Marketing Research at Denny's and CEC

We did the Denny's after the Super bowl grand slam giveaway with all 6 kids, deep breath, and survived! Insert APPLAUSE now.  No really we were discussing businesses and marketing and this was an excellent opportunity to see great marketing in action :  One dish made for a specific audience served free, hot and quickly.  We were seated in 15 minutes flat and were served within another 15.  Not to bad for an over packed house.  I asked the kids tons of questions. Is this meal free. (no, Not really) Why? (Because we ordered drinks.) How much did those drinks cost? ($3.95) How much does a gallon of milk cost? ( $2.30)  Did we pay for breakfast? (yes)  We sure did we covered their costs.  We went on and on with the questions and then we went to Chuck E Cheese to redeem some coupons.  Free play for 45 minutes.  Then home for lunch and questions-we never buy the pizza.  I think those cogs are turning in those future entrepreneurs' heads.  All in all it was a great double field trip even though the kids thought the meal was gross.  They only eat whole grain products so the meal was just to plebeian for them.  They learned that it does not matter what you like it matters what the customer wants and that is marketing sort of.  True marketing is convincing the customer that he has to have what you are selling but that is another story.