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Hey, happy Monday,
Yesterday I searched for this photo in my archives for you to see:
I took this in October 2019, which is why they are all close together and without a mask.
Edward, the ice cream shop with the letter Ⓑ, is my favorite, and as you can see from the queue, not only my…
Full disclaimer: I do not know the owners and this newsletter is not sponsored by the brands mentioned.
Every time I go there, I ask myself two questions:
- How will the owner of the Ⓐ ice cream shop feel as he sees the queue parading toward the competitor’s entrance?
- But how did you come up with the idea of opening an ice cream shop right next to another ice cream shop?
If you step back for a moment it gets even more interesting.
Two doors away is a third ice cream shop, this time of a very famous brand, also deserted.
What is so special about Edward?
These photographs were taken to be shown during the Blue Ocean Strategy and Job-to-be-Done sessions of the STRTGY innovation program and in general when I need to make it clear what I mean by “neutralizing competition.”
Edwards has the smallest store of all three, does not invest in marketing, and the owners do not come from the restaurant/bakery industry–and yet he captures all customers.
Edward is not fighting the competition, for example by selling ice cream at a lower price-in fact, his is the most expensive-he is simply making it irrelevant by choosing to :
- Adopt a value system completely different from competition
- make a unique experience
- focus on the emotional and social benefits, not just the merely functional ones, of one’s product
➀ Differentiating value system.
Ice cream is organic, all flavors are, not just some. It is really a production philosophy. There is also a vegan flavor without milk and eggs and one with 4 percent alcohol in Chianti. Attention to the quality of raw materials is very high.
➁ Unique experience
Everything is handmade. Even the cones are freshly made. You just see the saleswoman pouring the batter onto the plate and rolling the waffle while it’s still hot. Sometimes you have to wait for it to cool for a second so they can put the ice cream on top. If you prefer the cup and want to be green, they pack one with the waffle that you can eat!
It’s crispy, genuine, and you can smell it from the street!
➂ Emotional and social benefits.
Being organic and artisanal, this ice cream is not only good but also good for you, or let’s say it leaves you with less guilt than traditional ice cream… Plus having your friends discover this place will allow you to look like a true connoisseur in their eyes.
Edoardo has created a blue ocean in a hypercompetitive space. Following the perimeter of Florence’s cathedral you can count many other ice cream shops, surely more than 10, all fighting to steal the same customers. Instead, Edoardo’s are there for him, diligently waiting their turn.
In that blue ocean, price is not a driver of choice. It is impossible for customers to compare the experience that Edoardo’s offers with the undifferentiated experience of other ice cream shops that are just … ice cream shops.
Now take a cue from this story to ask: How can I become the Edward of _______________ (complete you)?
Know that you can build a blue ocean in any sector
- although undifferentiated and hypercompetitive
- Without burning your margins in advertising
- without having to make a dangerous revolution in the company.
If you think it is impossible write to me.
CX starts outside the store
Seeing the queues outside the stores allowed me to do another reflection, follow me….
Before the lockdown, the tail was a status symbol for brands on the crest of a wave or fruit launch strategies for exclusive products.
Today, waiting outside the store has become the first touchpoint from which to start building one’s Customer Experience.
Less boredom, more branding
With having to maintain security in tight, enclosed spaces, it becomes common to see queues forming naturally outside stores. This is a great opportunity to start interacting with your customers by anticipating the relationship, which in most cases started elsewhere anyway: online.
At the top of the priorities is reassuring hygiene and offering comfort while waiting considering that this will be a very hot summer. Trivially, Apple is handing out water bottles outside its stores…
When people are waiting in line and staring at their devices, it is important to break the boredom by shifting the focus from personal feeds to brand feeds by facilitating access to stories and information about the product or in-store promotions using, for example, QR codes, Bluetooth or RFID.
Some transactions might even start already in the queue, for example by chatting with an operator (or bot) to find out in advance if there is a particular size or color or to make a return.
Queue management
Some apps like Open Table (part of the Booking family), are extending their focus from just restaurants to supermarkets and stores that can accept reservations for shopping at the least crowded time.
In Italy we have uFirst (formerly Qurami) which could also do this work in public administration.
A new category of applications and devices designed specifically to manage queues and extract value from these new behaviors is emerging. As it is doing Lidl in Ireland which simply uses a traffic light to tell customers when to enter.
Also in Italy are leading companies such as SAIMA, which could evolve their hardware solutions not only to block or authorize access but to improve capacity and flow management, wait times, communication of promotions and engagement, data enrichment, and personalization 🤯.
New Contact Free layouts
Did you know that in Florence, noble palaces had wine pits used to retail wine but discreetly (and cut out the middlemen)?
Vivoli, another historic ice cream shop, just to stay on topic, uses it to serve its customers.
Public business layouts will have to be reconfigured to new logics that are no longer about displaying merchandise but about assisting customers who will have already begun their Customer Journey online or from “augmented” storefronts.
Computational brands, that is, those that harness the computational power of the cloud, algorithms, and their customers’ data to create realtime experiences at scale, will have a new opportunity to be present in the lives of people who trust them by being able to extend the relationship across four dimensions:
- pre-visit
- in queue
- during
- post-visit
It is clear that, never more than in this time of recovery, Business, Design and Technology need to be synchronized and break down the silos of innovation. Do you have everything you need to do this?
Have a great start to the week!
Make yourself heard.
