Friday, August 21, 2009

The Cactus Cowboy Sent Me!

Cactus_Cowboy.jpgIf you noticed that I haven't posted any blogs lately, you are right, but I have a good excuse.

I've just come back from a well deserved 2 weeks vacation. Some friends were visiting us from Spain, and we all went for a 2 weeks road trip. We flew from Seattle to Las Vegas, rented a van and visited Grand Canyon, Antelope Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park, and Los Angeles (from where we flew back to Seattle).

In one of the many motels where we slept in Arizona, I found a brochure in the room with advertising of local businesses. One of them was a typical Southern restaurant. What caught my attention waws that they had the following text under the ad:

When you come to our restaurant, mention the following to your server: "The Cactus Cowboy Sent Me!" and you'll receive a free coffee or dessert.

Now, the symbol of the restaurant is a Cactus dressed as a cowboy swirling a lasso (you can see it in the photo), so this ad somehow makes sense.

Although I would prefer to pay for my coffee than to say something so silly to my server, these people have a good point. They are tracking their marketing expenses. Each time that somebody says this silly sentence, they know that these people saw the paid ad displayed in the brochure. They could have included a coupon instead, but this would mean replacing the ad each time that a customer clipped it to bring it to the restaurant.

By saying a unique sentence like that, they can track the results of the marketing without having to replace the ad each time. It is clever and effective.

So what about you? Do you have a way to track your ads? If not, you should be learning from the Cactus Cowboy. After all, he knows what he is doing.

Happy meals,
Jose L Riesco
©Riesco Consulting Inc.

www.myrestaurantmarketing.com

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