The Dali Lama's one and only item
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I was standing in the checkout line at Costco last Saturday
when out of the corner of my eye, I recognized a celebrity standing in front of
me.
He stood there in a navy blue Adidas running suit instead of his orange tunic, but I recognized that famous face.
I was standing next to the Dali Lama !
Two questions immediately popped into my head.
1. Why
was his holiness, the Dali Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet, and the voice of freedom for millions shopping at
the Carlsbad, California Costco?
And
2. Why
did he only have one item in his cart?
I mean, c'mon. Who
goes to Costco and buys only one item?
Granted, it was a 42" high def plasma television set, but
still.
One item?
Costco caters to people who buy lots of stuff, not just one
item.
They require you to have a $35 membership card just to get
in their cavernous stores.
Their shopping carts are the size of Buicks.
They have no express lanes (like the grocery stores). Every shopper queues up like cattle
regardless if they have one item, like the Dali Lama, or if they have five
skids of soft drinks, 100 pounds of peanut butter and a set of radial tires.
Costco knows that they can't be all things to all people, so
they go after a certain clientele: people who want to save money on high
quality merchandise and are willing to pay a premium for the privilege.
It must be working, because their parking lots are jammed full of Mercedes, BMWs,
Hummers and other expensive vehicles of their well-heeled and spiritually enlightened customers.
So where's the marketing lesson for your small business?
Focus on your best customers and forget the rest.
If you focus your marketing message on the 20% of customers
who deliver the highest profits, you can eliminate the 80% customers who suck
up time, energy and money.
Look at your website. Does it clearly define the clients you wish to reach?
One maid service that is a client of ours shows a photo of a soccer mom with the caption, "Who has time to clean house? . . . we do!"
This maid service knows that the soccer moms are their prime customers. They ignore everyone who falls outside this demographic group.
So back to the Dali Lama.
I mustered up the nerve to ask him for his autograph. He politely informed me that I had a case of mistaken identity.
Not only wasn't he the holiest Tibetan monk of our lifetime,
but he wasn't even Tibetan, or a monk for that matter.
His name was Juan.
(dang)
Well, I suppose that the path to enlightenment is not paved with 42"
plasma televisions as I had hoped.
But now I am at peace with Costco's decision not to have express
checkout lanes.
So I got that goin' for me . . . which is nice.
