On a recent business trip I took a picture of this trashcan at the airport’s restroom. People who got there before me were drying their hands and piling up the used paper towels on top of each other. I was about to do the same, when I noticed that the trashcan had a self-closing door. I opened it and, naturally, the trashcan was half empty.
Why would people keep on piling up dirty towels on top of the trashcan if they could better dispose of them by throwing them inside? Easy: because everybody else was doing it. After all, If everybody’s doing it there must be a good reason, right? Maybe the trashcan is full or something… right? Wrong. Just because everybody’s doing something doesn’t mean it’s right, or efficient or logical.
In the business world, many entrepreneurs make the mistake of chasing mature markets because they’re “proven”, like the “piling-up-used-paper-towels” market. They believe that that’s where “the money is”, and that if they get just a tiny fraction they will be OK. However, it seldom turns out that way. Mature, mainstream markets are saturated with competitors, engulfed in price wars and burdened with high barriers to entry.
Instead, why not try to find out what the big guys are doing wrong, what customers they are neglecting, what core brand benefit has taken a back seat in the name of operational efficiencies, and come up with a way to address those needs and those customers?
When everybody is busy looking at the paper towel pile, look around for that elusive self-closing door.
Some great advice in this simplistic analogy. Too often people follow the herd blindly and do not take the time to step back and look at the bigger picture. Not everyone does things right! The key to success is differentiating yourself and your business or by modelling it on those who are doing things right (which can be hard to tell!).
I know which route I will be taking!!
Seldom do I find myself stunned by simple but profound analogies, much less with a real world example but your post did exactly that.
What a great insight. Your closing Instead statement could be said of big brands as well as competitors.
Great blog, just subscribed.
I’m @tsudo on Twitter and blog at http://KnowtheNetwork.com
found you via @changeforge’s Shared RSS (http://www.google.com/reader/shared/17342274583211310282)
@Tom Harvey: I’m glad you found the analogy useful.
@Keith: Thanks for your kind words and for pointing me to @changeforge. I’ll visit your blog.
Smart. People tend to take the easy road without thinking of the logical thing to do.
“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” – Max Planck
If your idea is not something new then your concept and marketing technique has to be innovative, causing your product to stand out about the competition, like pairing your product with a charity, contributing a small portion of your proceeds to a local charity or truly go green, find out what your clients want and pair it with your product.
Actually, while I agree with your general argument, I don’t think this is a good example. It’s not clear at all that people are putting paper towels on top because they think the can is full. It’s easier to drop it on top. (Plus, I hate those little doors, which usually smack your finger when you try to stuff a towel in.) So they may be dropping them on top because of all the other towels on top, but it’s not necessarily because they think the can is full; it’s because they have an excuse to take the easy way out.
There is indeed a lesson here: if you don’t want to clean up the towels yourself, put in a trashcan people will actually use.