I love a parade

What can we learn about business by watching a parade? How to turn a dirty street into a cash cow that’s what! Step one, invite people to sit on the side of the road. Step two, ask other people to walk in the street. The franchise concept you are selling? The people on the side, look at the people walking in the street. The people walking, wave at the people sitting on the side. Then brand it so people feel they need to pay you rent just to walk and wave at the people sitting. Start the music! Next, license the trademarks, TV rights, and memorabilia. Stop! I am not in the parade business am I?

If they can make a dirty street in small town USA print money, I know you have something far more valuable to market. Is your business missing the parade?

Last night I went to the Zoo lights with my family. I live in Phoenix and the winter is the best time to go to the Zoo. After I walked around for an hour it dawned on me, any Zoo that is closing down today has nothing to do with what they tell you, “Oh the high cost of animal care, poor donor base, high overhead…” It has nothing to do with the animals at all or the donors. It has everything to do with this simple concept. All business is the show business! My 10 and 12 year old boys get an earful about business wherever we go. I can’t help it, I think it, dream it, talk about it, it is not something I do, it is who I am, I’m sick, there I said it. I think they actually believe the Zoo trip was just a smoke screen to another branding lesson, without the whiteboards.

Each year, 265,000 out of the 1.4 million annual visitors, see the Zoo lights at the Phoenix Zoo over 46 nights. This has nothing to do with their “main attraction”, the animals. The only animals I saw were 20 flamingos and a large mechanical giraffe that talked to the kids and made a crowd of 200 at a time pause for 15 minutes. Nice bit guys by the way, the longer you are in the park, the more you want to eat. More stops, more revenues. Note to management, add more talking animals. The real kicker is in the numbers. They did those numbers only open 4 hours each night versus 9 hours during their regular calendar. That means on an operating hour, trade weighted basis, 20% of their annual revenues are generated using only 7.5% of their operating hours to create that revenue. Sorry to spreadsheet on your parade, but the next time you are singing the blues about your flat sales, try juicing your franchise by creating a crowd around what you already have.