"But the game teaches you how to get out of the rat race, and I did." The prospect of learning the secret to wealth has unlimited appeal in a culture that has embraced real estate investing as sort of a fiscal sport. "I thought it was the stupidest thing I had ever heard of until I sat down to play it," said Paul Strauss of Naperville, a full-time real estate investor and a founder of the Windy City club, which isn't affiliated with Kiyosaki but whose Web site links to Kiyosaki's. Members play regularly, learning the accounting principles Kiyosaki insists are key to shrewd investing, while honing their get-rich-quick fantasies. The brainchild of investment guru Robert Kiyosaki, author of the extraordinarily popular "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" books, Cashflow 101 has spawned clubs around the world. The group, crowded around tables in a Naperville sandwich shop on a recent Saturday morning, reached for their game markers-little plastic rats-to play Cashflow 101, a board game some devotees credit with changing their lives.
I bring this up because Mary Umberger has a front-page story in the Chicago Tribune about a new board game that makes the Chivas Regal price change look miniscule: "OK, everybody, grab a rat," announced an organizer who had brought a dozen aspiring property magnates together. The logic was that consumers would take the higher price as a signal of higher quality, and demonstrate a willingness to pay. The consultants came back with two recommendations: change the label, and raise the price of a bottle of whiskey by 20%. Major in economics in college, and you'll likely hear the story about Chivas Regal, a brand that was struggling back in the seventies and hired a consultant to diagnose its ills.