About two years ago while ordering a Hoegaarden, I pronounced it “Ho-garden.” The bartender copped an attitude and said, “Pfft, It’s pronounced WHO-garden.”
Two things:
- While I’ll never forget how to pronounce Hoegaarden, I’ll also never forget that The Shortstop bartender is kind of a dick.
- A long time ago I worked at Starbucks and they taught us to always repeat the customer’s order, but in the official Starbucks way. If a customer ordered a “large frap” I would repeat back “Grande Frappucino.” Over time customers were conditioned to order drinks the Starbucks way. Some customers even took pride in knowing the “trick” to ordering.1
Which brings us to Hoegaarden’s packaging magic:
When you pick up the six pack, the handle slides up and teaches you how to pronounce the product. Hoegaarden could have just printed the pronunciation under their logo, but that would clutter the packaging and cheapen the experience. It would tell the customer, “hey dummy, you won’t know how to pronounce this, so we’re going to hit you over the head with it.”
Instead, it’s a special secret, a magic trick.
Notes:
- To order the Starbucks way, follow the order printed on the cups: “Iced, Grande, Nonfat, 2 pump mint mocha.” This tells the barista to reach for the plastic iced drink cups, then the size, and so on, in the same order the drinks are assembled. It’s a coffee assembly line, and standardization makes it go faster.