The Food Court

Image via Wikipedia

For today’s Foodie Friday Fun post I want to talk about what the food court tells us about media.  I know – exactly what you were thinking about yourself.  But there really is an analogy in there.

I’m sure you’ve wandered around the mall and as you get to the food court you’ve had folks come up to you with samples of food.  Maybe you had the same experience at the supermarket or Costco.  Sampling isn’t exactly a new strategy, even in media.  Movies have been giving away samples – the “coming attractions” – for as long as I can remember.  So what’s different and why is it important?

Media today – and the marketing of media entities – is all about how to make money out of choice, convenience and the fact that much media is free.  I think we all know that once something is given away it’s really hard to charge for it.  Obviously, what’s given away in the food court is NOT the complete product.  Yet we hear the complete product for free on the radio (or at least over the air radio) and people buy music.  The Dead have taught the world that giving away your complete product and encouraging fans to share it for free can precipitate a fantastic, long-lasting business.

I always wonder when I hear things such as McDonald’s canceling an in-store giveaway promotion of fruit smoothies because the drinks already were selling well enough as they did last Summer.  You have to wonder if the Mickey D in the food court was happy about that as the other places were using samples to draw in the crowd, upsell them beyond what they’d tasted, and appear busy, which always seems to encourage others to stand in line (hey – there’s a line – the food must be good!).

What’s different in media is that while sampling used to be more prevalent, content entities today seem to worry that opening the gate just a little will result in everything being taken from them for nothing.  There are still entities in media that behave as if there are fences around content and they spend time thinking about how to keep it gated so they, as content creators, can have complete control.  Ha!  What they should be thinking about is how to get enough people standing in your line, buying more expensive product, and coming back regularly like they do in the food court.

Off to the mall!  Let me know what you’re sampling.