Page 253 - 101 Ways to Market Your Business

101 WAYS TO MARKET YOUR BUSINESS

for your business but also offer a degree of peace of mind
for your customers. I have had friends in the car hire
industry who say that often they make more money out of
the insurance than they do out of hiring the car.

The key here is that you are taking some of the risk
away from your customers and taking that responsibility
on yourself—for a fee.

I went on a whale watching trip out of Boston in the
USA several years ago. The company made a bold state-
ment. If you don’t see any whales they will refund half of
your money. This seemed like a fair deal and as none of
their competitors made the same offer I went with them
and we saw about thirty whales. I was told they see whales
every trip without fail, making this a fairly safe offer on
their behalf.

I saw a similar insurance idea in Borneo where you
could go on a fishing trip for about $100. You could then
pay an extra $10 and if you didn’t catch any fish you got
all of your money back. They had self-insured themselves.
I got to know the owner during the day and I asked him
how many people had claimed the insurance. He said five
people in ten years had claimed the refund (‘they couldn’t
catch fish in a barrel with a bazooka’), yet almost 90 per
cent of all his passengers paid the extra $10 for the insur-
ance. This smart entrepreneur had increased his revenue by
10 per cent for a very minimal outlay. This doesn’t take
into consideration those people that went fishing on his
point simply because he offered the novel insurance.

On another nautical theme, I remember going diving
in Vanuatu once where you could take out clear water cover.
If the water visibility dropped below 20 metres you dived
for free. This premium cost about $20 per day, but as a
mad keen diver how could I refuse this offer? Once again
the owner said that occasionally bad weather made them
give away some free dives, but overall they won out hands
down as the visibility was normally well in excess of

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