Many years ago, I had the privilege of meeting the owner of a fabulous restaurant chain in Europe. He had built the first restaurant which had had a total of 17 visitors in the first 3 months of existence. (That translates to less than one a day, but did not include the owner himself, who cooked at least two great meals and ate in the restaurant twice a day.) Being rich and debt-free has it’s virtues I guess.
Then, one day, a food critic happened to pass by, happened to come in, and the rest as they say is history. Mr. X, the owner, is a semi-public figure now, and the restaurant is a known name. Mr. X prides himself on his single minded focus on quality and how he was sure that if he put all his effort on making the best meal possible, eventually the crowds will come in.
And yes indeed, that is the way it turned out to be.
My question is – If that food critic hadn’t happened to pass by, would the crowds still have come in? However, Mr. X says we can’t answer that question, because that didn’t happen in this universe, and that is all we have.
The decision that you as a business owner have is, to be like Mr. X and build the single greatest product ever, or also market and advertise your product heavily? Once you do get someone’s attention and that person is on your website or reading your brochure, do you also make it look very attractive? Do you do these two things in addition to building the greatest product that you can actually make?
The 3 components of success are:
- Marketing and Advertising: Bring the crowds in – by aligning their need with an attractive price ($6.95 for all you can eat Sushi Buffet!)
- Presentation/User Experience – Make it look good (*This* is what Sushi should look like)
- Quality/Maturity – Make sure that it is very good in all aspects (Good Sushi doesn’t make you throw up later)
Happy Producing!
[Photo courtesy: DarkMeadow@Flickr]
