Page 88 - 100 Great Marketing Ideas (100 Great Ideas)

40 KEEP THEM WAITING

The received wisdom in business is that people want what they
want when they want it, and if you don’t supply them they will go
elsewhere. This is true in 99 percent of cases—most people will
move on rather than wait.

There may be a case, though, for developing a unique selling
proposition based on having a long waiting list. Some restaurants
do this (Rick Stein springs to mind) and some hotels (many
paradores in Spain have waiting lists, especially for festival times).
This works if you have something that nobody else has—a unique
design, an upmarket restaurant, or (of course) the only hotel inside
the Alhambra Palace in Granada.

The idea

The Morgan Motor Company is a tiny car manufacturer based in
Malvern, Worcestershire. The company makes sports cars with a
distinct retro feel—the flagship car, the 4/4, has been manufactured
since 1936 (although it has obviously been modified and updated
many times in the intervening years). It is, without a doubt, the car’s
looks that sell it.

Morgan maintain a waiting list of around two years for the 4/4:
the car sells, new, for around £27,000 (a very reasonable price for a
hand-built sports car), but one that is immediately available would
fetch around £32,000. In other words, someone who agrees to buy
a Morgan can sell it the day after delivery for £5,000 more than the
manufacturer’s price.

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