Today we went to Brentwood for cherry picking. This is almost our annual ritual. Brentwood is about 60 miles from my home (Sunnyvale, California) and takes more than an hour to reach there. The three of us (Kavitha, Sumukh and myself) had a really good time. We picked cherries and strawberries. The quality of both the fruits was just awesome. Just for fun, I went through what we spent to get a few pounds of cherries and strawberries:

1. Gas            – $25.00 [yes, its the minivan 🙁 ]
2. cherries       – $ 7.50
3. Strawberries   – $ 7.00
4. Miscellaneous  – $ 8.00

That totals to $47.50. The total time investment was about six(6) hours

Was it all worth it. You bet!  Would I do it again? You bet!

After all, it was a small price to pay for the experience. What we got back was definitely not a few pounds of cherries and a few pounds of strawberries but a few good memories. That experience was the ROI for us.

Now, coming to the business side of it, when you create a situation where the experience is the ROI, people are willing to pay a premium. Let’s take an example – Look at “Build-A-Bear Workshop” where kids get to create bears and other stuffed animals from scratch. What gets created is very special. As an alternative, could the kid have gotten a stuffed animal from somewhere else? Of course. Would it have created a memorable experience? Probably but not of the magnitude of what the kid got at Build-A-Bear Workshop. It is worth paying a premium for that experience.

We all can think of other examples where companies strive to create a phenomenal experience. They may sell a product or a service too but really – experience is what they are selling.

Have a great week ahead!