“We were aggressively marketing a one-third-pound hamburger for the same price… but despite our best efforts, including first-rate TV and radio promotional spots, they just weren’t selling.”

— A. Alfred Taubman (then-owner of A&W)

It was the 1980s, and A&W was trying to compete with McDonald’s Quarter Pounder by selling a ⅓ pound burger for the same price.  But the product wasn’t selling.  Confused, A&W eventually brought in a market research firm to discover the truth:  Customers thought the price of the burger was unfair.

“Why should we pay the same amount for a third of a pound of meat as we do for a quarter-pound of meat?” they asked.

The product was failing because the majority of customers believed that ⅓ pound of meat was less than ¼ pound of meat.  There are three important lessons here.

1. Most people don’t understand fractions.
2. Sometimes the marketing messages we send to customers are not as clear as we think they are.  
3. Before investing millions of dollars in a new marketing campaign, it’s worth doing a small market research study to ensure the campaign will be understood by your target customers.