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Non-Tech : RAINFOREST CAFE -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dennis Vail who wrote (4136)	4/3/1998 6:20:00 AM
From: Lee L.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4704

After much lurking and reading lots and lots of post, I'm now long on RAIN. Many, many thanks to Dennis, Dylan and others for making this thread so informative. Of all of the risks associated with this stock, ineffective (non-existent?) marketing is my primary concern. Especially on the retail side, the lack of overall brand awareness seems to be crippling. These guys want to cash in on retail for good reason, there's lots of potential money to be made (ref. HRC). The problem is, they don't want to work for it! Unlike the HRC or Planet Hollywood, I have no compelling reason to acquire RFC stuff. Am I helping to save the three-eyed, pigmy Madagascar sloth? Is my kid insisting that I buy Eddy the bat -- the third of a twelve-member bat-mug collection? Why is this stuff desirable? It seems obvious that management ought to be investing in a marketing campaign designed to promote brand awareness. A couple of random ideas: -- For starters, get rid of the bi-line `A Wild Place to Shop and Eat'. I can just picture these guys in the BIG marketing strategy meeting. After several grueling minutes of debate, Lyle proclaims, "Heck, why don't we just tell them to shop?!" "What a great idea!", one of his butt-kissing minions replies "Our motto could read `RFC - A Great Place to Spend a Lot of Money on Food and Expensive Souvenirs'!" "A good idea", Lyle reflectively replies, "but somehow we need to work-in the environment. Besides, all of the marketing experts (they cackle and snort as they always do when someone references the marketing experts) say we need something sublime and enduring (cackles are replaced by eye-rolling and wheezing)" "How about `RFC - A Great Place to Spend a WHOLE LOT of Money on Food and Souvenirs'"... and so it goes until they settle on the current mediocre `Shop and Eat' line. Personally, I would go for `A Wild Place to Explore' or something like that. Anything's better than what they've got already. -- Start some kind of eco-kids club on their web site (first, of course, they would have to get a site. The current impostor for a web-site doesn't count). Kids could learn about exotic animals, meet other `RF Cyber Explorers', get desert coupons for accomplishing some eco-friendly activity... The idea would be to build a cult following of kids that would literally drive their parents nuts NOT to visit an RFC every couple of days. It could also promote product sales over the internet. -- Provide corporate sponsorship to fanatics that sabotage sawmills in the Northwest.... on second thought, that idea might be a bit silly. Management sounds like a bunch of fat cats that drive around in Buick Roadmasters, eat thick steaks and smoke big cigars. Not exactly the enviro-friendly types. Apparently, not the good-management types either. Oh well, no reward without some risk. Good luck to all.

To: Dennis Vail who wrote (4136)	4/7/1998 1:26:00 AM
From: casey (guessed password)	Respond to of 4704

Dennis - This weekend I spent 2 hours at RFC at 'Downtown Disney' and an hour at RFC at 'Animal Kingdom,' both in Orlando. What caught my attention the most, in both places, besides the wonderful decor, was the amount of plates headed back toward the kitchen unfinished. (It seems RFC thinks potato chips are a good substitute for quantity and quality.) The retail business, on the other hand, had red hot computers running ALL the time. It made me wonder if the resturants are there only to serve retail. (I've never owned RAIN, nor do I now)