Lessons of $1 Hot Dogs Help FBOs Cut the Mustard
Ron Jackson
Recently, I read a sidebar article about Dollar Hot Dog Night at the Rangers’ stadium. On Wednesdays when the Rangers are in town, they cook some 65,000 hot dogs for hungry patrons. At a buck each, the promotion attracts a lot of families to the game, and the conies are quickly snatched up!
The Art of the Deal
I’m sure you have your favorite sport, and if it’s baseball, you know how a hot dog with your favorite beverage tastes on a warm summer night around the diamond. It hits the spot! But something else is going on at the ballpark.
In the article, the writer asks a university professor for his opinion on why a $1 hot dog attracts so many to a game when patrons can have all the hot dogs they want for a lot less money by buying them at a supermarket and eating them at home.
His answer, posted in the Dallas Morning News, is what spurred me into writing this blog post.
According to Ernan Haruvy, a management professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, a perceived deal, such as the $1 hot dog, depends on several factors, including:
- Your physical surroundings
- The customer’s mood
- What the customer believes is a fair value for the transaction
OK, that all sounds logical because the customer is at the ballpark; therefore, the surroundings are fun. Secondly, because a day watching baseball is better than a day at work, the customer is probably in a pretty good mood. And lastly, $1 for a dog that usually costs $4 seems like a relatively fair value.
But what does this have to do with an FBO?