20 percent companies have a small menu
One of the things I like about getting on a Southwest flight is that it is very democratic. The first people to get to the airport get the seat they want. You don't walk through first class and feel like the money you are spending makes you a second class citizen. They give everyone on the flight the
same quality.
The good car companies and some of the best clothing companies have a value based system that makes buying their products easy. They give better quality because they focus their work on fewer choices. You can call it the small menu rule. My examples of these small menu companies are Toyota and
Honda cars, Lands End and Talbot's for clothes and Subway or LaMadeline in food.
One example of how Toyota and Honda are separating themselves from their competition is they have a hybrid car that gets over 60 miles to the gallon of gas. They have been perfecting them for four years and will soon have many choices on the road long before their competition has decided it they even
want to build one. They could experiment with this car because the first rule get the job done is handled by the Camry and Accord which are the number one and number three selling car. Honda has no pickups just a small menu. Both companies have four or less interior choices and about the
same number of exteriors.
Go to Lands End look at their catalog or web site and you will see that they have slowly built a brand of working clothes. Like the experimental cars at Toyota, Lands End has a new niche-custom made clothes for the working person. Sounds a little like Southwest-democratic clothes for people
that want value.
Talbot's has done the same type of program allowing the customer to buy different pieces to make a suit. These two companies have carved up the office worker market. Both of these companies have spent more time on buttons than some companies spend on their marketing plan. Both companies have a small menu of seasonal clothes and a stable
line of the clothes people work in year round.
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