The Dip, The Purple Cow,
The Blue Ocean Strategy, and The Long Tail
In which I simultaneously affirm and deny Godin, et al.
What do I think of The Dip by Seth Godin? Heidi Miller was kind enough to share a copy with me, and David Finch (and Chris Brogan) asked for my opinion. (They’ll never make that mistake again!)
Part of Godin’s basic messages in The Dip are:
- All new projects, activities, and enterprises, go through a tough patch after the initial enjoyable learning and before the real rewards.
- Focus only being the very best in one thing.
Think of it as “Go big, or go home.” Godin points out that the benefits of being the very best in a field are disproportionately high. Being number one isn’t twice as good as being number two; it’s hugely better.
I don’t disagree. In fact, I agree. I also found good insight into our natural human behavior in trying anything new. Sometimes I should quit before I start. Sometimes, I should stick with a tough learning curve because the rewards will be worth it.
Many people, including Heidi Miller, are finding this message a personal challenge. Should she give up her enjoyment of ballroom dancing if she’ll never be the world champion? Should she drop entirely out of the declining trade show marketing field and focus absolutely exclusively on becoming the world’s finest podcast consultant, even though the new field is brutally competitive and the profits are thin? You can see why this is a difficult subject.
Small town entrepreneurs frequently patch together multiple businesses and income streams from unrelated activities. I’m a liquor store owner who also does websites and grant writing, plus raises cattle. Which should I give up, and which single thing should I focus on becoming the number one in the world? Should I have never become an antiques dealer if I never intended to conquer that world? If so, how would I have gained the knowledge that I learned from that experience?
Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail concept gives us another view of the world, far past the number one in the world market. Way below the corporate profit levels are untapped smaller markets, the long tailing off portion of the graph. Most of us have heard of orphan diseases, with too small of a market to attract big research bucks. Think of the long tail as the orphan markets, too small or too rural or too remote or too low-tech to draw large companies in to serve them. You and I can slide into these unserved markets and make a business. Some long tail markets are more than big enough to build a sustainable profit for a relatively small or medium enterprise. Some are tiny.
So maybe it makes some sense to have multiple small town business lines. If you can tie together enough small markets in the long tail, you can make a living in your rural area.
But then who is right? Should we always strive for the short head, being number one and the big rewards, or should we carve up the long tail into a kingdom of tiny parcels? Can you be the big number one in a tiny slice of the market, and is that being true to either concept?
Chris Penn started an argument with Jeff Pulver over long tail versus short head. Pulver sees value in creating content for all the little niche markets in the long tail. Penn says the long tail is only a viable play for the content aggregator, never for an individual.
But why be in this kind of a fight at all? Why not get away from everyone else, be different? Godin has a book on that, too, the Purple Cow. You have to be very different, remarkable, to gain attention.
The Blue Ocean Strategy takes it further, calling on us to sail far from the bloody competitive world and create a market out in the calm blue open space. If you are the only one, you must be number one! I learned this from one of my readers, Alfred R. Baudisch. If I’m the only one to sail out into the uncharted rural niche, I’ll face almost no competition. Certainly no direct competition. Another reader, Dana Wallert is doing this, calling it the Road Less Traveled.
Each author whose views I have butchered here will likely maintain that they have described the one and only right concept. So let’s find the one and only right concept for my liquor store. One of two in my small town. Cannot ship or deliver, by law. Permissible products and hours set by law. Must serve walk in customers only. So do you look at this as a long tail, in that I’m serving a very small town limited market with a finite customer group? Or do we consider it a world of its own, and can I be the number one just in my market? Should I try to become a purple cow in the blue ocean, so very different from all other stores that I draw customers from all over like tourists, like Wall Drug? Or do I follow Tom Peters and tear apart everything I know about the retail business to build an entirely new paradigm?
In other words, what do I do with all the books I’ve read and all the information I’ve gathered? Does it all synthesize in any meaningful way?
Yes, I’m happy to say it does. Each of these concepts has a common thread of innovation, customer service, and excellence. That isn’t news to any of us! Each concept offers more insight into human nature, markets, and business. No one concept can successfully apply to each and every enterprise. On the other hand, different people will take the same circumstances, apply the different concepts, and can all succeed!
Studying each of these contributes to and forms your personal and business philosophy. Jim Rohn says that what happens, happens to us all. What we do with those circumstances is due to the set of our sail, our philosophy. If you are not happy with your results to date, examine your philosophy.
Have you taken time to evaluate your personal beliefs and how they affect your results? Set about building a philosophy that helps you to achieve your goals and your life dreams by reading all the books, questioning and studying their philosophy. Add the best concepts to your own. Don’t settle for anything less.
Follow up for small town small biz
After thinking some more about how these concepts apply to small town small businesses, I’ve written a follow up, Be a Specialist or Be a Generalist.
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- About the Author
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Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.
When you test the astute venerated marketing pundit concepts, including my own shamefully plebian ideas and wobbly visions, in the lab of fire, the retail store, you see what works and what merely jerks.
Your store is where all the alleged rubber meets the pitiless road of bumps and bruises.
Let the customer replace the CEO, is what I say.
Drucker is one of the best consultants.
He and so many others give the primary business wisdom: be customer-centric in all things at all times.
“How will this benefit the consumer?” must be your main guide in every tiny detail.
I don’t know. The thing I like about the dip is that it’s one of those “life is tough, kid. Either you jump in deep, or you go nurse another drink at the bar.” It gets me hot the way Jack Welch’s WINNING got me hot. When I finished that book, I wanted to fire most everyone I worked with. (Before that point, I was very cumbaya about my coworkers).
Something about The Dip tells me to really step up my game or languish.
The Blue Ocean book (I never read it, so I’m not smart enough to fight about it) sounds to me like a “everyone is a beautiful and unique snowflake” kind of message. Sure you are. Have a nice time with that.
But what should you do with your liquor store? Are your sales good? Are you happy? Do you want more from the store? I guess there’s a question of what your goals are. Maybe the engine’s purring along nicely. If so, then you’re fine. If you need more, maybe it’s not so much within the walls of the store. Maybe it’s getting another store, then another, and changing the dynamics on a different scale.
The long tail, as Godin says, and as Penn suggested to Jeff, does really well for Aggregators. Amazon is rich; obscure authors are not. What it does well, however, is make room for all of us to be on the shelf, and that’s sometimes a value in and of itself.
Get us rich? Another question. But a value, sure.
Great post, Becky. Thanks for opening my mind up.
Thanks, Steven. I agree about taking the customer’s perspective. If entrepreneurs will keep that simple thought in mind, they can avoid the vast majority of business problems.
Chris, you are a master of developing and refining your philosophy. That’s my real point. Either this fits in your philosophy, or not. But study, think, challenge beliefs.
My store goals are a whole different story. I talked about it some more in the What I Learned from Failure post.
Glad to hear you got something from the book! It is thought-provoking, to be sure, whether you buy into the philosophy or not.
Thanks for sharing it with me, Heidi! It was interesting to read and critically examine the concepts in it. Not to mention that it kicked off some good conversation!