I got an HP/Compaq catalog the other day. It had a pretty nice looking Compaq laptop in it that I decided to check out the full specs of the machine. I had to see how much the one I wanted costs, so I played with the customizer to get a price. As usual, I managed to double the price from $699 to over a $1000. The only place I manage not to double the price is at the Apple store, and thank God I don't there.
This got me thinking: what if McDonald's priced their hamburgers like most computer companies price their laptops?
McDs advertises their hamburgers at fifty cents. It's just meat on a bun. Obviously you want something more like a BigMac, so you add (note: all prices are arbitrary):
- cheese for 30 cents
- another patty for 40 cents
- ketchup and mustard for 15 cents
- lettuce and tomato for a quarter
- and that BigMac middle bun for 15 cents
Adding that up you now have a hamburger that costs $1.75.
That's not terrible since food is cheap, but what if they only listed on their menu board and in their advertisements was the fifty cent hamburger? What if in your mind you always thought of them as being cheap and affordable because their burgers are only fifty cents? If you and most people always ended up with a $1.75 hamburger, would their marketing somehow be dishonest?
