« US brand and the closing of the borders | Main | March trade in intangibles »
May 9, 2005
Pyromaniac tourism
Talk about selling an intangible:
WSJ.com - Burn, Prairie, Burn: Tourists in Kansas Come to Torch Grass
"Flames in the Flint Hills," now an annual event, started at Mr. Jantzen's ranch three years ago. Here, spring is range-burning season when ranchers torch their prairies to revitalize the grass for livestock and kill off invasive plants. It's a dirty, smoky and sometimes dangerous task usually done by a rancher and one or two hired laborers.
Yet the 61-year-old Mr. Jantzen has managed to turn the burn into a cash cow by getting others to pay for doing his work -- something tantamount to Tom Sawyer snookering pals into whitewashing his aunt's fence. Instead of dead rats, apples and marbles, Mr. Jantzen gets paid $100 by every burner.
He makes an all-day party of it, offering snacks, a cash bar and dinner with a live bluegrass band. Well after nightfall into last month's burn, flames licked the prairie's ridgelines as guests from as far away as Finland stood sipping beer and swaying to music.
Now that is innovative marketing!
Posted by Ken Jarboe at May 9, 2005 11:02 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.athenaalliance.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/117