Why Pret Has to Be Convenient and Five Guys Doesn’t

Not every brand wins by being faster. Sometimes a little bit of friction is exactly what makes something feel worth paying for.

In this episode of Full Fat Marketing, Leonora breaks down the customer psychology behind Pret and Five Guys, and why convenience only works when it actually matches what the customer came for.

If you’ve ever wondered why some brands need speed while others benefit from visible effort, this episode will show you how the wrong kind of convenience can weaken value.

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And if you’re building a food, drink or hospitality brand and want help applying these strategies to your business, feel free to reach out at leonora@lrbcreative.com

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Disclaimer: Insights shared are based on Leonora’s experience with food and hospitality brands and are for educational purposes only. Results may vary.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Now, a lot of founders think that the goal is to make the customer experience as convenient as possible. By that I mean faster, smoother, less waiting. And yes, sometimes that is true, but not always, because here's the bit people miss. Customers don't always want maximum convenience. And I know that sounds mad, but sometimes all they want is a touch of reassurance. Sometimes they want a little bit of effort. And if that effort makes the thing feel more worth it, that is the difference. And honestly, once you understand that, you start looking at a lot of brands in a very, very different way. I'm Lenora and this is the Full Fat Marketing Podcast where you'll hear the uncomfortable strategy truths for F and B brands that most people won't tell you, but I will. Now take Pret à Manger and Five Guys, both really successful, both well known, both built around food people often buy in a rush. And yet the customer expectation is completely different. If I walk into Pret and there's a massive cue, nothing's labeled, the service is slow, and I'm waiting around 10 minutes for a tuna baguette, I'm annoyed. And I will be deeply annoyed because that breaks the whole promise and the whole essence of Pret. Pret is not just selling a sandwich, it's selling speed, ease. I can grab this and go. That is what you are essentially paying for. So if the experience feels really slow, messy, or awkward, it stops feeling worth it very quickly. Now compare that to say a brand like Five Guys. If I were to walk into Five Guys and there is a queue, people are waiting, the fries are being scooped, the burgers are being made in front of me, you can almost smell it, right? And it takes a bit longer. Weirdly, it doesn't feel wrong and it doesn't annoy me. In fact, it kind of feels reassuring because the waiting means something. It's telling me this is being made properly, it's not just sitting around, this is not just being flung at me from under a heat lamp. That weighting actually supports the promise. It adds to the feeling that the product is worth paying for. And that is the whole point. Convenience is not automatically good. It only works when it matches what the customer actually came for. Some brands are really successful because they feel easy, fast, smooth. It's very much low effort. And some brands are successful because they feel considered, intentional, almost worth waiting for. And if you design the wrong kind of brand experience, the whole thing starts to feel really off. A lot of founders get convenience wrong. They assume if we make everything faster, easier, and more seamless, customers will like us more. We will be booked out all the time. Not necessarily. Sometimes yes, sometimes absolutely not. And steer clear from it. Because if the whole point of your brand is that it feels premium and then the experience feels too fast, you can accidentally make the whole thing feel less valuable. I don't know if you've ever experienced this before, but if you ever go into a restaurant and it's say it's like a really special occasion or it's a restaurant that you've been wanting to go for a really long time, there's always, we all know that one place, yeah. And the thing that I hate, I can't tell you how much I hate this, is when I understand why, but I still hate it, is when I book a table and then I receive an email or someone tells me on the phone, oh, you've got two hours for that slot. So we'll book you in from like eight to ten. And that really winds me up. And as I said, I know why they do it. They do it because obviously like they want more covers and they want more people to come in. But at the same time, if I'm really looking forward to somewhere and I know that it's really special, and if I've booked it for something specific, I don't want to be there looking at my watch every two seconds, making sure that I'm sort of on track to leave at 10. Usually, I mean, even if you stay over the time by like a couple minutes, it's okay. But I mean, at one time I was like 10 minutes to the time, and someone actually came, like a member of Wait Staff came over and told me that I had to leave. I was mortified. And in some situations, these are places where like you pay a lot of money, or as I said, you're celebrating something special. So it just makes the whole situation almost like it gives you a bit of a sour, a sour taste in your mouth. And the thing is, people don't just buy what they get, they buy what it feels like to get it. And that's why some brands can feel worth more even when the product itself is not necessarily wildly different. The experience is helping justify the price, and that matters, of course, it does. And this is also why some businesses get themselves into trouble by trying to copy the wrong kind of brand. They look at something like PRET and they think, oh, we need to speed everything up and be just like them. Maybe, but if you're not actually selling convenience, you might be removing the very things that actually make your product feel really worth it. Speed is not always the value. Sometimes care is the value, or freshness is the value, or visible effort is the value. And if you strip all of that out in the name of efficiency, you can end up making the whole thing feel way less special to the customer. This is also why some waiting feels unbearable and some waiting we weirdly tolerate. And if I'm waiting for something that feels generic, poorly run, or like it should have been faster, I am irritated. But if I'm waiting for something that feels in demand or really worth it, that same weight lands completely differently. That is really big in customer psychology. Not all waiting feels the same, not all effort feels the same, and not all convenience creates value. Now, if you're a founder, cafe owner, operator, or marketing manager listening to this, here's the practical takeaway from this episode. Stop asking how do we make this faster? And instead start asking yourself, what is the customer actually expecting from us here? Speed is only valuable when speed is part of the promise. And if it's not, you might be solving the wrong problem. So I would ask yourself three things. First, what are people actually buying from us beyond the product? Is it speed, ease, freshness? Because the answer to that should shape the actual experience itself. Second, where in our customer journey does convenience matter the most? And where does visible effort actually help us? And third, are we accidentally making the experience feel less valuable in the name of efficiency? And this is the one a lot of brands miss. Efficiency is not always the same as desirability. And if you make the whole thing too stripped back, too rushed, or too transactional, you can accidentally remove the very cues that make people enjoy it or feel good paying for it. It's like me raging about the restaurant reservation where I have to be kicked out at 10 pm. Honestly, I can't deal. But tomorrow I want to talk about how Surreal managed to charge more for cereal without it feeling completely delusional, which frankly deserves a bit of a breakdown. And that's the Full Fat version. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, you can listen to the Full Fat Marketing Podcast wherever you get your podcasts with new bite size episodes releasing daily from Monday to Friday. You can thank me later for that. Oh, and if you're enjoying the podcast, I'd really, really love and appreciate it if you left a review, as it really helps more people find it. I'll see you tomorrow.