It’s National Doughnut Day, Krispy Kreme and Dunkin’ are celebrating.

Which one will get a higher one day spike?
Which one will get a higher long range return?

To get your freebee at Dunkin’ Donuts, you’ll need to buy a drink. But there are no strings attached at Krispy Kreme.

My money is on Krispy Kreme. People will buy the coffee anyway, and the goodwill is better.

This post is going to sound a little haughty, but it needs to be said. It doesn’t pertain to all of you, maybe not even most of you, but it applies to some of you and you need to hear it.

Insert whatever brand you hold in high regard below…
“I want to be the next Starbucks.”
“Starbucks does this, and Starbucks does that.”

What most people don’t realize is that Starbucks does things many of you abhor. They give away free coffee to alter potential customers’ habits (and yes, most often existing customers benefit with free coffee).

They also are very involved in their communities and in the world. What have you done to benefit a neighbor that, except for the good PR, didn’t benefit you?

Lastly, have you seen the new Starbucks TV commercial? Visit any store, pledge 5 hours of community work, get a free cup of coffee? You want to be “just like Starbucks” but you need to realize that, except for their packaged goods that are distributed through other channels, Starbucks built their brand on word of mouth and real estate. Their advertising, in the past, has been limited primarily to billboards.

How about McDonald’s? You want to be like them? They give scholarships to employees and provide them with training to retain the good ones.

Chick-fil-A. Are you going to be like them one day? Giving away free or discounted food for fundraisers in order to build goodwill and spread positive word of mouth?

The truth is, some of you aren’t prepared for what it takes to be a local icon. You give 10% off coupons and wonder why no one redeems them. You don’t know your other community leaders and you don’t train to retain your good staff members.

In this climate, with ‘change’ all about us, with a renewed sense of community and impersonal restaurants struggling, you might want to reconsider what it takes to be the mayor of your village.

Restaurant Marketing from some of the finest. Don’t tell Jeffy – he’ll think it’s crack marketing:

Krispy Kreme is offering a free star shaped doughnut with patriotic sprinkles. www.krispykreme.com/storelocator.html

Shane’s Rib Shack is giving out a free three-piece chicken tenders, fries and 20-oz. Drink. www.shanesribshack.com/locations.asp

Starbucks is offering a free tall cup of freshly brewed coffee to voters. www.starbucks.com

Chick-fil-A restaurants will be giving away free chicken sandwiches on election day. www.chick-fil-a.com

Ben and Jerry’s will be offering a free scoop of ice cream. www.thefreebieblogger.com/ben-jerrys-free-scoop-of-ice-cream

Of course, in Georgia that will get you a $5,000 fine.

Most of these companies modified their offer to be free for the first “x number” of customers. Shane’s was first 300 customers, I believe CFA was all day (not confirmed, but projected by GNN [smile]).

Producing a web site for a company, any company, highlights all of that company’s process challenges and business opportunities in a single spot. Sure, you’ve got a web form for customers to fill out, but who within your company gets the information? How do they process the information? What phone number do we use for this promotion?

I’ve been working with Delta on their web site preparing for the merger with Northwest. If there is one thing that stands out in terms of their marketing ability it’s this: everyone there understands the importance of measuring, monitoring, and making incremental improvement toward gaining share of wallet and more profitable sales.

In other words, they focus on their existing customers to get them more often and more profitably. Frequent Flyer miles are an important tool for them in this regard.

Email: Get double miles IF YOU CHECK-IN ONLINE.
Web Site: GIVE US YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION AND SIGN UP and we’ll give you 500 miles.
Direct Mail: We’ll give you 1.5 times your miles IF YOU BOOK IN BUSINESS ELITE.

In every case, we’ll give you this if you do this for us.

For your restaurant, increased trial of menu and services leads to frequency of visit:
- FREE dessert with any seafood entree (because maybe seafood is more profitable for you, or maybe you just need to move it)

- FREE lunch with any catering order (the secretary/meeting planner/pharm rep gets something personal for ordering for others)

- Unlimited fries between 4pm and 6pm

- $1 breakfast sandwiches BEFORE 8am

It’s important to note that NO ONE at this multi-billion dollar company with some of the brightest minds in marketing is complaining that they’ll diminish their brand by “incentivizing” customers with Flyer Miles. No one. Why? Because they’re trading value for value and modifying behavior. The brand isn’t being diminished and neither is yours by incentivizing catering or different dayparts.

I was watching Speed Racer with my little boy (the original series, not the movie) and one of the episodes made me chuckle.

Speed’s dad opened an auto repair store and business was slow. Speed came in with this advice: “Why don’t you give away the first repair for free? Then that person will tell of his friends how great you are, and what a good job you do. Then you’ll have so much business you won’t know what to do.”

His dad took him up on the advice and soon had so much Model T business he couldn’t handle it all. Got me to thinking about a couple of things:

- Doing something nice for someone usually creates a stronger relationship with customers than simply advertising.

- Especially for restaurant marketing, giving away a sample at an event (or better yet, giving someone a free sandwich/app/dessert so that they have to find your location) has always been a great way to show your product in action.

- This type of marketing was the norm back in the day. What makes you think it doesn’t work now? Because we’re more sophisticated and can reach 100,000 people in one message? Try that, let me know how it works for you.

- Word of mouth spreads faster in small groups (in this case, Model T owners – then do it for Corvette owners, then for Cadillac owners, and so on). Maybe the objective of your marketing should be to spread word of mouth, instead of create awareness.

- “But if I give it away, I’ll have too much business and people will be mad.” For the love of Pete, would you listen to yourself? First you don’t have enough business, then you have too much. Be smart about it and this is never a concern. If you can’t handle it, you should probably return to middle management.

- “But if I give it away, it will cheapen my product.” Hogwash. Plain and simple. $1 off and BOGO w/purchase of a drink cheapen your product. Give someone free food, or support their event with discounted catering, and chances are they’ll be grateful instead of taking you for granted.

All of this from a leisurely evening with my seven year old. Some things were just easier back in the day. You go, Speed Racer.