts say, the extra variable cost of letting a guy take a leak for free is missing the point. Turn your bathrooms into a marketing engine because if they know how to wow me there, they obviously know how to take care of my other needs. A man's wallet is strategically close to where he plants his cheeks don't forget. No better place to test that theory than the interstate fuel market.
My favorite horse in the race today would be Quick Trip or QT, as the habitual paying users call it. They are not a franchise in the traditional sense but have built a great brand of company owned stores that I absolutely love and tell everyone I know the same thing. They recently entered the local market where I live, maybe they service interstate off ramps back East, I cannot say. I can say, they have created an absolutely fantastic experience that is crushing everyone around them here. First, you go in and the universe seems ordered. The ice, beer, food, snacks, 24 station drink bar, 24 station gourmet coffee, the smokes, all meticulously lined up, you feel centered there. Next, they make sure the floors are mopped, a lot. The snacks, a huge island of rotisserie madness, grab and bag premium hot snacks, surrounded by perfectly faced bagged varieties of all the favorites. Next, they hire very bright, fast and friendly help and comp them better than anyone else. The sticker by the register says it all "Fortune top 25 best places to work" ask them at the register what is so special and they gush about it, you can feel a company that is on the move. The bathrooms? Way too average and a letdown for the experience you get out front, in a word, unremarkable.
Come on guys, you are firing on so many cylinders; why not build an interstate gas station around a bathroom. Give the analysts the day off and go with your gut on this one. How about spotless designer finishes? Why not have a guy in a tuxedo in the bathroom that works for tips but keeps the place incredibly sharp, opens the door when you leave. Not that door! That's creepy, the main door! Have some Vivaldi playing or ESPN radio and XM Oprah for the ladies. Monogrammed wrapped dinner mints in a bowl, logo on one side and the words "Stolen from the bathroom of Quick Trip" on the other. You are selling an experience, not a service remember?
So where does this leave the rest of us in our respective enterprises? Make a list of all the platitudes in your marketing, be brutally honest and willing to scrap it all. Start changing the small things first. Measure the results and let the clutch out and have some fun. Your customers will spread the word fast if you give them something fresh to talk about.
