In my last Daily Fix post I asked for your advice to help my struggling Lemonade Stand. The recession is affecting business the way it has many… less customer traffic, less sales, and higher costs. Keeping complexity low, I based the problem on a kid-run business. However, the quality of the advice is high. Your response has been a slew of great advice, suggestions ranging from conservative to far out.

The lemonade stand is a simple business model. Few ingredients. Singular core competency. And something most of us can relate to. Your responses can be applied to any business from Joe The Plumber to Starbucks Coffee, or a National Grocery chain.
Distilled and categorized below, are suggestions you have provided.
Please see the comments at the original post to credit for the submitted ideas.

TRIM

Cut Costs

Ingredients

• Reduce portion size (but maintain price to maintain margin)

• cheaper (lower quality) ingredients
• Obtain donations and/or maximize family relationships – Ask Grandma for the sugar (they always have sugar… and thus would get it for free)

Creative Partnerships

• Reduce costs through bartering. Create partnership with supplier offering labor or services in exchange for product. (Prune, pick, or take care of trees in exchange for lemons).

• Free supplies (cups, lemons, water) in exchange for branding (cup manufacturer, lemon grower, water supplier)

Labor

• Reduce staff, do same work with fewer people

• Outsource order taking process to inexpensive call center
• Hire laid-off Starbucks baristas

Lower Price

• Lower price (temporarily) to keep price sensitive recession affected customers

REMARKABILITY

Or as Seth Godin puts it: Create a Purple Cow

• Give away your lemonade for free, and sell ad space on the cups to CitrusCorp for a pretty penny.

• Market as Green – Bring your own cup / water bottle (We don’t provide cups)
• Go Extreme – Make and market product as extremely sour. Not for the faint of taste-buds. Customers enticed by “double-dog-dare” appeal. Offer contest, “How many severely sours can you survive”. Extreme sports partnership.

PROMOTE

Advertising

• Branded Swag – Build awareness of product and location with free branded t-shirt give-away (made on the cheap)

• Visibility – Better signage to promote price discount
• New Try Viral – YouTube video featuring customers experiencing your product (babies drinking sour lemonade)
• Premium Ad – Super Bowl Commercial (1/300,000,000th of a second would only cost 1 cent)
• Online – Twitter your way to 25,000 followers
• Print Ads / Flyers – hand-delivered in trade area touting tasty, healthy, and authentic products. This tactic is also about targeting the financial gatekeeper (the parents) who provide funding for the end-user (kids)
• One-On-One Sales/Networking – Scout the most convenient location that ensures proper traffic. And then instead of sitting behind the lemonade stand waiting for customers, I’d recommend going out and meeting them shaking their hand, asking them what they do, and if they would like a refreshing cup of lemonade to brighten their day!

Word of Mouth

• Offer free product to cool and hip people who can hang out and spread word of mouth how great your product is

Tell the Story

• Old-Fashioned lemonade stand in the 21st century, “And in these times of uncertainty, one thing is certain that the quality and value of a great lemonade made by hand is the culmination of the enduring value of capitalism and branding of “Made in the USA”. Target media with story.

Make up a Story

• Pull Heart Strings – tell compelling guilt story about kids selling lemonade to support out-of-job parents

Discounts/Promotions

• Bundle Products (25 cents for lemonade, $2 for PB&J, or $2 for both)

• Referral Buy One Get One Free – for each person you refer, you receive a free cup of lemonade

Reality Check – Consider the costs of more promotion versus the opportunity cost of what else you could be doing with that time that could have yielded more gross revenue.

EXPAND

Different Product Offering

• Add PB&J to attract afternoon daypart business and increase average check

Additional Locations/Outlets

• If not enough customers are coming to you, bring product to where the customers are via pop-up storefront.

• Franchise (and simply collect licensing fees)

Knowledge

• Conduct research to better understand what motivates customers, test many of the ideas suggested here

Bail out/Government Assistance

• Ride tricycle (not corporate jet) to Washington DC

Increase Quality / Perceived Quality

The Basics

• Clean, fast and friendly.

Product Quality

• Offer organically produced ingredients

• Promote locally grown/manufactured ingredients
• Use perceived premium ingredient (Meyer Lemons)
• Hand-craft vs. Mass Produced – hand-muddle your exotic lemon blend in the pitcher so you can promote the artistry of your beverage.

Pricing

• Do not lower price, maintain perceived value

• Raise list price to 50-cents, offer discount price at 25-cents (Obtain pricing I want, but through a perceived discount)
• Establish Product As Premium – Raise price to 50-cents

Healthy

• Make offering healthier / better for you (Stevia, better than sugar for kids)

Experience

• Enhance the customer experience / Give The Love

• Make It A Destination Attractive To Your Customers
• Party atmosphere, balloons, a hip and “must be” place for kids to hang-out
• You have a STAND – do you also encourage additional purchases of the product and a casual ‘club’ atmosphere at your stand by having chairs in the later spring/summer with an covering for shelter, coloring books and other fun things to do? Likewise, in fall/winter any warming elements or seasonal decor to create additional customer satisfaction when standing in line to buy and consume your product?

Support Your Fans

• Exclusive Membership – Create a Special Taster’s Club to develop and test new products.

Responsible Member of Community

• Reduce – Discount for bringing your own cup

• Reuse – Donation of extra product
• Recycle – compost waste materials

While this Lemonade Stand is fictional, but the problems and the solutions are real. You may want to consider them for your own business.
What other ideas do you have?

Related posts:

1. Response To Economy: Advice On Altering Your Message, Product, Brand
2. Can You Help My Lemonade Stand?
3. How Social Networks Are Disrupting Everything You Know About Business
4. Stealing Good Ideas From Others vs. Bad Ideas Of Your Own
5. Discounting Prices Discounts Your Brand