Business Insights, Marketing, Strategy
Chick-fil-A And Red Ocean Strategies
When talking about competitive and saturated markets, I am known to say “Papa John wasn’t listening when everyone said the pizza market is flooded.” And today, Papa John’s Pizza is a $1.5B company.
Even in 2017, I still see so much opportunity to build a better mouse trap. You may not even need a better mouse trap. In fact, you can even make an inferior mouse trap as long as you understand modern day branding and marketing. I have stomped on many competitors in the B2B and B2C spaces just by out branding and marketing them.
And here we have Chick-Fil-A. They sell a simple ass chicken sandwich and other products similar to what everyone else has been selling for years. I know all the rage about Blue Ocean Strategies, but Papa John’s and Chick-Fila-A didn’t need to venture into new markets, they just made a slightly better product and/or marketed themselves better.
What I find funny is Chick-Fil-A is stomping all over KFC who should have had home field advantage with their massive retail reach. I recall a chicken sandwich KFC had in the 80’s that was a buck and it was great! It actually tasted similar to what an original Chick-Fil-A tastes like today. Problem is, KFC’s branding didn’t keep up with the times, their stores are dated, some view their food as too unhealthy, and the recipes have been hit or miss
Everyone wants to have a tech startup, as tech is sexy, with high hopes and dreams of grandeur. For the person out there that wants to become a business owner one day, live the entrepreneur life or just wants to create something, it doesn’t have to be tech for you to succeed. There are many business lines out there that haven’t adapted and they are doing business like it is 1993.
Find those markets, build a better brand image, lean on new marketing concepts and digital marketing strategies. Deliver a slightly better service or product and you will be on the way up.
Gary Vaynerchuk did something very similar. Instead of creating an app or trying to develop a new technology, he jumped into the media game and now has a full-service marketing and advertising company with over 750 people working for him. This was a traditional business line that has been around forever, a real Red Ocean strategy play for Gary and looked at how it worked for him.
I love new markets. They are exciting. But there is a lot of easy money out there with higher rates of success all waiting to be taken.
Red Ocean Strategies may not be as exciting, but I don’t mind the blood in the water, it means it is time to eat.