The Power of Positioning

I once read where a pediatric dentist decided to break away from the group practice he was in and set off on his own. He secured an office space in the business district of a large Midwestern city and proceeded to hang out his shingle.

But after six months the flow of patients wasn’t anywhere where he thought it would be at that point. So he had a friend who happened to be in marketing come in and analyze the problem.

It wasn’t long before the marketer discovered why young patients weren’t flocking in. And in truth it was his own child who pointed out that it wasn’t a fun place. Truth be told, the youngster was spot on. The office décor was geared toward adults – nothing was at a child’s eye level or interest, so the office to a youngster looked like every other medical facility their parents went to and dragged them along. Once he began refurbishing his space with eye-catching scenery and added children’s toys and games, his practice soon flourished.

Sometimes little changes can spell the difference between whether your business or for that matter CPA firm, can drive new business or not. It’s a given that the two most frequently overlooked parts of any business and often the victims of cost-cutting measures are marketing and training. And in truth those are two areas that should NEVER be downsized or eliminated.

One of the greatest examples of marketing I’ve ever seen came not from Madison Avenue or a popular TV jingle, but rather from a short, rotund fish salesman from Brooklyn named Sal. I was 18 years old and working at an Italian restaurant the summer between my freshman and sophomore year in college. The owner wanted to upgrade the menu and was debating adding either a filet mignon or lobster. The meat representative came in – wearing a stylish three piece suit, and armed with a flow chart and made his pitch – showing how the cost would more than be made up by pricing.

The following day enter Sal. A man straight out of central casting, horn rimmed glasses, bald and the heaviest Noo Yawk accent this side of First Avenue. He gathered several of us around a table and asked each of us what we had for dinner six nights ago – not the night before – but nearly a week prior. As each of us struggled to remember, he then flipped the question around – when was the last time each of us had a lobster dinner? This time everybody remembered – some as far back as six months. What Sal had ingeniously done was position lobster as a special occasion meal that you would recall fondly for a long time. The next day the owner had a tank delivered and soon lobster became one of the best-selling items on the menu.

I learned something that afternoon, a concept that has been reinforced many times since - sometimes the answer to a problem is so obvious it takes a child or a wily salesman to point it out.