More than a Fish Story

Craig Arthur sends a regular newsletter to subscribers like me that contain nuggets like this:

Word of Mouth Strategies:

It’s Not the Size of the Idea That Counts…

By Wizard Partner, Sonya Winterbotham

“Then they layer the freshness cues some more. Their filleting room is glass from waist height to ceiling, so you see all the action.”

While big business spends millions pondering the next “Big” idea, over in the real world where budgets are leaner it’s the small ideas making the big difference.

If you’re struggling to stand out in a heavily competitive category, tilt your head, change your perspective and do just one small thing different to your competitors.

Need to be inspired? Get out there in your own market, I bet there are a stack of businesses already making small changes in order to stand out, for the better.

Here’s one example of a business that does it different in my market… It’s a seafood shop that brings “freshness” to the people in a very unique way.

Where I live the weather is sunny and the weekends are made for sitting around an outdoor setting shelling prawns and sipping beers… that’s our lifestyle, tough I know. And it makes retail seafood - big business. But get this… People here have this deep believe that the closer the seafood shop is to the water, the fresher the seafood. So if your shop is on the spit or backing onto the canal, you’re geography immediately puts your business at an advantage because of this perception. 10 minutes inland, and you’ve got some catching up to do. Well 10 minutes from the ocean is exactly where this business sits.

So how do they compete with the waterfront shops? Check this out…

First - they bring a little of the ocean a little further inland than you’d expect to see it… This seafood shop has filled their unused floor space with a big surf boat, topped it up with ice and packed it with fresh fish. You choose - they fillet - on the spot. The surfboat brings the idea of the ocean closer to the customers – closing the gap that perception opened. The fish (whole and unfilleted) add to that growing idea of freshness.

Then they layer the freshness cues some more. Their filleting room is glass from waist height to ceiling, so you see all the action. Every other seafood shop I’ve ever walked into, keeps the preparation behind closed doors… it’s all clean, pristine and sterile out front. But which sounds fresher? “I just bought fish fillets out of a display unit” OR “I just chose a whole fish, out of a boat, and watched it filleted before my eyes”.

Not big ideas, not expensive ideas… They just looked at what everybody else did, tilted their heads and asked – what little thing can we be doing that’ll make us stand out?

You don’t have to think big, you just have to think different.

PS from the editor. This business knows how to buy Word of Mouth. They use Kinetic & Architectural word of mouth strategies. They also understand what their brand stands for.

Sphere: Related Content