Cirque du Soleil

Any fans of circuses here? Okay, so like the same 3 people. Okay, so you're the whack jobs, right? Oh sure, we have hands, we're fans of circuses, we know reciprocity. Okay, I bet everyone knows Ringling Brothers and Barnum Bailey Circus, right? You know, Ringling Brothers and Barnum Bailey Circus is the biggest circus in the world. It's called the incumbent. That's the most established brand. Now in the New York City area, there's Ringling Brothers and Barnum Bailey Circus. Perform globally. But also, if you're from the New York area, there's another circus. It's the number 2 runner-up. Does anyone happen to know the name? Big Apple. Yes. The Big Apple Circus. And if you're not from the New York area, chances are you've never heard of that circus. And the Big Apple Circus has a real problem. If you come to visit our city and you come into town and you're with your family and you decide, "We should go to the circus," you will see advertisements for both. Statistically, you will go to Ringling Brothers and Barnum Bailey Circus. Why? Because you recognize the name. It's, it's a safe bet. It's, it's the familiar in this case, and it's safe. Familiar means safe. And Ringling Brothers, as a result, can charge a premium. For Madison Square Garden, the main venue where Ringling Brothers performs, they get $125 for the premium sick ticket. Big Apple Circus, the number 2 competitor, for the exact same seats, the exact same venue, and the almost identical performance, can at the most get $50 a ticket. And that's the problem of not being the incumbent. You experience what's called downward price pressure. The incumbent sets the standard, and everyone else to compete— because you're not recognized, you have to compete on price. And in the circus industry, you can go all the way down the circus kind of level of downward price pressure. So you have Big Apple Circus, I mean, I'm sorry, Ringling, Big Apple Circus, local circus, and then you have like those carnies that come to your town that you pay like $5 not to touch your children. Yeah, that's the worst in downward price pressure, by the way. Please do not touch my child. Yeah, but there's one circus that There's one circus who broke out of the paradigm, who charges 3 to 4 times what Ringling Brothers can get. Cirque du Soleil. Cirque du Soleil. I don't know why I get all upset with that. I mean, congratulations, Cirque du Soleil. Cirque du Soleil. Do you know they use one behavioral trick of being different that gave them exposure? Cirque du Soleil. They broke the generic label. Understand this. When you hear— when you heard me say the word circus, in your mind, I know instantly popped triggers of a circus. Maybe a tent, maybe a clown, which are kind of freaky, maybe a giraffe walking by. But when I say the word circus, pictures pop in our mind. Cirque du Soleil knew that if they call themselves, which is the It's a French phrase, Cirque du Soleil, which means the sun circus or circus of the sun. They knew that if they called themselves the sun circus, that they would fall victim to the familiar label. Eh, it's just another circus. I'm gonna go to Ringling Brothers. So instead they changed the label and what happened? The first time you heard Cirque du Soleil, I suspect you said this, huh, what's that? And if you can get your customers even momentarily saying what's that, that means you've broken out of the box of generic labels. You know, to us, to your customers, a pharmacy is a pharmacy is a pharmacy. A circus is a circus is a circus. And I don't care how much better you are, the customer is familiar with what a pharmacy is and will not pay attention to what differentiates you. So we have an obligation to break the label.