Recently I was in the United Kingdom giving a keynote at the Ticketing Professionals Conference in Birmingham.
During the keynote, I was talking about the future of live entertainment.
Specifically, I brought up the idea that the way you position your product or experience, the way you talk about it, and the way you sell it can create all the difference in the world between whether or not you are considered a commodity or a luxury.
During the talk, I shared the story of the average 12 year old that eats a McDonalds’ meal and raves about it.
Which is awesome and if you are McDonalds, you’ve done your job.
But McDonalds isn’t built in the same way that my favorite restaurant in London, Joel Robuchon, is.
Which means, McDonalds isn’t built for me to have a 2 hour lunch with 4 courses, wine, bread, and conversation.
McDonalds is meant to get you in, out, and fed…ASAP.
In other words, quality isn’t really the point. Speed and price are: a classic commodity.
On the other hand, I also shared the story of a luxury item, or several, actually, but they all share something in common as well.
The luxury items we all know and care for tell a story. Typically, a much different story.
Usually this story circles around anticipation.
High perceived value.
The thing about luxury items is you might build up a lifetime of anticipation for the purchase of one of them…
Think of a Mont Blanc pen.
Or, a Mercedes.
Or, the little blue box from Tiffany.
You see, if you aren’t a 12 year old boy, you aren’t really raving about the meal you had at McDonalds. But more than likely, unless you are a spoiled brat, you are definitely talking about the gift that came in the little blue box.
Which one would you rather be?