What you can’t copy
November 17th, 2010 • marketing (296)
I’ve been thinking about this with regard to a business proposal project I am doing for Business Writing (COMM 486W).
My team members proposed introducing a unique food item from Japan. For the longest time, it seemed silly to me. So easy to copy, unoriginal. Does anyone remember the first establishment in Vancouver that started serving sushi? Does anyone care? No.
Yet they persisted. People will really like this food.
As I thought more about restaurants it occurred to me – for many it is not really about the food at all. Food is too easy to copy. Sure, good restaurants need to make good food, but I think (for the majority, not the true foodies) it only has to be good enough.
If you have ever read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, he wrote about how truly great violinists were only good enough, and once they passed a certain “talent” threshold what really separated them was practice. Similarly, Nobel Prize winners typically come from good schools, not the greatest schools as they only need to be “smart” (IQ wise) enough, and they win their Nobel Prizes with things like creativity.
So once you pass the “taste” threshold, it really comes down to the atmosphere, decor, service, location – the brand really. And that’s a lot harder to copy than a recipe.