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Food truck see success with $2 bill as marketing tool [The Times-Tribune, Scranton, Pa.](Times-Tribune (Scranton, PA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 05--First, Facebook, then the $2 bill. They have something in common: neither costs Mario Bevilacqua anything to market his What the Fork food truck. Mr. Bevilacqua, 26, of Dunmore, who turned his specialty pork tacos and beef sliders into a budding food empire through the popular social media destination, has called on the rare but beloved U.S. currency to keep reminding customers to come back again. If a customer pays in cash and needs change, the change usually includes a $2 bill. It's another mini-marketing device for his truck, one he thought up after dinner last year at Sabatini's Pizza in Exeter. "I noticed a couple of times that I was down there that they gave out dollar coins or 50-cent pieces and they had the little stickers (with Sabatini's Pizza written) on them," Mr. Bevilacqua said. "I didn't know what the story was, but once I started thinking about it, (it was) like what's something special that we could do different, you know what I mean, what's different? And everybody loves $2 bills. Every time I get a $2 bill, I keep it with me. People don't really spend them. They like keeping them in their wallet or they collect them." What the Fork added $2 bills to make change nine or 10 months ago. It amounts to subliminal advertising. "So really the idea was you're going to keep it on you when you go into your wallet and you see that $2 bill, you're going to think about where you got it from, which was What the Fork? and that might encourage you to come back to the truck," he said. "It's not something that's costing me money like a business card or something," he said. "It's currency" and the trucks need to give change. "You get $2 bills from What the Fork long enough and you're going to associate that in your brain with us." The bills are fairly rare and he needed a steady supply so he had to commit to using $10,000 worth upfront just so his bank kept enough of the bills around. John L. Stanton, Ph.D., a professor of food marketing at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia who sits on the board of Herr's Food Co., said he never heard of anyone using $2 bills as a marketing tool, but loves the idea and thinks it probably works. Dr. Stanton recalled getting a $2 bill on July 4, 1976, the nation's bicentennial, getting it stamped at a post office and saving it. "A key factor in any business is getting people's attention and also there's something called pertinence," Dr. Stanton said. "You may have just bought a new car, and you don't remember seeing a car like that on the road, but then you buy a new car and they seem like they're everywhere." A customer generally doesn't listen to a promotional message unless he or she has "some reason to think about it," he said. "Any gimmicky thing that you can do to get people to somehow think of let's say, you're food truck, you're already ahead of the game," he said. "But then there has to be something to back it up." If Mr. Bevilacqua's food tasted lousy, no $2 bill would entice people to eat it, Dr. Stanton said. "He's not giving people an extra $2 in his change," he said. "It's in effect free (advertising)." Mr. Bevilacqua believes his subtle reminders work, too. He was out to dinner one night at Maer's BBQ Off The Square in Wilkes-Barre. Two women at the table next to me went to split their bill. "And she pulled out the $2 bill and the other girl said, 'Where did you get that?' And she goes, 'Oh, What the Fork?'" he said. "And the other girl says, 'I can't wait to go back' ... I promise (that's true), I promise ... I heard her say it and I almost died, I almost fell off the chair. I was like 'Oh, my God, it's worked, I actually just heard it, it works.'" Contact the writer: [email protected] ___ (c)2014 The Times-Tribune (Scranton, Pa.) Visit The Times-Tribune (Scranton, Pa.) at thetimes-tribune.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |