Power of Presentation

Last week I took my kid cousin to MacDonald’s. I asked him what he wanted to have and he said he want to have the same things which is shown in the TV advert. I pointed to Mac-Chicken and he happily nodded. So I ordered 2 Mac-Chicken, 1 Pepsi and regular French-fries. I got the order in a tray and guess what, he did not want that. I asked why and he told me it did not look like the one shown in the advert and he pointed at another kid who was having the same thing but he picked up the burger out of a box (the happy meal Mac-D box). I tried to reason with him that it was the same burger in the box which you got here and apart from that he got the fries and the Pepsi so no difference. Then my cousin promptly counters my argument saying “it’s also got a toy in it”. I asked him to at least taste the burger and after several minutes of convincing he did tastes the burger, which after one bite he flatly declares he hated the taste and after that he refused to take another bite of the burger. I was angry but I cool off my emotions and offered him to take anything else since we were in a food court so he had quite a few outlets to choose his snacks from. But he just said no and kept staring at the other kid’s box. So I finally decided to take him back to MacDonald’s. I asked him what he wanted and he pointed to the MacDonald’s happy meal box. So I ordered another one of the same thing, which was exactly what we ordered few minutes back except the box and the toy. But this time I specifically asked the counter guys to wrap the burger in the box and give the toy as well (the price was different because of the toy). Now my kid bro was happy, it was a double take for him as he got the box and the toy….. ahh well along with that the burger, Pepsi and fries to compliment it. He played with the toy for a while and he took a bite of the burger. I asked him whether he liked the burger and he happily said yes… the same burger which he swore he hated the taste of. He left the burger after few bites. This happened few days back as for the toy I guess that last time he played with it was the day he got it.


Well few things that can be said about human behavior (though it varies from person to person):


1. Presentation makes hell lot of a difference.
2. If the presentation is good we tend to ignore the quality at times. Our mindset is more like if the look is good the product got to be good.
3. Free Stuff that comes with the product at display (does not matter how insignificant the free product is or how cheap the free product is) but it surely increases the probability of us buying the same. At times we give more importance on the free stuff then the actual product.