You want your company to stand out against all of the other companies that are just like yours. What do you do? Ed Perry comments on how to garner more word-of-mouth marketing.

Sunday morning I sat in The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf on South Lamar in Austin, Texas while visiting with someone who was sitting in The Coffee Bean in Zamalek, Cairo, Egypt. My Coffee Bean had three customers. My friend could not count all the customers in the one in Cairo, but he guessed it was well over 150. Late Sunday morning is a great time for traffic in a coffee shop in the USA, but Sunday evening (Cairo time) is ordinarily slow for coffee shops in Cairo.

The Coffee Bean prices in Cairo are the same (accounting for currency conversion) as they are in the USA. Compared to the competition in Cairo, that makes the drinks at The Coffee Bean outlandishly expensive. And yet, they’re packed!

Both Coffee Beans are in prime locations for coffee shops. I’ve been to the one in Cairo and can attest that its decor is not materially different from the one in Austin. However, it’s two-stories tall to house all its customers.

Why is there such a big difference in customer response? There are plenty of coffee/tea shops in both Austin and Cairo, including ones that are every bit as cool and trendy as The Coffee Bean. Why do they flock to the one in Cairo while the one in Austin languishes?

Many of us crave the unusual, the unique, the different, especially the crowd that frequents The Coffee Bean versus other chains. The menus are the same in both locations. While The Coffee Bean’s menu is very distinct for Cairo, it is not all that different from dozens of other chains in the USA. If you’re in Cairo and crave a drink that’s of American variety, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf is the place to be.

Just as word-of-mouth marketing spreads rapidly of the unusual, unique and different, so does word of the mundane. How can you differentiate your product or service enough to garner excellent word-of-mouth marketing? What do your customers crave most of all that’s unusual or unique to your market? Ask them; they’ll tell you. Prepare to be surprised; it’s probably not something you’d expect.

Like iced Japanese Cherry Tea.

Photo courtesy of Pragmagraphr.

Tags: Advice, Customers, Ed Perry, Teachers

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Guest Writers