Not as cheap…
Saturday, December 29th, 2007 at 1:14 am
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Spotted this on my travels earlier this week in Faversham:
I think the banner proclaiming “we’re not as cheap as Wetherspoons” is great.
All too often marketers can get stuck in the discounting trap, seeing price as the most effective part of the marketing mix to attract customers.
The Railway Hotel is turning price competition from the nearby Wetherspoons pub on its head by shouting that they’re not as cheap.
The implication, of course, is that by not being as cheap the Railway Hotel is in fact better.
Even in a market driven by price, there’s always a different angle for differentiation that will attract new customer. It’s the marketers job to find it.
I didn’t actually make it into either hostelry, so can’t comment on the accuracy of either claim, although the menu outside the Railway Hotel did look pretty good!
Tags: Advertising, commoditisation, commoditization, differentiation, faversham, Marketing, price+competition, railway+hotel+faversham
Categories: Advertising, Marketing
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Tuesday, January 1st, 2008 at 8:25 pm
That’s great, Simon. The word cheap has a powerful stigma attached to it, with the implication of poor quality as strong as the claim that it is inexpensive.
I remember being amused when a member of my family once complained about a free gift they’d got (eg, with a magazine). They said: “It (the gift) was free, but it was only cheap.”
That said, this is the first time I’ve seen somebody actually use it to their advantage in such a subtly clever way.
PLUS it serves Shepherd Neame. It must be good.
Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008 at 10:19 am
I’m with you and Chris on this one. It’s a great bit of marketing and reminds me of the Stella Artois ‘reassuringly expensive’ strapline.
I’m sure The Railway will also feature far fewer punch ups too!
Happy 2008,
Andy
Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Yes, it’s elegantly done. It reminded me of another piece of clever copy (a strapline actually), which DID use a low price strategy unlike this example. It was for Sekonda watches, which were very cheap Russian watches, just as the Swatch phenomenon hit. They used the line ‘Beware of expensive imitations’, which managed to communicate they were low cost yet still desirable.
I was on your site, Simon, because I’m interested in using Wordpress as a platform for a Parish Council website and needless to say there are no funds! Thanks for the info you share on it.