I used to walk my dog past the ice cream van in Richmond Park each and every afternoon. As the ice cream seller and I became accustomed to seeing each other our polite nod turned into an exchange of pleasantries. “Afternoon!” “Quiet day today!”. “Afternoon!” “It’s a busy one today!”. We probably had a rank of 4 different responses. All dependent upon how busy he was at that moment in time.
During the summer his van was positioned in the same pitch each and every day. Just by the side of the car park. I read Duncan Bannatyne’s autobiography a few years ago. It explained to me the pitch wars that take place within the ice cream industry. You own your patch. You protect your patch. It’s gangland, just with Mr Softies rather than weapons.
At the time, I used to wonder why the ice cream man never parked his van by the busy playing fields on cloudy days. Why he didn’t shift his focus to those that bought an ice cream to quench thirst due to exercise rather than the heat.
Online, you don’t own your patch
What determined whether the ice cream seller was busy? The presence of the big yellow gas ball in the sky. Sunny days, people queued. Cloudy days, people past him buy. He couldn’t change his patch. Online, we can.
There are a multiple of reasons why we may buy an ice cream. For me, it’s usually to quieten the calls of my 2 and 3 year old children. The process hasn’t changed since I was a child or when my parents were children. The music-box like song calling for our attention. The one scoop or two quandary. The handover. The first taste. It’s nostalgia. It’s a tradition that, I hope and doubt, will never disappear.
Online we’re free to park our van exactly where we want to. Our businesses can act as chameleons as we change the way we are viewed by our audience. We control how we want to be seen. It’s a vital tool at our disposal.
Be known for what you do for me
Yet, for most, we’re still doing the equivalent of selling ice cream in that one single patch. Why? Because we focus on what we believe we do. We don’t consider how our audience perceives what we do. Online, we don’t have to sell ice cream, we can sell the associated experience. Rain or shine.
The decorator doesn’t paint walls. He transforms the way we feel about our homes.
The lawyer doesn’t practice law. She helps us to battle for what we believe is right.
The retailer doesn’t sell books. It provides us with an escape for a few hours, a few days, when we need it most.
Start understanding what it is that you really do. Don’t worry about protecting your patch. Somebody can easily park their van next to yours with a far louder loudspeaker.
Once you understand what you really do you’ll find your content will naturally shift towards a ‘how you help me’, rather than ‘what we do’ flavour. Your audience will respond. Why? Because you’re seeing things from their perspective. It’s how we work. The question you’ll be left asking is ‘one scoop or two?’
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