Doing gimmicks just to be noticed could bring your business harm than good.

Here in my small town we love chicken, specially letchon manok (roast chicken) and we have around more or less than 10-20  stores that sells letchon manok.

Image Source: BaliwagLechonManok.com

Few months ago a new letchon manok store opened near where I live and it was convenient as we don’t have to go far.

It was a booming business as it was the first store that sells letchon manok in my area and my neighborhood is quite big.

Now few months after that new store opened another store open just across the street where the 1st store was running but it was gaining more success and getting more customers up until now, it is one of the famous letchon manok store near where I live.

What do you think happened? Why is the second store getting a lot of customers than the first store?

I have listed below things that could have something to do with it.

• Branding
• Recipe
• Customer Service
• Price
• Customer Experience

Branding – Well the first letchon manok was the first mover so it has already establish a name for itself and did I mentioned it was a booming business, it was a success at first but sales went down when the 2nd store was put up.

Both store were selling letchon manok but the 2nd store added 1 more menu to their list and that is liempo (roasted pig’s belly i think) and the people loved it. So point one to the second store for breaking the pattern of just selling letchon manok.

Image Source: SeriousEats.com

Recipe – I think everything taste almost the same, since here in our town we don’t have a lot of spices and herbs unlike other places so even if they have added something new still the basic taste is still there. So its a draw here.

Customer Service – both are quick in my opinion and how they interact with customers its fair enough, so it’s a draw here also

Price – last time I check the 1st store was selling their letchon manok for a cheaper price compare to the 2nd store. (So why not buy from them right?) Not sure who won here… Logically the cheaper price should be the winner but it doesn’t look like that at all.

Customer Experience – Now this is one of the most important factor that you should consider when opening up a business. In my opinion the 2nd store was way cleaner, more organize and feels like they care about their business.

See how I mention “FEELS like….” yes that is correct, I always buy letchon manok at the 2nd store because I feel that they care and feels like it’s clean.

As hard as we convinced ourselves about logical and rational thinking still we always act base on our current emotions “We are emotional and selfish beings…”

Let’s go back to our first question how do you stand out from the crowd?

We do that by triggering our customer’s emotion by making them feel happy, satisfied, content and this is where customer experience comes in.

Have you watch a Jollibee advertisement on T.V. or on the internet? Have you seen them promoting how good their kitchen utensils are? or something like “Here in Jollibee we have the best fried chicken because it is cook in this temperature and marinated for how many hours, or this is because we have the top chef cooking inside our kitchen”?

No we don’t see this kind of advertisement but instead we can see kids enjoying their time eating, couples having dates, friends and families laughing together and just enjoying the time and you can see them SMILING.

Disclaimer: I’m not paid to promote Jollibee or something like that..

Informing people how their fried chicken is cooked and all those stuff is logical right?

So why don’t they show you that?

Because like I said the world act base on emotion. They are trying to trigger the feeling of being happy and satisfied so that is why we can see everyone is smiling. It’s like telling us that if you go here you will have a great time and that is what people want to experience.

Conclusion

“Products are 25% of what you sell. The rest is an intangible feeling.” @LarockFraser

So when you build a business don’t just focus on the product itself focus on the value and experience your product or services can offer people. Invest on the experience, if most of your customers are online, invest on improving your online presence , people will share what their experience is and that is how you can influence people to buy your product or use your services.

In your own opinion how can you stand out from your competitors?