Coffee and donuts smell so good in the morning (even for a non-coffee drinker like me). The big state fairs and even the smaller county fairs have the schtick down. In the morning vendors sell coffee while the mini-fried donut machine pumps out treats by the dozens. Even the most health conscious can’t help but notice the alluring smell of cinnamon and fried food. By the the afternoon attention has turned to bottled water, ice cream and popsicles. Come dusk hawkers walk the crowd with light up toys, glow sticks and necklaces.
Bernadette Jiwa tells us about the same kind of merchandising techniques at her local cafe. Healthy power bars sell on Monday and by Friday buyers want to splurge on flakey (fatty and sugary) pastries. What the fair organizers and the cafe owners know is how to offer the things their customers are hungry for.
Your members want you to do the same for them. Not by time of day or day of week but your members are hungry for different services perhaps seasonally, cyclically and through their careers. Do your members have a seasonal business and do you align your offerings with their seasons? Or perhaps the industry or profession progresses through cycles and your members need you to help guide them through these changes. Finally, those new-to-the-profession have very different needs than members even 5 years into their career or 20 years in.
How else can you provide your members what they are hungry for?
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