Last month when I walked into Trek Express and wanted to buy a coffee at Tim Hortons, an ice cream machine caught my eyes. It was new, fancy, and standing close to the Tim Hortons counters, where large volume of potential customers would walk by everyday. There were small bags of candies and chocolates placed near the machine. I was very interested in it and bought a cup of ice cream at a price of over $5 and blended it with Oreo using the machine. The process was quite interesting although its taste was very similar to McFlurry at McDonald’s. Compare its size and price with McFlurry, which is one of its substitutes and direct competitors, this self-serve ice cream product charged a premium price on the customers through offering the unique customer experience.

In today’s market, firms are trying to create value and add benefits to satisfy the changing needs of the customers through innovation. Self-serve products are usually successful when the target customers are seeking for enjoyment and involvement from making the products. From this video, Yo Crazy Frozen Yogurt store is trying to promote its fun image targeting children, students and families.

Another video is about DIY chocolate on Valentine’s Day in China. The store offered ingredients and recipes to customers for personalizing the chocolate under the instruction from the in-store salespeople.Customers value this fun, unique and romantic way for hand-making a present for their lovers. Although sometimes they fail to design or make a ideal one, they still satisfied with the whole interesting self-serving process.

Many self-serve ice cream, frozen yogurt or other DIY products charge a premium price over the same finished products. I think it is reasonable because firstly those stores need to provide more relaxing atmosphere for customers to enjoy themselves in making the products instead of getting impatient or annoyed, also some self-serve stores need instructors to facilitate the producing process. The higher pricing could cover part of those costs. Besides, I think self-serve or DIY products are quite trendy, which means that it could quickly catch the market’s attention but also can quickly lose it. It is hard to build customer loyalty because most of the customers are buying for the exciting and the innovative ideas of the self-serve products. Those firms may make efforts to reach as many potential customers as they can instead of try to convince the current customers to buy more. The firm should be aware of the changing taste and needs of their customers, be prepared for the seasonal sales fluctuation and promote differently through the time of adoption of the products.