What’s more important in a small business: offering a high quality or unique experience or convenience?
ByThat’s exactly the question author Kevin Maney explores in his new book, Trade-Off: Why Some Things Catch On, and Others Don’t (Broadway Books).
While I haven’t read the book yet, I did get a chance to read an excerpt from it at Fortune’s online Website, and it’s pretty darn insightful. So insightful I had to post some info about it here so other small business owners could learn from the lessons he discusses using Starbucks as an example. This can affect your marketing in a big way, as well as your chances of success.
In particular, it’s interesting to note that Maney states you can’t offer both a high quality, unique experience (what he terms “fidelity” to refer to the entire experience) and convenience in one business…Mainly because convenience automatically dilutes the idea of uniqueness and high quality. Just like having something be in tight supply often makes it more desirable, more expensive and (at least apparently) higher quality.
In other words, if you can get it on every street corner, how good can it be? And how cool are you for buying it if everyone else does too? And finally, how do these ideas affect consumer behavior?
The question for you then is: Are you chasing after both in your small business? If so, chances are good you’re in trouble. But don’t take my word for it. Read the entire article here:
http://money.cnn.com/2009/09/16/news/companies/kevin_maney_starbucks.fortune/index.htm
I’d love to know what you think of the article and these ideas. Please do share your thoughts by leaving a comment below.
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Stacy,
Nice blog! A very interesting article. I think that you can have quality and a unique experience (not necessarily a convenient one). The choice occurs in all businesses. In the dental field, we have chosen to go the “quality” route and give exceptional service and work to our patients. Along with the quality, we try to make visits unique with soft chairs, music, refreshment bar, fireplace, and large picture windows with views. To accomplish quality, you have to focus on what you do best and not be a “jack of all trades”–the author alludes to this indirectly. To accomplish this quality, you have to decide “who is your target audience”??, but the author does not really address that issue in his article. Overall, I found the article interesting and informative.