£9.99 is a deal price. Tucked in under a tenner, everyone loves £9.99. And if you're wandering around the West End of London at present, you'll see a lot of 'chain' restaurants trying to tempt frugal tourists with £9.99 dining deals.
Not at Porters though. I know Porters. I'm so old that I remember it opening in Covent Garden's Henrietta Street back in 1979. And for 30 years it's prospered, while trendier restaurants have come and gone, by offering a menu consisting largely of traditional English pies.
It's a very English brand, much loved of tourists.
And it understands its market. It knows they've been to the Tower. They've trudged round Trafalgar Square. They've been to the Palace. They're doing London: lapping up its history.
Now here's the clever bit.
Why charge boring old £9.99, like everyone else, for your 2 course meal deal, when you could charge £10.66, pocket 67p more to your bottom line, and bring a smile of recognition to the faces of passing trade?
It's cute beyond words. There's a little bit of copy at the bottom of the poster which tells you that good old English Porters is doing this because we're all battling the Credit Crunch now, and 1066 was the last time Britain succumbed to a threat of such proportions. Or something like that. Doesn't really matter.
They turned a pitch for your business with a discount deal into a charming extension of their brand identity. And they earned an extra 67p for their trouble.
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