As a Marketing Professional if you recommended the title of this post as the upcoming marketing campaign slogan for your restaurant client, you’d probably get fired, right?
Well just hold on a second…
Most towns and cities have at least 50 different places to get a hamburger. If your restaurant was widely-known as the number one place to get a burger then I wouldn’t recommend this strategy (obviously). However, for the other 49 restaurants, it’s the perfect angle.
If you went, right now, to a busy street in town and polled the first 10 people you saw on the best burger in YOUR town, what would they say? There’s probably a clear favorite, right? If burgers aren’t a good example in your town then what about sandwiches? There’s usually one, clear favorite. In our city this is true of po-boys (a kind of sandwich, if you’re not from around these parts). We have a restaurant here that is BY FAR the number one place. They don’t advertise it but everyone knows…
Therefore, if my restaurant had a pretty good po-boy then I’d immediately market it as the 2nd best in town. Why, you ask? Because I couldn’t say I was the best because people would argue with that. I couldn’t say “Great Po-boys or Awesome Po-boys” because nobody cares but if I say “2nd Best Po-Boys in Town” then you have context.
People would put you in the ballpark of the best. They’d say “well if they’re number two then they must be pretty good!” Furthermore, it’s memorable, it’s cheeky and it’s different. No-one else will have the guts to say it…!
Use this for your restaurant client if it’s applicable, it’ll be worth the initial funny look you get…
