So how do you choose to stand above the crowd?
There is so much competition for your current and potential customers to choose from that this is really one of the most important fundamental questions that all small business owners must address. What do are you know for? The lowest price? Having those hard to find items? The best service?
Seth Godin calls this the purple cow – the logic is simple but also very powerful, if you are driving down a country road and you there are hundreds of brown cows you probably don’t even notice. But see just one purple cow and you are sure to stop and look. It is so remarkable that it almost looks out of place.
Do you have something remarkable? Zappos, one of my favorite shoe companies, does. They have made the business decision where it is standard practice to offer free shipping both ways. This encourages customers to order several pairs of shoes to be sure that they fit correctly. This immediately takes away any apprehension of ordering shoes online. It is just part of their every day business. But their customers certainly notice. And because it isn’t expected by their first time customers it instantly becomes a “Wow” moment.
Being the lowest priced is certainly a way to stand out but this is an incredibly tough game to not only play but more importantly to win. The chance of a new competitor springing up that is even cheaper is inevitable and a larger competitor can also play this game. Now certainly Wal-Mart has positioned them selves in this manner as they are operationally super efficient and beat are very tough on their suppliers. For a typical business you can only squeeze so much before something has to give. I’ve worked for the low price leader in a variety of categories and it is a very tough road.
Zingerman’s out of Ann Arbor, Michigan is remarkable with their amazing levels of service. They know their customers exceptionally well. The food is also out of this world, but they aren’t the cheapest. Far from it. But they are known for their legendary service. Instead of branching out and adding more restaurants they instead went into complimentary community businesses. This allowed them to not only increase their share of wallet of their customers but to also improve margins but eliminating more middlemen. This has made them a legendary Ann Arbor community business. A brilliant business strategy.
So what can you do to be remarkable?