The World Cup
The Greatest and Biggest Show on Earth has begun.
I’m talking about the World Cup (of football, or “soccer“, to my American friends), of course.
Billions of people from around the world will be watching this spectacle played out between the teams of qualified countries for the next 4 weeks.
It is so huge that even players with recent injuries including a broken foot will do anything they possibly can to play in it, even if it means the possibility of hurting themselves again during the tournament.
As I prepare for this year’s World Cup (to watch it, that is), memories of the last one 4 years ago come flooding back.
It’s an interesting one that provided me with an awesome lesson in selling done through a Pajamas concept.
The World Cup was jointly held by Japan (for the initial stages) and South Korea (for the final stages) 4 years ago.
It was one of the most amazing World Cups I have ever witnessed (starting way back from 1978 when I was still a kid) as I followed the amazing fairy-tale run of co-host South Korea all the way to the semi-finals.
I was already operating my Internet businesses on a full time basis then, which gave me a lot of time and freedom to do whatever I wanted without having to worry about money.
Over 64 matches were broadcasted between all the competing nations, with each match lasting at least 90 minutes.
In the later, knockout stages, each match could last 120 minutes with extra time added on. Still others lasted longer when penalty kicks were taken by each team to break a deadlock after 120 minutes were up.
Now get this.
I watched every single one of those 64 matches.
EVERY SINGLE ONE.
Can you imagine that?
I would wake up to a match, then have my meal, watch another one, have my nap, then watch another one, have my meal, and so on and on. Most of the matches I watched live, some recorded when they were played at about the same time.
It was a routine I would be repeating every day for the entire tournament that lasted about a month.
Now being a bachelor then, and with all my friends at work when most of the matches were played, not being in a relationship, and with the Greatest Show on Earth being beamed into my living room every single day – it was the single most obvious thing to do.
The problem was (yes, there was a problem) that it was too much of a good thing, but it wasn’t too much of football. I enjoyed every single match thoroughly.
It was the food I was taking. Or to be more precise, the fruit I was taking.
I ate a LOT of this fruit.
In fact, I ate this fruit for lunch and dinner most times, in place of my lunch and dinner – and sometimes I replaced my breakfast with this fruit too.
Why?
I did this because of the way it was sold to me, in classic Pajamas fashion.
This is how it looks like in its natural form:
You could buy it in this form. You pay according to how much it weighs.
But you would need to open it on your own with a heavy knife – and this takes some skill and quite a bit of strength.
Or the seller could open it up for you, but you would be carrying the entire heavy, thorny fruit back and you would still need to pry the shells open with your fingers. And you wouldn’t be buying just one.
This fruit is called the “Durian” and for those lucky enough to have lots of it where they live, it’s called the “King Of Fruits“.
Where I live, we call it the “God Of Fruits“.
No kidding.
The durian has a very thick thorny shell that houses a delectable orange-yellowish flesh surrounding a big seed. It gives off a very pungent aroma that is delightful to a lot of people.
However, the smell has been described as “baby vomit” by some Caucasians. The English novelist Anthony Burgess once said that dining on durian is like eating vanilla custard in a latrine (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian).
No kidding.
Its overpowering smell is the most distinctive characteristic of this fruit, and is so great that it even grounded an airplane once:
I suggest that if you haven’t tried it, do give it a shot. You may just notice that the smell will change from what was described above, to almost heavenly in no time.
Com’n – it’s not called the “God Of Fruits” for nothing.
Its flesh comes in sweet or bitter flavors. My favorite type is the bitter ones.
The more bitter, the better. I normally look for the type that is so bitter that it gives me a headache right on my forehead almost instantly after biting off a chunk.
This sensation is something I remember very well from my childhood, but I haven’t been able to find that same stock of durians ever since. I’ve been very close though, on many occasions.
So ok – this is one great fruit.
Now I would normally indulge in durian eating once in a while, not every day, even though it’s sold almost everywhere.
But I ended up eating it every single day for almost an entire month 4 fateful years ago.
This is why.
Check out how this fruit was sold to me by the seller who was stationed near where I live:
Notice the absence of any thorny shell – leaving just the flesh of the fruit in a clearly wrapped styrofoam base!
EVERYTHING that needed to be taken off so that the flesh of the fruit can be consumed, was taken off, right before my eyes, before it was packaged as seen.
No pain, no mess, no sweat.
Just plain flesh.
Very clean too.
All that was left was the eating (after the unpacking).
Now I don’t know about you, but I would like to do the eating myself.
And because everything was done for me except for the eating, I bought this fruit in packs of 4 every other day.
Enough to last me 2 meals a day for 2 days before I needed to top up my supply for the next two.
Buying the fruit packs was easy – just take 4 of them, and pay $20. It was $5 a pack.
Easy.
Now think about it.
The conventional durian seller would be sitting at his stall selling the fruit with its thorny shells. He’s going to be spending his time at his stall, whether he’s going to sell any fruits or not. And he sells his fruits by how much they weight.
The other seller spends his time at his stall opening up all his fruits and packing them in neat styrofoam boxes, so that his Customers don’t have to do this themselves. He sells his fruits at a fixed price. Since most of his fruits are of similar sizes, they’ll weigh about the same anyway. Or he could have a price scale based on the size of the fruit.
So assuming both type of sellers sell wonderful durians, near the same location:
1. The durian seller selling durians in their original form will make good money
2. The durian seller selling durians in convenient styrofoam packs will make even more money.
The second seller sells CONVENIENCE on top of the fruit at a price that is competitive to the first seller.
When there’s added VALUE at very little extra cost, you’ll sell more of it compared to another who simply does what every other durian seller does.
(Of course, this is assuming you’re looking to sell your fruits in volume. If you’re not looking to sell out your huge stock, convenience on its own can attract a premium and make your durians more expensive than the other seller, but you’ll still get your customers and in the process make even more profits for yourself.)
Neither seller spends more time to sell his durians.
One expends more effort to deshell the durians, for sure, but it isn’t a whole lot more work for him who’s used to deshelling durians in the first place.
Besides, with the extra money that comes in from the additional sales due to the deshelling, he can definitely afford to pay someone to deshell for him, all day long – and still make more money than the seller who doesn’t do it.
It’s easy to see who makes more profit, because there are many lazy people around that you can sell to.
In fact, there will always be people of the “Styrofoam Packs” variety – and it is here that you can find your fortune.
Check out some nice examples on the Internet in my next post – one of my favorite places to do business in.
Cheers!
Warm Regards,
Sen Ze
Join The Pajamas Revolution Now
Note:
1. You can link to this post using the following URL:
http://www.SenZe.com/business-blog/convenience-marketing/the-world-cup.htm
2. I’m rooting for Australia in this World Cup for one simple reason – their manager is Gus Hiddink, the same man who performed miracles for South Korea 4 years ago as their manager, by getting them to the semi-finals. He created another miracle in getting Australia to qualify for this World Cup after 34 years at the sidelines. Hmmm…time for some durians now…
