Are Companies Using Psychology In Their Marketing? | B2B Vault Podcast | Ep. 176

Yo, what's up everybody? It's Justin live from B2B Vault, the payment technology podcast sponsored by Nationwide Payment Systems, hosted by this guy, the Pat Tillman of payment processing himself, Allen Kopelman. And we'll be providing you educational information about fintech, payment processing, small business, and the technology businesses are using in the world today. And in today's podcast, we'll be talking about how this business uses psychology within their marketing. And not just this business in particular, but other businesses, um, use it as well. Um, yeah, you know, we were watching a video— anyway, before I hop in there, how are you doing?

I'm doing great. Pat Tillman, uh, Arizona Cardinals. Yeah, right. And he got killed in Afghanistan.

Yes.

Rest in peace. Pat Tillman was a patriot and a hero.

Round of applause for Pat Tillman.

Yeah.

Hall of Fame football player and patriot to his country. Yes. Yes. How are you? So are you done?

Yeah. The week's been pretty busy. Pretty hectic with getting stuff done. And, uh, you know, it's, uh, it's always interesting times when, you know, we're dealing with, uh, you know, crazy things and trying to come up with, uh, subject matter for the podcast. And there's a lot of things going on in the payments business, and today I came up with this, and I I thought it would be interesting conversation.

Yes, uh, we had a few convos about it off air. I don't, you know. And what do you—

and what's going on with you? Uh, see you working out at the gym.

Yeah, I work out 3, 4 days, sometimes 5 days a week.

That's cool. Yep.

Other than that, man, full steam ahead. Um, you know, that's what it is. Uh, so yeah, man. Starbucks, how are they using these, uh, how are they using the technology in there?

Yeah, so we were, you know, so I watched it. It wasn't just Starbucks. They talked about Starbucks. They talked about— we watched this video. They talked about McDonald's. They talked about different, uh, pricing techniques you can use for your business.

Yes, yes.

And I thought it was all interesting about how how that, how that all worked. So the first thing they talked about was how to build loyalty in your business. So one of the things they talked about, a great way to build loyalty with your customers, was to use their first name. Ah, and then they were talking about with Starbucks was that sometimes, and the guy was suggesting that they don't spell people's name correctly on on the cup because it's like a number one hashtag, uh, you know, Starbucks messed up my name.

I mean, sure.

And then people take a picture of it.

I don't— I'm not buying it. I'm just gonna throw that out there. I'm not buying that bullcrap.

Okay. Or people give a fake name like Jesus, or they say—

I mean, I always would do that.

Where they say their name is, you know, Vern or something funny.

Right, like, like Bart Simpson.

Yeah, Bart. Oh, what's your name? Bart Simpson. And then they—

Sir Farts A Lot.

I don't know if they're gonna write that on your car.

I would write that on a cup.

You would?

Why not? Okay, that's what you told me your name is. That's your name, Sir Farts A Lot.

Okay, so I'm just saying, so they were just talking about that, that, that's a way to make people feel comfortable. You know, if you have a restaurant and people's You know, obviously you're going to know the name if they gave a reservation. You're going to know the name when they pay because it's probably going to come up on the credit card, or it's on the credit card. And using people's names, uh, makes— gives them a sense of belonging, makes them feel welcome. And then if they come back and you have a good hostess, or the manager of the restaurant recognizes regular customers, those are places you probably like to go back to for sure, you know. So they know, oh hey, it's Justin, we know, you know, where everybody knows your name, right? Cheers, where everybody knows your name. That's, I guess, like, you know, they could say. So, you know, Starbucks likes to use people's names, and, you know, some customers can have fun with it by giving a fake name, right, right? And then take a funny picture of the cup You know, with a fake name on it.

I think that, I think on a marketing level, I think Starbucks, you know, seized an opportunity and seen that this hashtag was trending Right. And then figured out a way of implementing that hashtag within their own marketing. Yeah, I believe that. Do I think that they're intentionally writing the wrong names on people's cups so that people can write in?

No, but just saying, like, like Allen— my name's A-L-L-E-N, but they could write A-L-A-N.

Absolutely.

Or I could say, oh, my name's Big Al, and then I could take a picture and be funny. Oh, Big Al, is that Starbucks today.

Biggle.

Or they spell it wrong. Biggle, right? And it could be all one word.

There you go, right? So I get that.

Yeah, so I don't—

I mean, I just don't see it like them actually— like, that was— I don't see them telling their— training their employees to tell—

probably just naturally happens.

Of course, right?

So the, you know, but the, you know, but the thing is, is, you know, like, you know, using customers' names is always a good thing. I know when I owned my restaurant, we had a list of the reservations. They knew who the people were, and, you know, they greeted them. So it made people feel better, like they're a regular customer.

Oh, for sure, man. So, I mean, I walk into a couple of places and the guy knows me, like at Whole Foods, right? The guy— yeah, you got to move that, bro. I am, uh, the guy works at Whole Foods. He works in the produce department.

Yeah.

And he's my homie. He knows my name, but I don't know his. That's terrible. And he's moving to a different store.

So yeah, man, um, yeah, so it's good to, you know, you got to use—

I feel good going in there.

That's what I was trying to say. Yeah, so you have good, you know, have a good have a way to have, you know, or, you know, have a loyalty program. So when people buy, you give them loyalty points. We have point-of-sale systems that do that, and that can help build customer loyalty also by having a loyalty program in your retail store or your restaurant. Smart, you know. So that's the other thing. The other thing they talked about was the appeal of allure. So they talked about Starbucks, how they named the coffee the Tall, the Grande, and the Venti, and that having 3 choices drives people more to the middle choice and gets them to spend a little more money because they think they're getting—

and Allen Kopelman and I had a discussion about this, uh a little because we want to— we wanted to save it for the pod. But I said, you know, I'm not going for that. Like, if I go into Starbucks and I want to spend $6, I'm not going to spend the extra 50 cents to get the tall, right?

Well, the tall is the small, right? I mean, grande is the middle, and the venti is the big one, right?

I'm not going to spend the extra 50 cents. That just goes to show you I have no clue about— I haven't— I don't even remember remember the last time I was in a Starbucks. Um, you know, so like, I'm not doing that. Like, I'm not one of them consumers that are getting okie-doked, right?

I get it. No, so they were saying that they give an allure with the— given a fancy name to everything. And then they all— and then the guy also said in the video, oh, when the people come up to the counter and you say, oh, I want a caramel macchiato, they say, oh, would you like a grande? Because they try to upsell you from the tall, right, to the grande. So, you know, maybe it's a good idea for— if you have a business, let's say you have a sub shop, we were talking about sub shops earlier, if you had a sub shop, maybe you got to give your subs, you know, have 3 size of subs and then give them all like a cool name, like the Bob, the Jimmy, you know, and the Vern.

Not very cool names, but you get his point, right?

Whatever it is. What would be the cool names at Justin's Sub Shop?

I don't know, the Biggie, the Tupac, and the Big L. Okay, see, so, you know, I mean, I would have a whole hip-hop themed menu, you know what I mean?

So like, yeah, right, because so that could help drive traffic because now you have a theme to your menu. Like when you go to Firehouse Subs, right? Never go. Oh, well, they have a sub shop, Firehouse.

I'm familiar.

So everything is named after things in the fire station.

Oh, that's cool.

So, you know, the— all the, the sandwich names.

So you get a fire hydrant.

Yeah, exactly. Whatever.

I like it.

Or the ladder truck or whatever it is.

I'm gonna have to go and—

everything is, everything is themed that way. So sometimes that can help drive sales because people get like the theme, right? So they go to eat it there.

So yeah, like Jimmy John's has, has their, their thing is like the Slim Right. Which is just, you know, meat and cheese. And then you got the, the sandwich and then you got the, the full Jimmy John's, the big, the big guy. I forget what they call them.

No, they ask if you want— they know. They also ask if you want it Jimmy John's style or whatever they call it.

John's way. I don't know.

Yeah, the Jimmy John's way or whatever. No.

So those type of things, that is at Jersey Mike's.

Oh, Jersey Mike's.

They asked you if they wanted the Mike's, like, oh, Mike's Way.

Mike's Way. Yeah. So I'm saying every business, like we were talking about, like McDonald's has their thing, right? And then Burger King— McDonald's thing, I don't know, they don't have a thing for customizing. So, but Burger King became Your Way. Burger King is Your Way.

Have it your way.

Have it your way. So, you know, you have to have your different marketing. But also, like, McDonald's has their marketing where, you know, you have the different size burgers, or chicken nuggets come in 3 sizes, fries come in 3 sizes, drinks come in small, medium, large, right? And they try to drive you to that, which you can fit all in a small cup, which is funny. They say that about Starbucks too.

You can. Okay, there's videos of it.

I'll put it to the test. And they also—

that's ridiculous that they're able to do that. I think, I think it's kind of a sleazeball type of thing, but whatever.

And also, like, they talked about Starbucks in another video where they said, oh, they call the people that work there baristas instead of saying they're servers, making it sound a little more upscale.

I, I'm old enough to remember when Starbucks came about, right? In— well, I'm not from Portland, right? That's where it's from?

Seattle.

Seattle. Yeah, so I'm not from out there, so I don't, you know, for all the diehards out there, don't get it twisted. I'm talking about where I'm from. I remember when this thing in Starbucks came about, and it was like you were like a part of the upper echelon if you went to Starbucks. So, um, It's like, dude, it was like a status symbol. It literally status to get to be walking around with a Venti Starbucks cup. Oh bro, you were like, you were hot stuff, you know what I mean? Like, the chicks were digging you, you know what I mean? Like, oh, he could afford Starbucks.

Like, once I was in Starbucks, I had to meet somebody there for a business meeting.

I hated those business meetings.

And you go there and there was a guy in line in front of me and he's like, oh, I'll have a Venti caramel macchiato with 2 extra shots of espresso, you know, pump of vanilla. Yeah, pump. Yeah. And then the whipped cream and the da-da-da, right? I was like— and then they go, yeah, that'll be $14 and something. I'm like, what, a $14 coffee?

No thanks.

And they took— you know, that's another thing they do there is these customized drinks. And, you know, they make the allure of the— and I noticed that a lot of, um a lot of plate— not a lot of coffee. You know, there's really not any— there's not a lot of coffee shops, right?

There's a lot of coffee shops, but there's not like a Starbucks competitor besides Dunkin' Donuts, right?

And they don't really have a comfortable atmosphere.

What, Dunkin' Donuts? Dunkin' Donuts is grimy. Yeah, America runs on Dunkin'. What are you talking about, man? The garbage guys go there.

Everybody— I mean, coffee for everyone. It is. It's good.

It's always It's fresh, it's, you know what I'm saying? Depending on where you go, I don't, well, let me not speak on that. My experience at Dunkin', if you want a cup of coffee, you're gonna go get a cup. You shouldn't go to Dunkin' Donuts for a, what do they sell those, like a feta cheese and heart-healthy egg? No, no, that's not the point of Dunkin' Donuts. It's the point to ruin your heart and to clog your arteries, to get a donut and an egg and cheese sandwich, if you eat that stuff. Yeah, but yeah, I mean, that's— you ain't going to Dunkin' and ordering a caramel frappuccino, whatever they're called.

No, but they're just talking about here's two businesses with an image. Dunkin' is coffee for everybody.

Yes. And Starbucks is the foo-foo coffee experience who walk around with little poodles in their purses, right?

And then, so, you know, like the, you know, the thing I like, the only thing I really like about Starbucks is if you had to go meet somebody, you know, that you didn't, you know, like instead of going to someone's home or something, say, oh, meet me at a Starbucks for a business meeting, there's the couches there and it's kind of comfy, make you somewhat comfortable.

Back home we had this other one, it was called Alterra Coffee, right? And it was, it was like the number one competitor, right, with Starbucks in Milwaukee. And then another company bought them out and now they're franchising. So hopefully we'll— when I go back, I know you're a coffee guy. I'll get you some coffee.

Cool. I like good coffee.

Yes, it was. It was. But their thing was even cooler because it was like they were promoting it as a coworking space, not only a coffee shop. That's cool. Yeah, and you could do the loyalty program there and, you know, do the whole thing.

Nice.

Yeah, it was— I, I'm gonna have to go and see if that's places.

The other thing I'll comment on Starbucks is Starbucks essentially is a bank because they're— one of their things is they get people to put money on the Starbucks.

You got to tell them how much money they have though.

Starbucks has over $1 billion, with a B, over $1 billion. It doesn't move. Yeah, it doesn't move. It's a constant balance. Their balance is between $1 billion and like $1.2 billion all the time.

Why is that?

Because they got the customers trained to put the money on the card, and on that car— on the card, using the app pre— I mean, tons of people pre-order the coffee, walk in, their coffee's ready. They order it in the parking lot.

People go crazy. I, I mean, my daughter is one of them. She has it so when she gets paid, it automatically puts money on her.

Yeah, like every Friday, throwing $20 on there.

And if it gets low, it refills. You have the option to refill it.

Yeah, just like the SunPass, dude.

That is insanity. Yeah, not to mention you're all hooked on drugs. You're all addicted to caffeine and sugar, and you should probably take a detox. But that's another podcast.

That's another podcast, is right. So the, you know, so the, that they're essentially like a bank. They have some, they have so much money in their bank account. It's crazy.

Let me, let me say a little bit.

They're financing their business.

I'm gonna say it a little bit louder for the people in the back. Starbucks has $1 billion sitting. This has nothing to do with like operational, right? This is just off of their Starbucks loyalty card and their app. In their app. Yeah, $1 billion of y'all dollars, right?

$1 billion. It's crazy.

Muy loco, man.

Yeah, it's mucho crazy. The other thing that was cool was this guy discussed the psychological aspect of pricing. So we talked—

I like this part, and I'm also not falling for the okie-doke on this either.

So he was talking about charm pricing is when cus— when places price it at you know, 99 and 95 at the end. So like, whatever, the burger is $2.99, or the burger and fry— the burger with fries is $5.99. And he pointed out that at Starbucks, he also said when you see $2.99, most people think it's of $2. I still say it's $3.

Yeah, I did not— his rational thinking about that, but that— but again, we're a little bit older, so like in school, I was always taught to round up, not to round down.

Right.

And the youth are taught to round down now.

Like, that's crazy.

I mean, if I see something that's more than 50 cents, I associate that. So if it's 52 cents, that's a dollar to me, right?

Exactly. I think the same way.

If it's 51 cents, it's a dollar to me. Like, like, so that's how I— that's my purchasing power. Like, literally, like, so you're not getting me with the offer 50 cents more, you're gonna get this much, much more. No.

And then he, and then he pointed out that Starbucks does not have dollar signs in front of their prices as to not make you think so much about the price.

Now I noticed it a long time ago, but I assumed that it was going off like market pricing similar to like seafood, right? Like you go, you know, on the East Coast, there's never a dollar sign on the seafood. If you look sometimes, but not because they could just change it, right? You know, that's— I was— I didn't think of it that deep, right? But for them, they're thinking their thought processes on it is for you to not associate Starbucks with actual physical currency, right?

And the thing is, is that with getting people to use the app, right, they're also not thinking that they're using physical currency, correct? Because they're just using all this cashless system. And they're just, oh, I'm getting my coffee. And that's all they're associated—

they don't even care about it.

Yeah, they don't even care what the numbers—

they don't care how much it costs. They don't associate it with the— yeah, the— how they're paying for it. They just know that they want something and they have this card and they're getting it with that instant gratification. They have—

it's super simple gratification. Instant gratification. I wave my phone or I pay for it through the app. Boom, done. Meanwhile, Starbucks has $1 billion in the bank. And, um, so they use— Starbucks generally uses 0.45, 0.65 in their prices.

So like 2.45, 3.65 in their pricing.

And then we talked about like Costco has their pricing like it's always 88, 86. They don't have too many prices with like 99. And Walmart has like a weird pricing thing too. Where they price stuff at like $4.86 or 68 cents, 78 cents. They have their, they have their pricing.

I think it's odd numbers.

Odd numbers. Yeah. Yeah. So they have their pricing, like, instead of it like a—

but not a 5 of what I'm saying. I think it's like a 97 instead of it being 95, right? And, or 47 as opposed to 59.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So they have their pricing like matrix that they use to like, well, whatever, to whatever, to trick people. The Matrix, Keanu Reeves pops out. No, but they're using their, the psych— that's their psychology of pricing. There's businesses that have that psychology of pricing. Or like, you know, in the video, the guy was talking about combos or how to display items. Like Starbucks always displays items, they show 3 cups of coffee, and—

or it'll be like 3 different versions of the coffee, of that one coffee, right? With foam, without, with foam and caramel, a cold one, a hot one, right?

Different sizes, right? And, uh, so yeah, how they display combos like coffee with a muffin, burgers with fries, burgers with fries and a drink. Putting items together, making it look more attractive.

Yeah, like, you know, he was saying, like, if you look at— if you walk up to some— a menu and it just has a picture of a lonely cheeseburger, you might not, you know, get anything else but that cheeseburger. But if you see that same picture with a cheeseburger, some french fries, a soft drink, and a you know, a dessert, in a dessert, you're going to be like, mm, I want that. I want all of that.

Right.

Again, I'm not that person. But you're, you know, I, you know, whatever I talked about presenting things in groups and it really that on a because I'm in the marketing realm or whatever, you know what I mean? That made sense to me that that was like, okay. And Allen had a little brain fart. Or a light bulb rather.

Yeah.

And he said we should group the different things. And I said, well, you know what, I'm going to have to figure out how to do that because it could— that could— that could help people decide on what type of—

put a point of sale system, a credit card machine, and the mobile reader.

Relax.

Okay.

Or the competition.

Oh, we don't—

Jack's your stilo.

We don't want people to steal our idea.

No.

You know, or they talk— or they talked about in the video the IKEA effect. IKEA effect is items being able to be customized. Your coffee, your drink, your meals. How can customers customize things at your business? How, how that works into your, into your thing. And you think about it, like, you go to eat in a restaurant, right? And they sometimes have pictures on the menu, right? Correct. That could influence people of what they're going to order.

Oh, that totally influences me.

So if they just show like a steak on a plate, that might not— you might say, oh, that's nice, a steak. But then if I see the steak and it also has like the asparagus, fried mushrooms, some onions, baked potato, right, more, more items, now shrimp, now I'm going to get more items. Or if I see the appetizers and they're all separate, then I see a picture maybe on a different menu with 2 appetizers together or 3 or 4 appetizers. Now, my—

the whole— you get the whole tasting tray.

No, but maybe I'm going to order 2 appetizers.

No, that's what I'm saying. Instead of one, they show you like you can have the whole thing, right?

Or you want the— or you want a variety— the, uh, the taster, whatever, tasting platter, or the poo poo platter, like in that Asian place, right? They give you like 5 different things. You get it. But I'm just saying, so those type of things, I think businesses, you know, today you got to think outside of the box, right? So think outside of the box. Say, oh, how can I present myself? Like I went to that cookie place, a cookie bakery. Which one?

Insomnia Crumbles.

Cookie Crumble. One time I brought everybody cookies.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Crumbles. Crumbles. Cookie Crumble, whatever it's called, you know. So you look on their thing and then, you know, you look, oh, one cookie. Then they have a box with 4 different cookies, the variety pack, right? You're looking at that and you're like, oh, I'm just gonna throw down and get the 4 cookies in a box and give it away to all my employees, you know.

So before I forget, yes, hit the like button on the video on YouTube, please. But also, I seen a, um, smash, smash the like button like you mean it. Smash it. Hulk smash the like button! Anyway, uh, I found a, uh, for the— I think Samantha sent it to me.

Yeah.

And whatever, they sent me an email about the, uh, for the events, for the gift stuff, the gift boxes, right? Like giveaway thing, right? It was— they got some really cool stuff in there.

Okay.

They're, they're not cheap, but I'm saying like It's something that you should look at. I'm going to send it to you. I didn't— sorry, I was totally sidetracked on the podcast.

Okay. Yeah. So things like they talk about like how to sell, like we always talk about like, oh, when you go to a business, what's the experience like at the business? Starbucks sells an experience, right? Is it? You know, selling coffee. They're a bank and they're selling an experience, right? Yes. We'll hold your money for you.

The fact that—

let me hold your money for you.

Right. I forget, was— who's that guy who said the other place was a bank too? He called another place a bank too.

What, we were at the convention?

No, another— in another video we were— we watched, there was another—

called another company a bank. This—

who has the similar platform of like the—

I don't know anyone that's got a similar— as much business as Starbucks does.

Well, not as much. I'm just saying like, listen, any business that sells gift cards. Yeah.

Any business that sells gift cards is running a bank, you know. Listen, I remember we have a client— we have a client now, I don't even want to say, but I'll tell you, at one point they had six figures in their bank account that was all from gift cards. Six figures. And then when we went into— this was a long time ago, I haven't checked their balance lately— but then we went into 2008, 2009 when the economy went down. Man, I want to tell you, people went into their drawers, their sock drawer, wherever they kept all those gift cards, and people— there was an all-time high of redemption of gift cards.

Oh, for sure.

And now that's going on now too. People are— the gift cards are being redeemed at a big clip right now. Mm.

Because I wonder how much of a loss do these gift card companies expect?

Like, well, there's usually about 10 to 20% that never gets redeemed. Never.

That's what I meant.

And that, that's, that's, that's a done deal. And then as the gift card gets older, then that number goes up. I mean, if you, if you're a business owner and you're in business 15, 20 years and you've been selling gift cards that long You could possibly have $40,000, $50,000 of gift cards that's 5, 10 years old. That's never— no one's ever going to find those gift cards, and then that money's theirs.

You know, it's funny, um, I was watching a, uh, I wouldn't call it a— well, side hustle type video, and they were saying that make sure you even if you go to a— to always take the gift cards. That's all they were saying. Like, if you find gift cards, yeah, just take it because you never know.

Yeah, you can call up.

This one guy was like, yeah, he found a gift card and there was tons of money on it.

Yeah. One day I had, I had a gift card in my house that I totally forgot about and it had $100 on it because I had tried to use it and it didn't work. And then I was like, oh, I need to go call that person up., but it just didn't activate yet. And then I checked it and it had $100 on it.

There you go.

But you know, a lot of gift cards don't get redeemed, but you know, now you have electronic gift cards. Like you want to give someone a $50 Amazon or iTunes card or something like that. It's all like electronic. You get it, you put it in your account, boom, boom, it's done. You know, so in your business, try to see like, oh, are you selling an experience? So when somebody comes to eat in a restaurant, It's an experience. Like, I remember I used to go to places I remembered, like, that I used to go eat at all the time. Like, one place is a, uh, I used to go to this Chinese restaurant in Dallas, and me and my friends love to go there because they had this flaming volcano drink. So they would bring out this massive bowl of whatever, some punch that they made, right, with a giant straw. So you could sit there with your giant straw. They put it in the middle of the table, and then the guy put some Sterno and lit it on fire, right, with some 151s. This flame is coming out, and everybody's sitting there drinking.

Multiple people are drinking out of the same glass. This is pre-COVID, years ago. Okay.

Yeah, like 20 years ago. And we would go there all the time because you would get smashed drinking Drinking this flaming volcano.

You and I, we are going to have to have some shots one day to see how that goes, because that'll be hilarious. Because I don't drink like that either. So I don't think—

no, that was years ago.

That's what I'm saying.

And then, and then there was another place we used to go to, talking about experiences, right? And these are ones that were 20 years ago.

Play a game. I have a game. There's a good game.

So listen, let me tell you about these drinks. So there's this other restaurant we used to go to, and they had a drink called the Lava Lamp. So it was a regular drink and then they put a Jell-O shot in the drink. So it's like floating around like a lava lamp. Whatever. I'm not a—

I'm not a—

and then, and then there was—

I was never a fruity drink guy. I go straight to the kill.

It was like a margarita, but then they had like a Jell-O shot in it.

So everything— dude, that's super fruity. A Jell-O shot? Come on.

Yeah, it was like made out of the margarita mix. And then there was another place that had like this Italian place and they served Bellinis and all it was was like a scoop of like whatever pear stuff and they— I'm saying, but that's like an experience.

Are okay though.

No, no, but I'm saying it's an experience. People see, I remembering that, it's an experience. Like I remember going— I get you going to eat at this Greek place and the famous thing in the Greek place was this flaming cheese.

It's like going to a hibachi grill and they throw the— it's an experience in your mouth or the shrimp in your mouth.

The guy makes a fire on on the table. Volcano, right? So I'm saying things that are an experience, like we talked about. Oh, is it an experience for a robot to roll up with your pizza?

Yeah, I'm not digging that. No, but I'm just saying, like, I want the lady, the old lady that's been working there for 22 years that can't really hear well.

Like, think about Topgolf. You go there, it's an experience.

I don't like golfing, so—

okay, but I'm just saying, I've actually never been to Topgolf. Okay, well, maybe we should go. They're going to build one down the street here.

Are they?

Yeah, they're building one by the racetrack that they're building for the baseball.

They're the competition to Topgolf.

No, what's that?

It's going to be batting cages.

Wow, that's crazy.

It's going to be— they look so dope.

What, like 3 stories of batting cages?

It's— there's— I don't know exactly the—

the—

how it was, but it was, uh, yeah, you know, there was 2 levels.

Wow, that's pretty cool. Yeah. No. So, you know, those kind of things, those are experiences because, I mean, a batting cage could go straight down.

Right.

But you just got to figure out, like, for your business, what kind of experience can you give people when they come into your business? Are you using their name when they come in or when they leave? Like, even if you have a retail store, you don't know their name, but you know the name when they hand you the credit card.

And you can definitely set up a loyalty program with that, right?

So it's easy to use. And, you know, we talked about, you know, and also, you know, Other things that are like experience— you have Apple Pay and Google Pay and ways for people to use their phone to pay because people like that. They like technology. So, you know, you have to think about things, things to think about in your business. So let's recap: building customer loyalty using people's names and how you do it, the allure of how maybe whatever you have in your business, you know, especially let's say you're a food business. Do you use names? And we used to do that when I was in the hotel business. Like we had a hotel, you know, hotels in Dallas.

We do it now. We did it. FinTech Fridays, right? The payment technology podcast. That's the allure of bringing, captivating your potential customer. You know, how are you doing that?

Right, exactly. And then look at your, you know, what do you call your employees? Associates, baristas, right? What kind of name? How do you, how is that? How can that help, maybe help your business? What do they call a sandwich artist, right? At some, what someplace has the sandwich artist. Star, you know, what kind of furnishings do you have in your business? Using, um, 3 choices in your pricing, like the charm pricing, 3 chart, like 3 sizes for different things. Are you using charm pricing or are you coming up more Starbucks style, Walmart, uh, or Costco, you know? Or you going old style with the $99 and $95? And then, you know, how do you present your items in pictures on your menus? Or how do you like even for—

can I just real quick for smaller shops who have, you know, I highly suggest you put the pictures. I personally as a vegetarian, right? If there's something that I haven't tried, right? Or if it's new to me, I would— I want to see what it would look like.

Exactly.

You know, I want to see how your food is going to look. And then the— I guess the problem with that though is the expectation is set.

Right. So take a real picture, don't use a fake picture. Yeah, no, but even in a clothing store you could show a picture with a small, medium, and large shirt, or different size shoes, or the same style shoes in different colors, and a picture—

put the shirt, make the whole outfit.

Yeah, make an outfit, right? Show pictures of people in an outfit and things like that, or the accessory that goes with whatever you're selling. Yeah, whatever accessory you're trying to sell. So you can get the upsell sale going in your, in your product photos, you know what I mean? Right.

That's where you present the whole enchilada.

And work on providing a good experience once somebody hits your door. You know, when somebody come— even when somebody, when somebody, you know, is applying for a merchant account, we try to give them a good experience in that, explaining to them technology, explaining how things work. Reviewing their website, making sure their policies are correct and all those different things. And if they have— if there's compliance issues that we have to deal with, we explain those to them so they understand what's exactly what's going on.

Yep.

So that's today's podcast. We're talking about, you know, the psychology of marketing, right? Wow.

That was a lot more interesting than I thought it was going to be. Sorry.

Well, the other one guy said that Starbucks uses manipulation techniques. I could— are they manipulating the public? They got a billion dollars in the bank.

Hey, man, I would say you've been bamboozled, swindled, robbed, whatever, gamed, pimped.

I mean, they have more—

you guys are on drugs, so you're giving the drug dealers all the money.

All right, so that's today's podcast.

Hope you guys enjoyed it, and maybe you could follow us on Instagram, please, right?

Maybe you can use some of these techniques in your business and let us know how it works out.

Peace.

Peace out. Carpe diem.