It gives me a very nasty headache and cough which is a killer combination because with a nasty cough, the headache becomes even worse. It feels like my eyeballs are going to burst with each spontaneous burst of coughing…and that’s really no laughing matter.

My apologies for not getting back to you earlier but when the mind doesn’t work, nothing else will…

Anyway, here’s the winner of my “contest” found at this link –> World Cup Hits And Opportunities.

1. The solution that enchances the exact solution:

DavidK

DavidK submitted several entries, but I’ll read them as a whole since they’re all connected with each other. His entry isn’t the exact solution, but he has enhanced it quite a bit.

Here are the “highlights” of his entries:

1) “Every time there is an Event, it’s ‘Bet The Jug Night’.”
This extends the current promotion to other events and there will be other events throughout the year, for sure. When something is already working, it’s a good idea to use it for other events rather than wait another 4 years for another promotion.

Thus the restaurant will be using this promotion to fill up his seats throughout the entire year, instead of just that 2 months in the aftermath of the World Cup. Smart thinking!

2) “Whoever wins the most jugs at season’s end wins a prize. A competition board can be posted at the restaurant.”
This is another great way to get customers coming back again and again, because now there’s more than just winning a jug – it’s the “prestige” of being the “champion” of the contest.

It gives the customers more things to talk about amongst themselves and it helps generates interest long after a single event is over.

Well done, DavidK! I’ll be in touch with you via e-mail very soon on your prize.

2. There isn’t an exact solution from the entries submitted

And so there isn’t a winner here.

But I should mention a few notable entries:

tgeiger came very close with the following:

“The key to making money on giving away the beer is that the free beer coupon has to be redeemed on a separate visit to the pub. This way the patrons have to come back and will order food to go with the beer.”

There are 2 components missing, however:

1) A deadline for redeeming the jugs won

2) The time when the winner should come in to redeem it so that he’s more likely to order food with the jugs at the full price (no discounts).

tgeiger’s solution is the first one to be received which is his plus point.

outrigger has a similar solution, but with a deadline. However, his solution also offers discounts, which isn’t present in the exact solution, and discounts will hurt the restaurant’s bottomline if given too liberally and really aren’t necessary under the current circumstances.

All the other solutions offer further/different discounts and/or Loyalty Card Programs, which are not in the exact solution.

And to see why a Loyalty Card Program isn’t the answer either – click on my previous post on it –> Loyalty Card Program.

So there’s no winner for the exact solution category as some crucial elements are missing.

However, this contest has been great fun – and it’s especially encouraging to see some very well-thought out responses.

BTW, I’m looking forward to watching the World Cup semi-final clashes between Germany and Italy, and Portugal and France tomorrow.

It’s been a great World Cup so far – and sadly, another week and it’s all over

I’m betting my jug on Germany to win against Italy, and France against Portugal. But football is such that you can never be too sure.

So I’ll be betting my other jug on Italy and Portugal! So no matter who wins – I win!

And if I win – the restaurant wins! (see my last post on this –> Bet The Jugs.)

Sen Ze
Click Here To Join The Pajamas Revolution 

You can link to this post with the following URL:

http://www.SenZe.com/business-blog/the-world-cup/the-winners.htm

Wow…honestly, I didn’t quite expect the quality of some of the answers submitted as seen in my last post on World Cup Hits And Opportunities.

You showed lots of creativity and I’ve had lots of fun reading them all.

Before I get to the winners – here’s what that piece of paper said:

======================

Congratulations on winning your bet against us!

This coupon entitles you to redeem one jug of beer. Please fill up the form below with your details, tear this coupon out for safekeeping and return the other part to us.

Redemption of your jug of beer can be done after July 10th between 6pm – 8pm every day.

This coupon expires on August 31st.

======================

If the winner wins 4 jugs, he gets 4 coupons, and fills up the form only once. Each coupon can be redeemed on separate days as long as they’re redeemed between July 10th and August 31st.

Here’s what this can accomplish:

1. It brings the winners back to the restaurant after the World Cup is over
And therefore filling it up in the aftermath of it – which is the objective of the restaurant.

2. There’s a deadline for redemption
Deadlines are important for them to act on redeeming what they’ve won. The restaurant WANT the winners to redeem the beer because by doing so, it will make more money even though the beer is free (see No.3 below).

It can’t make more money if the winners forget to redeem the beer. This is likely to happen when it doesn’t impose a deadline.

The deadline also ensures that the winners redeem their beer after the World Cup and before the football season in the various countries start again, so that it can fill up its seats during the slower months.

3. They have to redeem it between 6pm – 8pm
This is dinner time for most people. Unless you don’t eat during dinner, this will result in food orders AT THE FULL PRICE (no discounts offered) because, well, they’re already in the restaurant drinking their free beer, so what’s missing is just the food that they should be hungry for at that time.

Quite a number of you are offering discounts on food when the winners return to the restaurant.

While this can be a good tactic in bringing the winners back, the discount in this case has already been given to them in the form of the free jugs of beer won by them.

Thus offering even more discounts to bring back a Customer who’s already coming back anyway at a time when he’s most likely to order dinner at the same time is simply going to eat up the restaurant owner’s profits, with little additional gain.

The goodwill has been created by the restaurant earlier with the “No-Risk Bet Your Jugs” concept, and by turning up to redeem the beer, the winner is still experiencing this goodwill.

Thus ordering food at the full price isn’t likely to be an issue at all in this case.

Discounts can be a good marketing tactic, but being too keen to offer it can hurt the restaurant’s bottom line more.

Having said the above, however, there is no right or wrong “answer” on using discounts as circumstances will dictate how best to use them.

Ok – what of the form asking for the winner’s details?

This is probably even more important than the redemption coupon itself. The restaurant owner is building up its mailing list that it can contact again and again in the future with other special offers like a great party for 20 people on the winners’ birthday, arranged for them at no extra cost. Just pay for the food. The “discount” is in the free birthday organization.

Even better, the restaurant can modify its approach by having this form filled in by everybody before they bet their jugs of beer, so that it can compile a mailing list of not just the eventual winners.

What’s most important to collect are an e-mail address and a cellphone no. Whenever the restaurant wants to fill up its slow days, an e-mail blast or even better, an SMS Broadcast to its list with special offers at the right time of the day will likely bring a number of them back, with very little extra marketing cost.

This contest has been great fun.

The winners will be announced in my next post, very soon.

Warm Regards,

Sen Ze
Click Here To Join The Pajamas Revolution Now

From the way things are going, it looks like Germany may just lift the World Cup. They’re really, really good!

FIFA, the governing body of World Football, reported that its web site at http://www.fifaworldcup.com/ is drawing a record FIVE MILLION different visitors daily. 

Yes, that’s 5,000,000 people checking out its web site EVERY SINGLE DAY (so far – this number will go up as the tournament progresses).

Can you imagine how much money they can make with that sort of traffic?

They’ve served over 1.2 BILLION web pages in just over a week since the tournament started to those 5 million daily visitors.

The World Cup is a competition for only 32 countries who had to qualify over a period of 4 years for it, but it is the single biggest sporting event in the world attracting tons of viewers from just about every country on earth – except for the U.S.

For some reason, my American friends don’t quite find football (or soccer) exciting enough for them to indulge in it the way they do American Football, even though the US Soccer Team have qualified for the World Cup in the past few World Cups (and at the time of writing, still in with a chance of making the 2nd round of the current one) and the US Women Football Team have been champions in the women’s World Cup.

I truly can’t understand why. But then again, I don’t understand why people are so passionate about golf either.

Pubs and restaurants serving alcohol do roaring business during this one single month. Friends, colleagues and relatives all have an excuse to come together once again for food and drink and to watch the games on the big screens specially erected by the restaurant owners for this purpose.

However, there is always a problem in the aftermath of the World Cup. While the pubs and restaurants will be full during the entire month, the number of customers they will get will drop dramatically once the final game has been played.

So what can they do to ensure that they continue to do well after the final whistle has been blown?

One very savvy restaurant in Malaysia executes a very interesting Pajamas marketing tactic that will definitely have some of their customers coming back long after that, bringing them even more profits.

It works like this:

If a game is on while they’re dining there, it asks its customers to bet the jugs of beer that they’ve ordered against the outcome of the match.

If they lose, it doesn’t matter – they get to keep the jugs and owe the restaurant nothing.

But if they win – the restaurant gives them whatever they’ve wagered!

Thus if they’ve bet 4 jugs of beer on England to win their game against, say, Argentina and England actually wins (unlikely, but it’s good to fantasize once in a while), they’ve just won another 4 jugs of beer!

And you say there’s no such thing as a free lunch (or free beer, in this case)?

So how does the restaurant make money this way?

Simple – it gives out a piece of paper to the winners that guarantees extra profits for the restaurant even though the jugs of beer are free, in true Pajamas marketing fashion.

The winners still do not need to pay anything for the beer and they don’t have to order anything else to go with the jugs to redeem their jugs of beer won.

Answer in my next post – unless you can figure it out in which case post your answer by leaving a comment below.

If you hit the nail on the head, or your solution is even better than the restaurant’s, you win one of my products (worth potentially thousands of dollars to you if you follow what it says). I don’t know which one it’ll be, but I’ll make it worth your while.

If your solution is incredibly stupid but you don’t know it, I’ll delete it to save you the embarrassment.

This is my version of the risk-free wager discussed above.

Just what can be written on that piece of paper that will literally guarantee the restaurant future profits from the same customers, taking into consideration the conditions above?

Wanna play?  

Cheers!

Warm Regards,

Sen Ze
Click Here To Join The Pajamas Revolution Now

P.S. You can link to this post with the following URL:

http://www.SenZe.com/business-blog/the-world-cup/world-cup-hits-and-opportunities.htm  

P.P.S. While I may root for Australia this World Cup (to know why, click –> The World Cup), my favorite team is in fact Argentina, which has already scored the goal of the tournament (so far). It was a flowing, continuous 24-pass move that ended with the ball at the back of the net by Cambiasso. Beaaauuuutiful…Click –> Goals Of The Tournament to see them again and again…

P.P.P.S. I forgot to mention this – I’m giving away one of my products to TWO winners with:

1. The exact solution, and

2. A better solution to No.1 above.

I’m the sole and final judge of who the winners are (yeah, you can set the rules on your own Blog for your own contest too if you have one).

In case there is a tie between 2 identical winners, the solution that was submitted earlier in time will win.