A trip to my local grocery store is an almost-daily ritual, as I hate to plan dinner ahead of time. The store is also a lovely 15-minute walk from my La Jolla home, making last minute dinner decisions doable without driving. The checkout staff contains familiar faces. When I recently forgot to bring my wallet to the store, I asked Bob if he would let me sign an IOU. He’s the round-faced 35-ish-year-old clerk who always looks like he is thinking of songs rather than codes as he rings up my produce prices. “After all, I’ll be here tomorrow … just like I was here yesterday.” “No way! It’s not our policy,” Bob replied, with a tone implying I was trying to pull a fast one over him. Did his response make sense in an era when Amazon acquired Whole Foods, and two-hour…
The Returns and Risks to Niche Business Models
Niche businesses are terrific until they are not. If you run a business with a narrow target market or far more-focused offering than your competitors, you are in a niche business. Just look around the Madison, Wisconsin area: Placon focuses on heat-treated plastic (thermoformed) packaging – not cardboard, glass, injection-molded plastic, or other types of packaging. All Placon investments advance excelling at thermoforming packaging; none are diverted. First Business Bank serves businesses and their owners, not businesses and consumers. “They know business” is a terrific brand promise. American Girl sells to pre-teen girls and their doting moms, not boys. You get the picture. Because they are more narrowly targeted than broader businesses, niche businesses can tailor their offerings, investments, and operating systems to deliver differentiated customer value—allowing them to build a very solid customer base. There is a reason Duluth Trading does not…
Is your business fabulous? It should be.
I opened the birthday card to find a silver metal cutout of the word FABULOUS glued to a background of shiny fuchsia ribbons. The message was wonderful to receive, for sure. Looking at the card days after my birthday, I realize the word FABULOUS is an important word for all of us as we begin a New Year in our organizations. Competing on more than price is getting increasingly difficult. There is excess supply in many markets. Many customers face financial pressures and want a bargain. They find them as they have more buying power than ever, be they a consumer with access to the Internet, or a business offering large contracts that you do not want to lose. The only way past competing on price is to offer your target market benefits that are relevant, unique, and hard for competitors to copy….
Does the breadth of your offering create or steal customer value?
I just spent 10 minutes thinking unkind things about Eddie Bauer. I even shouted an anguished swear word, piercing the silence of my otherwise quiet home. My husband Nick had an overnight guest – our toddler grandson – while I was away and had forgotten to fold up the Eddie Bauer portable crib. Trying to be serious in my home office with a baby crib in my eye’s sight was not working for me, so I decided to take on Nick’s assigned chore and put the crib away. The task should be straightforward I thought. (It’s not IKEA furniture after all with one page of instruction containing no words.) It seemed like I should have been able to unlock the crib’s sides by squeezing plastic handles to collapse the unit, and then put the far-more-compact unit into its zippered case. But as I…
Lessons from a food truck for dogs
There are so many lessons in the innovative Milo’s Kitchen® “food truck for dogs” campaign, let me count the ways. (Yes, you read my words correctly: a food truck, like the outdoor food trucks that populate downtown streets at lunch and public events, serving dogs rather than people.) Milo’s Kitchen is a popular brand of dog treats from Big Heart Pet Brands, parent of the even better-known brand Milk-Bone®. The purpose of the dog food truck is to “connect with pet parents and bring the nation’s ‘gour-mutts’ their first authentic food truck experience, including free home-style dog treats, a ‘doggie selfie’ photo booth, and a backyard-style lapdog lounge,” according to the PR release. I hope you laughed. I did and I am not even a pet person. Milo’s Kitchen on the other hand is probably uncorking the bottles to celebrate. The 200,000+ treat…