Penchuk.com

According to the Burger King’s CEO Greg Brenneman, in the Wall St. Journal,

…a typical Burger King sells just three salads a day, compared with 300 Whoppers. Salads, he says, help take away the “veto vote” of mothers who sometimes prefer such fare to burgers and fries.

I think the veto vote concept is certainly worthy and has some merit. I’ve seen Laura exercise this kind of veto, but more often it means the whole family goes to Subway instead of Hardees (which I’m arguing for).

The 3 salad a day stat surprises me and makes me question if BK should have salads at all. Let’s assume that these 3 salads are associated with stereotypical families. Dad gets a value meal, the young’uns get kids’ meals. We’re probably looking at $12, $13 for the rest of the family. The salad may cost $5 or $6. So total, for all of these veto related meals, we’re talking about $60 per day per store. Is it really worth having to assemble/ship in salad stuff? Is it worth holding the dressings inventory? What about the salad containers? If they are assembled in house, what’s the training required? Salads aren’t rocket science, but someone has to be taught what to do.

Now $60 times 8,415 US stores equals $504,900 per day. That’s not chump change but I still question if salads are worth keeping on the menu. One things for sure, it will be a cold day in hell before I get a salad at Burger King.

In this post back on February 6th, I wrote about bad marketing decisions made by Honda regarding their hybrid vehicles. Take a minute and read it. I’ll wait. OK, now that you’re back, I’m going to contradict myself.  Actually, I’m going to further explain my thinking.
Previously I wrote:

This is just a textbook case of someone completely misreading the marketplace. They didn’t match their product to what buyers want.

So, now that Lexus has come out and basically said that they want to use hybrid technology to promote their luxury brand.  Hybrid technology will be used to enhance the driving experience:

BMW owns the M. Mercedes uses three letters: AMG. Audi claimed S. Now, Lexus has a new letter it wants luxury-car buyers to associate with high-tech, high-performance driving: “h.”

That’s “h” as in hybrid…The new hybrid GS450h represents the other face of hybrid technology — the face that gets a big grin when the foot goes down on the accelerator…

The new GS combines a 3.5-liter V-6 gasoline engine with a sophisticated battery-driven electric-drive system — the first ever brought to market on a rear-wheel-drive car. The result: a $54,900 car rated at 339 horsepower — more than European luxury V-8s such as the Mercedes E500 and the Audi A-6 V-8 — and with acceleration so quick that Lexus claims this 4,134-pound car can dash from a standstill to 60 miles per hour in just 5.2 seconds.

So you’re probably thinking, those bozos at Lexus have misread the market. No one wants to buy a hybrid if it won’t save them money on gas.  Well, I disagree. Lexus is right on target. Honda misread the market because their typical buyer is someone that wants a good price for a quality car. Honda is a mid-tier brand.  It’s not the top, it’s not the bottom.  It serves the very highest part of the population bell curve.  Lexus on the other hand is catering to a very upscale market that cares more about the performance of the car than the price. They are way off to the right of that same bell curve (their parent, Toyota, serves the same market as Honda).  If you’re about to drop $55K on a car, you’re not all that concerned with saving a few bucks on gas. You, Mr. Luxury Car Buyer, want top performance and you’re willing to pay for it. You want a car with get up and go.

Lexus will completely succeed in using the little “h” as a brand differentiator because their market will look to hybrid technology for something different than the Honda market does.

As of today we have 31 days before baby #2 arrives. Laura will be having a planned C-section on April 18th. At this point, however, that’s WAAAAAAY to far away for Laura. My wonderful wife is very uncomfortable with the belly protruding. It’s significant too. She has grown much faster this second time around to the point of discomfort. We’re gearing up here to be ready. My job today is to head up to the attic and take inventory of what we’ve got when it comes to baby stuff. One benefit of having another boy is that we’re going to be able to re-use a lot of stuff like clothes. That will certainly help the wallet.

Ben is doing great. We recently changed daycares and we have seen the impact almost immediately. He is much more communicative and seems to be more outgoing. The new place bills itself as a pre-school and not a daycare. Right there I think there is a mindset that changes the quality of the care provided. I truly feel that Ben is thriving at the new location. He’s also playing hockey with Daddy practically every chance he gets. He uses either a small hockey stick that he got for Christmas or one of my old ones that I cut down to Ben size. We pass a tennis ball back and forth using our sticks and he loves it. Daddy has a good time, too.

One thing that we’re watching closely is his speech. Four and a half months ago when we had tubes put in his ear, we expected a side benefit would be improved speech. For the most part, that has happened, but his S’s and F’s are still not coming out clearly. We’re keeping an eye on it as we’re told it’s not anything for concern at this point.

Seth Godin has always had interesting things to say. Over the years I’ve read about him, his sale of Yoyodyne to Yahoo and his blog. So when I saw this video of a speech he gave at Google, I figured I had to watch it. He’s intriguing as always but one thing I found really interesting was his comment that “cat food is not for cats”.

His example is Fancy Feast’s “grilled salmon” flavor. No cat cares if its salmon is grilled or not. Cat owners care. They buy the food and they are willing to pay a huge premium for “better” cat food. It’s an interesting observation and a great example of the power of good marketing.

UPDATE (3/18): This morning brought an article in the Wall St. Journal that picks up on the theme:

Nestlé SA, the biggest pet-food maker in the U.S., is launching a new line of Purina dishes that include roasted chicken with pasta and carrots, and simmered beef with wild rice and spinach. Rival Del Monte Foods Co. is adding pasta and vegetables to its famous Kibbles ‘n Bits. And Procter & Gamble Co. has introduced Savory Sauce, a “canine condiment” to pour over dog food. It comes in three flavors — bacon, chicken and roasted beef.

And more:

“The humanization of pets is the single biggest trend driving our business,” says Todd Lachman, the head of Del Monte’s food and pet division. “When I first got involved, I thought it was a bit silly. But now that I’ve spent enough time seeing how passionate people are about their pets, I don’t think it’s silly.”

I think it’s less about the humanization of pets than it is something that makes the owners happy. If your personal preference is for fine food and wine, chances are, you’re going to think the same way about the food your pet eats. And, you’re going to be more willing to splurge for that premium cat food.