Hotdoggity

March 3rd, 2008 Posted in Marketing

I was reading a newspaper article about how we are headed for recession and it reminded me of the story about the man who sold hot dogs.

He was a bit deaf so he didn’t have a radio. He was a bit blind so he didn’t read newspapers or watch television.

But he sold great hot dogs.

He put up signs on the highway to tell people how good they were and stood at his stall calling out, “Buy a hot dog,” to everyone that passed.

And people bought.

He increased his orders of rolls and frankfurters and bought a bigger stand with the latest cooking equipment to take care of his customers.

One day, his son came home from university to help him out.

The lad said, “Dad, haven’t you heard the news? “There’s a huge recession. Unemployment’s at an all time high. Government spending is sending us all broke. No one is making any money.”

The old man thought, well my son’s been to university, he ought to know. So he cut down on his frankfurter and roll orders, took down his signs and didn’t bother to call out to passers by. And his sales fell almost overnight.

“You’re right son” he said. “We really are in the middle of a bad recession.”

 Moral: Don’t stop doing the things that work.