Click here to listen to the podcast.

In today's Brain Storm! Business Podcast, we will discuss the important of providing an experience and not just a product, using Pinkberry and Mint as examples.

PLUM CARD! That's the credit card that was advertising that they provide Pinkberry with the credit they need to keep expanding their pseudo-frozen-yogurt franchise. In the podcast, I couldn't remember the name (I only remembered it was some type of reddish color). Great example of cross-marketing (and piggy-backing on the recent branding success of a new company).

Is Pinkberry the new Starbucks (who supplies some of the VC monies)?

People argue that people don't HAVE to imbibe $5 frozen yogurts, as opposed to their addictions to $5 cups of coffee. Therefore, they worry that Pinkberry will be a temporary success. So what brings people into those LA and New York stores?

Experience the difference - meaning $500 chairs and other expensive fixtures.

Supposedly, people are paying for the experience to sit in $500 chairs and such. They feel that waiting in line for 15 minutes to get one of their 2 flavors of yogurt means they are trendy, like Paris Hilton I gather. They also get that secretive fan club feeling when they can order something that is not on the menu and is known only to the faithful.

Mint is making the dreaded less dreadful.

Another new "shop" is Mint, which promises one click reconciliation of all of your bank and credit card statements. They are trying to lure the twenty-something crowd, laden with debt and bad spending habits, to kneel at the altar of the balanced checkbook. 40,000 people signed up in the first 2 weeks, but will it keep up the success? Twenty-somethings don't have a clue about finances, and they really don't want to GET a clue about it, making this a very hard-to-sell-to crowd.

So come with me for a brainstorming session about how to give your clients an experience, instead of just a product, and how to make things simpler for them as well. And thanks again to Jeff Blankenship and Fam5 Blog for including a link to Online Community Magazines in his Freaky Friday Link Love.

Penny Haynes, Online Community Magazines & Around Cherokee County