Whopper of a move

Perhaps you've seen them...you know, the Burger King commercials showing customers reacting to the news that the Whopper is no longer on the menu at their favorite BK restaurant. Stunned. Angry. Exasperated.

Customer reactions were powerful. And, apparently, so have been the results from the ads - powerful, that is. (It was a hoax, by the way.) An article on the ads from the Wall Street Journal (2.8.08) indicates: "Depriving Whopper fans of their favorite burger turns out to be a surefire way to get them to buy more....Burger King, which began running the TV ads Dec. 9, credits the campaign for helping boost Whopper sales in the quarter that ended in December by a double-digit percentage. It 'drove significant brand relevance and incremental sales,' executives said."

Taking away a brand and/or a favorite product from your customers just may be a way to measure and understand more effectively "what role [that] product plays in people's lives."

How might you and your business use "deprivation research" to find deeper insights into your customers? How would they react? Here's a whopper of a question to ask: Would your customers/clients notice if you took away your flagship product?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120244090812952965.html