The Montblanc “White Thing”
June 10, 2009
If your business is struggling in the face of this recession, then maybe it’s time to try something different, and it’s always best to start with what’s working for other people.
A while back I was in a local office supply store, and happened to be near the glass case with the pens. Not the basic 12-black-pens-in-a-box-for-$3.99 pens; no, I’m talking about the really nice (and equally expensive) Montblanc pens – you know the ones with the little white “crown” at the top.
On a lark, I asked the clerk to take one of them out. She told me a little about the pen, and then she told me the price: $119.95. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed another pen lower down in the case that looked very similar to the one I was holding in my hand.
I asked to see that one, and discovered that it was, in fact, virtually identical to the Montblanc pen, same weight, same balance, even the exact same ink cartridge! Two things were different: the second pen didn’t have the “crown” at the top, and it only cost $49.95.
A little puzzled, I asked the clerk why one pen cost $70 more than the other. She smiled and said, “The white thing,” pointing at the crown on the top of the Montblanc pen.
In this challenging economy, you have to constantly try and find the “white thing” in your business. What makes you so unique, valuable, and special that people will be willing not only to do business with you, but to pay a premium price for the privilege of doing so.
That’s a strategy you should write down – with whatever pen happens to be lying around!
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