We live in a world where mass production and scalability have enabled consumers around the world the opportunity to enjoy a wider range of Consumer Products and Services than ever before. Large scale production drives down prices. Items that were once luxuries are now within reach of masses of consumers on every continent.

Overwhelmingly the benefits of scale and industrialization are beneficial to society. Jobs, distribution opportunities, global trade and finance have all thrived in large part because of the benefits of a consumer driven world. The Benetton sweater or MAC cosmetic that is purchased in Denver is the same as a unit of either sold in Sydney.

There is a downside to mass production, a downside that presents opportunities for those seeking to position their enterprise successfully within the whirl of this hyper–competitive consumer marketplace. Most mass produced products are impersonal. They offer value, utility and uniform performance features. They do not, however, differentiate themselves significantly from competitors. This is where the creative and craft minded producers can maximize their offerings.

Hermes purses and scarves are famous, but simple examples of a Brand that has been built from scratch, painstakingly over time and by being extremely protective of distribution channels for their limited production, hand crafted products. Hermes controls the price and design of each unit produced with a discipline that borders on fanaticism. When a design becomes popular and demand soars, the family owned Company caps production far short of maximum sales potential. This is a classic example of a limited distribution strategy that serves to increase Hermes’ product desirability among discerning consumers.

Ferrari automobiles, Zegna menswear, Piaget watches, Tory Burch fashions and La Prairie Skin Care and Cosmetics are other examples of Brands that have created world-wide franchises by avoiding any taint of a mass production model. They sell service, customization and personalized product that elite customers demand. The strategy does not need to be limited to exclusive couture brands, however!

The Branding and Marketing Consulting firm that we manage utilizes many different forms of personalized service or customized product assembly to differentiate our clients. In order to be able to compete with behemoth, multi-national brands a new company must be able to identify their Unique Selling Proposition (USP). A better ingredient story or a better mousetrap design will not suffice.

Recently a prospective client approached us with a Perfume concept. The Fragrance world is huge and brutally competitive. The perfumer we met with was keen to commercialize a range of scents, mainly by utilizing generic top notes. We spent a good deal of time trying to define a USP that would differentiate her product, while creating a niche she could occupy. The final, agreed suggestion was to sell a value added personalized blending service with each offering customized, value added and unique to each client. There are a number of added special service features which insure that the Brand will be perceived as unique by her “alpha” clientele.

We have utilized one form or another of this strategy for Gourmet Food products, Toys, Cosmetics, Wellness regimens, Service Providers and many other client projects. An important feature of this strategy is the opportunity to bootstrap the product or service when limited resources are at hand. Local sales can be leveraged to regional sales and beyond. The enterprise can be grown at a pace that is more easily handled by thinly resourced entrepreneurs.

Red Bull, Snapple and Arizona Iced Tea did not start as national and international brands. They were bootstrapped. They found holes in saturated, developed marketplaces and they filled niches. This model is available to creative entrepreneurs who are driven to compete, but understand that they must deal from a different, smaller deck of cards.

by: Geoff Ficke

Geoff Ficke has been a serial entrepreneur for almost 50 years. As a small boy, earning his spending money doing odd jobs in the neighborhood, he learned the value of selling himself, offering service and value for money.

After putting himself through the University of Kentucky (B.A. Broadcast Journalism, 1969) and serving in the United States Marine Corp, Mr. Ficke commenced a career in the cosmetic industry. After rising to National Sales Manager for Vidal Sassoon Hair Care at age 28, he then launched a number of ventures, including Rubigo Cosmetics, Parfums Pierre Wulff Paris, Le Bain Couture and Fashion Fragrance.

Geoff Ficke and his consulting firm, Duquesa Marketing, has assisted businesses large and small, domestic and international, entrepreneurs, inventors and students in new product development, capital formation, licensing, marketing, sales and business plans and successful implementation of his customized strategies. He is a Senior Fellow at the Page Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, Business School, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.

Don’t Allow The Past To Interfere With The Present

Researchers placed some fleas in a transparent canister and then put a lid to close the canister top. In a bid to escape from their prison the fleas would jump, because jumping is the only thing they know to do. Every time the fleas jumped they hit their heads against the lid of the canister. Every hit on the lid brought with it excruciating pain and possibly headaches. The fleas, being good learners soon adjusted their strategies. Instead of jumping high, they would jump in such a way that they would not hit their heads against the lid at the top. With this strategy they succeeded in avoiding the pain of crashing their heads against the lid, but they also forfeited the possibility of ever escaping out of the canister.

The researchers kept the fleas in the closed canister for many days. After a while they noticed that the fleas had adjusted their life styles and were not making any attempts to jump beyond a certain height. At this juncture the researchers removed the lid from the top of the canister. An amazing observation was made, instead of the fleas jumping to freedom, they just kept jumping to the heights they were used to. The headaches and the pains of bashing heads against the lid had taught the fleas to quit jumping so high, enjoy the comforts of jumping low and avoiding pain. Although the lid that once held them captive had now been removed, the mindset that said to them, “This high shall you jump and no higher” still imprisoned them.

This little experiment has very profound lessons for us all. Let us unpack them.

The Normalizing The Abnormal Syndrome

If perfectly normal human beings are put in abnormal situations, their survival instincts kick in immediately. They learn very quickly to adjust their behaviors in a way that minimizes pain and suffering. This is similar to the way the fleas learnt how to adjust their jumping habits. However, when this stay in abnormal conditions is prolonged the survival habits set in and the people become fossilized in those habits-what started as an abnormal response to an abnormal situation soon becomes the norm. People forget that they never used to do things that way, and soon begin to say “this is how things are done here.” We will call this tendency the tendency to “normalize the abnormal”. There are several everyday examples to illustrate the prevalence of this phenomenon. People who stay in problems for prolonged periods begin to see no problem with the problems. Most people born in poor families under very adverse conditions soon adjust and begin to feel very comfortable in their poverty. Most oppressed servants and spouses are inclined to acquiesce than to rebel. The above examples are extreme cases. However, there are numerous less graphic but equally tragic examples.

Here is the great catch! Survival is instinctual, a kind of reflexive response meant to minimize pain and make it from one day to the next without little regard to the quality of life. The key words here are, “little regard to the quality of life.” On the other hand winning in life is a productive of conscious endeavor, the product of deliberate consistent application of certain learned habits, attitudes and skills with deliberate regard to the quality of both life and results. The big question is-Are you living in a survival mode or a winning mode.

The survival mode is designed to minimize pain, failure and inconvenience. Often, but not always, it begins as a response to adverse circumstances which is so prolonged that it soon sets in as a habit. At the beginning it serves a useful purpose because it grants survival, but because it is now a habit it becomes the way of doing things even in the absence of threatening circumstances. It becomes a prison where people and their potentials are imprisoned. The most tragic part is that, like the fleas in the experiment, people are not even aware that the real prison is the mindset and not the initial limitation. Well after the lid had been removed, the fleas were still not jumping to freedom. The fleas were living in the past.

It is very tempting and easy to dismiss this flea behavior as irrational and nonsensical, yet the truth is that most of us are trapped in the past just like the fleas were. Like us examine the evidence.

There is a strong positive correlation between success and the tendency to engage in adventurous efforts. This is a proven truth. The other proven truth is that children tend to be more adventurous and more successful at what they do than adults. The reason is that most adults become less and less adventurous as they grow old because of the painful experiences that they experience while attempting to achieve something. People fall in love and sometimes get heartbreaks and in response they become less inclined to fully commit themselves in future relationships. People attempt some business ventures and most of those that fail become too cautious and less inclined to try again in future. Their past failures follow them and in a way influence their current behaviors.

The biggest casualty in all this is human potential. When the fleas learnt to jump to only the comfortable heights, they learnt to do less than their best and consequently never fully realized their potential. The same is true of you and me. Our current heights in life are not indicative of our potential but of our past conditioning. Each one of us can do better that we are currently doing, but we are stuck in the flea syndrome. Some of us are stuck in a strategy that served us well in the past but is now outdated. Some are stuck in a heartbreak that occurred in the past but is now over. To some the prison is the fear and caution carried over from a long gone and forgotten event. Together we are driving with our hand breaks on.