I’m a big fan of musicals and chocolate so naturally Willy Wonka is one of my favorite movies. I subconsciously began humming a song from it about a week ago and I looked it up on YouTube. There are some good business lessons to be learned from this short 2min scene so I outlined just a few below.
1. Don’t be a jerk to your customers: From :19s to :29s the Candy Man is a royal jerk to an 11 year old kid. Hey bud, just because you underachieved as a child doesn’t mean you can be mean to your customers.
2. Careful on all the songs: If you’re candy shop is not known of lots of singing then be careful. At :37s the resident treat supplier breaks into a long song about Willy Wonka. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great song but I’m not sure you can pull it off.
3. Don’t assault your customers: I had to a do a triple take on this one. At 1:58 the candy man gets so caught up in his little jingle he opens the counter door into a customer’s jaw. She plays it off like a pro but I’m sure she needed therapy to visit a candy shop again.
4. Charge your customers money: Not once in this whole video does that candy man mention a price point. These school grades kids cannot be expected to pay for all the sugar their sucking down. If the candy man isn’t careful he’ll be out of business before the next full moon.
Next week I’ll write about why running a luck-of-the-draw contest to find your next CEO is not the best of ideas.