Mr. Marketing: Weighty thoughts on oversized customers

Did you know airlines now charge extremely overweight people for two seats? And on recent flight  I read about Birmingham, England’s LG Arena installing 1-inch wider seats to accommodate overweight patrons.

I found myself considering Poway’s Center for the Performing Arts (I sit on their board), whose 22-inch seats comfortably seat 810 patrons at a given performance. Yet with almost 20 percent of today’s teenagers considered obese, it seems realistic to assume the day may soon come where the center will also need wider seats.

Adding just 1 inch to each seat’s width would cut down a full house at the PCPA from 810 seats to 775. This 4.5 percent drop in available seating would mean the center must raise prices over $2 per ticket just to stay even. It forces the question of whether patrons would willingly pay more so their neighbors could be more comfortable.
And we haven’t yet asked what impact comes from carrying that extra weight on our bodies.

We can probably all agree obesity isn’t good for a person’s health. It’s also not good for our community’s economic health, raising insurance rates and concert ticket prices, among other things.

It makes me wonder what other marketing changes our society’s over-eating obsession may bring to our collective horizon. Will airlines be forced to install wider seats across the board? Will we see larger toilet seats? And when will larger kitchen chairs and patio furniture become the norm?

Of course, eating stuff like fried Oreos provides marketing opportunities as well as new products to the marketplace. Imagine “The Carl’s Jr. Guacamole Bacon Six Dollar Burger concert series, FEATURING WIDER SEATS!”

Business is Darwinian. We all must adapt to environmental changes…or die. So as you examine your own business, learn how your customer’s profile is changing, then offer new products and services to appeal to those needs.

You might be surprised at the kinds of opportunities that can open for you by an audience that’s aging, becoming more bilingual, or gaining weight. And peering a little bit into the future may help fatten your bottom line.

With that said, I wish you a week of profitable marketing.

Mr. Marketing has cut down on his doughnut consumption to ensure his butt fits into current seat configurations. Reach him at www.askmrmarketing.com.