Franchise Times magazine has just published my article on Schlotzsky’s, the Austin, TX based sandwich deli that is rolling out Wi-Fi. What was amazing about this chain, is that they were willing to go out on a limb, and offer Wi-Fi access free in the restaurants (and not just in restaurants, as I discovered.)

I interviewed the PR Director for this, and she was very convinced that the restaurant experience is much more than the product you buy over the counter. There is another story in here (my article was from a technology perspective) about bundling an intangible service with a tangible product, and creating brand equity.

Speaking of which, I just experienced the branding that no ad, and no TV commercial can achieve on another Texas product: Southwest Airlines. The flight attendant, after some mandatory landing announcements, asked those who were from a particular company to raise their hands. He then announced that these wonderful folks were being flown in to San Diego, as a reward for achieving a sales goal. The passengers broke into applause, as they often do on SWA.

It struck me that there was probably nothing in the employee handbook to say a flight attendant should or should not give another company a plug in front of some 200 passengers. But because of that little gesture, there is a high probability that a lot of us passengers flying for business reasons, would be booking our flight on that airline again.