Customer acquisition doesn’t always start with marketing, sometimes it starts with a $5 chicken.
In the United States, there’s a warehouse retailer called Costco known for selling bulk goods at discount prices. One of its most popular items is a hot, ready-to-eat 3 lb. rotisserie chicken that costs $4.99. In many places, including Costco, you would not be able to buy a whole raw chicken for that price.
The value is immediate, obvious, and hard to pass up.
People line up for it. They plan meals around it.
More importantly, it gets them into the store, and they rarely leave with just a chicken.
Costco sells more than 100 million of these chickens each year, and they are willing to lose tens of millions of dollars on those sales to keep that price in place.
Costco is not in the chicken business.
They are in the behavior business.
They use a product people want for customer acquisition and to bring them back into the store. The chicken is not a moneymaker, it’s a loss leader and a primary reason people show up. Once they’re in the store, everything else has a chance to sell at a profit.
That customer acquisition strategy isn’t new to print.
VistaPrint built its customer acquisition strategy on one offer – free business cards. Not discounted, free. Free business cards were hard to ignore, and people responded.
The customer acquisition strategy wasn’t to make money on that first order. It was to create a positive first experience, turn that into repeat business, and give customers a reason to keep coming back.
They gave away billions of business cards, and grew into a billion-dollar company.
Rethinking Customer Acquisition Through the $5 Chicken Strategy
When the focus is on customer acquisition, pricing often becomes fluid. Discounts, free shipping, lower costs across the board.
A loss leader takes a different approach.
Think about creating packages for first-time B2B customers. Build a simple menu of items businesses commonly need, then bundle them into good, better, best options by leveling up quantities, materials, applications, and services in each tier.
Don’t discount the print.
The loss leader is the free marketing consultation and design you will offer in the packages.
Many B2B customers don’t know what’s possible with print, or which applications will perform best for their goals. They may be relying on online design platforms and templates that limit customization, materials, sizes, finishes, and production options without even realizing it. Your consultation gives you the opportunity to introduce ideas, applications, and enhancements they may not be aware of, while creating exponential value and giving customers a simple and stress-free way to start working with you.
That consultation and design support costs time and money, whether you have an in-house team or work with outside partners. The goal is to use that initial investment to create a strong first experience, build trust, and establish a relationship that leads to future business. Once customers return, the cost of those services can be built into future packages and projects.
I used B2B customer acquisition as the example, but your loss leader should be designed for the customers you want to attract, built around their needs, and valuable enough that engaging with your business feels like a smart decision from the start.
Costco uses a rotisserie chicken.
Vistaprint used free business cards.
