I’m working with Eric on his Grade 7 science project. His chosen topic: Determining which of two brand-name hamburger choices is healthiest. To avoid problems with the lawyers, I won’t name the chain here but if you want to respond with a private email to buckshon@cnrgp.com and are correct, you’ll receive a prize other than indigestion. This dietary gem contains enough sodium and fat to fulfill 90 per cent of the daily recommended intake — and we are not counting the fries.
Obviously, professional food photographers would never take this, ahem, alluring, image. (To his credit, Eric went without dinner yesterday, and played an intense hour of hockey in the afternoon — perhaps one of the most strenuous physical activities you can do.) We need to continue the “research” for this project today, with a visit to another fast food chain. My son has already learned that the second chain’s product, while dissed with some really bad health publicity, is actually healthier than this — though I suspect the picture I take will be equally unappetizing (and the stuff will cause my stomach to turn as well.)
Obviously, the fast food chains who make this food don’t use health-conscious bloggers who care about construction marketing and are skilled with words but amateurs with the camera to take their food shots. (You shouldn’t consider using my services, either, for your website photos or marketing brochures — hire a professional.) But we can still learn some useful things here because the well-established fast food places are masters at marketing. They bring thousands of people into their stores, and sell franchises for rather hefty sums that would break the net worth potential of most mere mortals.
They achieve this success through intensive marketing, branding, and systems. You know you will get what you pay for, quickly, at these places. To their credit, the fast food chains also post comprehensive nutritional information on their websites, though sometimes they elect to leave the gory details to your own investigation and research (we had to do a little extra calculation to find out just how bad this product is, nutritionally, that is.)
Most successful contractors have a great product/service; so great that they claim they don’t need to advertise; virtually all business arises from repeat and referral business — and you can see from the polls on the sidebar just how prevalent the “we just get it right with the service” marketing is in this business. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose, but if you could take some of the systematization, measuring, and analysis the fast food places use, and apply it to your business, you would likely reach a much higher success level.
And you don’t need to put your budget — or stomach — through indigestion to achieve these results. (I threw away more than half of this food after taking the picture.)
