You can only do one thing. Stand for one thing. Be remembered for one thing.
God that's hard.
I am a disciple of Al Reis and Jack Trout's Positioning. A believer that you can only be one thing in people's mind. But it is just so hard to execute. There are so MANY opportunities.
One thing. I am obsessed with that focus for 2007.
Watch all of the companies that make the mistake of trying to be more. Start with mine. We have, over the years, done IT, Web Development, WiFi, and...wait for it... communications consulting(!). And I'm sure several other things. It's a trap.
I asked a friend of mine at lunch today if she knew the Coke tagline. She said, "no, but it used to be 'The Real Thing.'" Lexus? "No, but I remember it used to be 'The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection.'"
Even huge and successful companies like Lexus and Coke get distracted. The irony is that all of their efforts are a waste of time and money. That's what those companies ARE, and every dollar they spend trying to change people's minds, to be something else, competes with the truth. Coke is The Real Thing. And they should be damn happy to be The Real Thing.
One thing.
McDonald's tried selling Burritos once upon a time. It flopped and then they got smart. They bought Chipotle, which stands for one thing - healthy burritos. And if Chipotle starts selling hamburgers, I'm quite sure that would flop just as spectacularily. Volkswagen just revisited the lesson with the Phaeton. I would guess they sold about 900 of them in 2 years. Because VW is one thing. And the Phaeton just doesn't fit the mold. Me thinks the higher-ups at VW are blowing the dust off of their copies of Positioning.
One thing.
A client of ours commented a while back that we're "like an easy button for IT."
Works for me. Everything Ripple can do to that end, we shall. Everything else goes.
Just one thing.
Gawd. How right you are. We learn. One thing for sure. The company I am working for flopped big time trying to do more than, not just one or two things, but a dozen other things that dont make sense in the business. Some big wigs sitting in corporate think diversity means prosperity...urgh
Posted by: lARRY | January 17, 2007 at 09:11 AM