A Storm of Customers
When snowflakes fall in Buffalo, so do prices at Anderson’s Custard.
When I was visiting my family in Buffalo this March, I stopped by Anderson’s Custard to grab a cone—a chocolate-vanilla twist, to be specific. For someone who no longer lives in the area, it is a difficult place to offhandedly drive by. Not only do they serve an excellent roast beef-on-weck sandwich, but their frozen custard is exceptional. Creamy and flavorful, it comes in a variety of flavors, some of which are rotated in and out, so it’s always worth stopping by to see if black raspberry is on the menu that day.
When I went to pay for my cone, I was surprised by the bill. It was light. The young woman behind the counter explained why.
“Look,” she said. “It’s snowing.”
Sure enough, it had just started. I looked at her, dumbly.
“Ice cream’s half off when it’s snowing.”
This knowledge hit me with the force of a lake-effect storm. All these years, I had no idea. But others did. Car after car came barreling in the parking lot. Behind me, a line magically started to form, where just minutes before I had the place to myself.
I realized I had accidentally happened upon one of the all-time great marketing promotions. How do you sell ice cream to Buffalonians over the long, dark winter? Anderson’s figured it out. You combine the two things we can’t resist: ice cream, and a deal.
So instead of dwindling cold-weather sales, Anderson’s brings people in by the droves—at least when it snows. In Buffalo, this is not an infrequent occurrence. In 2019, five feet of snow fell in January’s last two weeks. It must have been busy at Anderson’s.
Every single one of these customers probably tells 10 other people about their delicious half-price dessert. Generating priceless word of mouth for Anderson’s, for next to nothing.
Marketers, while you chase sales with the latest in social media ads, search engine optimization, and email campaigns, don’t forget the brilliant promotional tool pioneered by this small family-owned business in Western New York.
Snow.
