Brand experience: What’s the big deal?

Brand experience: What’s the big deal?

By Josh Anderson

Copywriter | The “Adholics”

My wife and I just returned from a road trip to Mackinac Island. For those of you who haven’t seen “Somewhere in Time,” (which would be most) Mackinac is a quaint island located just off Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in Lake Huron. It’s accessed by ferry boats in the summer and snowmobiles in the winter. Travel on the 8.2 mile chunk of real estate is limited to horses, bikes or your own two feet.

Since this was our first kid-free vacation in seven months, we decided to take a scenic route to the island. Looking back, 10 hours in a car may have been a bit ambitious for the first leg of our trip (even I asked if we were there yet, and I was driving). But we did it and decided to stop in Manistique, Michigan for the night.

Entering the small tourist town, we found only two lodging choices to consider. My wife wanted to stay at a local hotel. I lobbied for the Comfort Inn that shared a parking lot with a Big Boy restaurant. She must have been worn out from the trip because I won. I never win.

So why did a Big Boy restaurant have anything to do with my decision? I think it has a lot to do with the power of marketing.

Innovative marketing is a big deal

I’m over 30 years old and had never eaten at a Big Boy restaurant before this fateful trip. In fact, the only time I remember hearing about the eatery was during the movie “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery”.

Using a rocket ship shaped as the Big Boy mascot, villain Dr. Evil jettisoned himself into space to escape capture from Austin Powers. And no, it doesn’t make any more sense if you watch the movie. But that didn’t stop me from thinking it was just about the friggin’ funniest thing I’d ever seen.

And it obviously was a brilliant marketing ploy. Because I felt passing up the opportunity to dine at Big Boy Restaurant #3 would leave my life forever void of meaning. Regretfully, the experience was worse than stroking Dr. Evil’s hairless cat.

Brand experience is a big deal

For some reason I had it in my head that Big Boy would be a classic burger joint. Not the case. Big Boy is Denny’s messier, less successful brother.

No grand slams in this place, only strikeouts. The featured dinner buffet included nine different entrees, all the same color. Even the all-you-could-eat salad bar was short on items you’d actually want to put in your mouth.

This experience was further diminished thanks to the stink-eye service we received from Dr. Evil’s estranged sister posing as our waitress.

Granted a lot has changed since “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery” was released in 1997. And perhaps Big Boy restaurants have fallen on hard times as of late. But you would think ingenious product placement would have launched the Big Boy brand into the stratosphere. I mean, 13 years after the movie was released Big Boy still had an opportunity to convert one weary traveler into a customer for life.

Just goes to show marketing can be effective, and it can be lasting. But great marketing amounts to nothing more than a hill of soggy onion rings when the brand experience falls short of the hype. And this is a big deal for any company that hopes to make sequels of its success.

I trust Josh’s judgment, however eating at a Bob’s Big Boy will remain on my bucket list. Again, the power of great marketing prevails. I’m sure they’ll clean things up by the time I get out that way.

Cheers,

Joshua Fedie

Principal

The “Adholics”