In-N-Out Burger

One of my favorite business strategies is to leverage your relationships with your customers. On my recent trip to Mexico, I saw that strategy working for In-N-Out Burger.

You might know about the loyalty to these burgers. On our bus ride down to Encinada, 40 people were raving about them. Even before we got on the bus, they were saying, “We’re going to In-N-Out. You gotta eat there, it’s great!” Never in my life have I seen so many people get excited about a hamburger joint. People were evangelizing, saying how cool it was. So much so, that there was really no choice. I had to go.

If you haven’t gone, you get a burger, fries, and a drink or milkshake. And that’s their whole menu. It was an incredibly efficient business, and nice to see something so darn simple. Because it’s so simple, it’s easy for people to get behind it and tell the story. In-N-Out’s story is so simple that people go crazy about it.

This story is the subject of new book about In-N-Out.  I read the book review in BusinessWeek, and the article notes that a lot of the success comes from the fact that In-N-Out didn’t mess it up. They managed to stay true to their values and keep it very simple. I loved the marketing they did with free bumper stickers, where the company used spotters to enter drivers with the stickers in a vacation contest. They managed to make their story into a cult of hamburger lovers.

The story about the burgers was not only dead-on, but these customers were able to articulate it in a way that engaged me.

Coach Kevin’s Challenge

What would it take to get your customers out there, getting excited about your business like In-N-Out’s customers do? What is the simple message you would love everyone say about you?