If you get a chance, read this short case study by Julia Hanna from HBS Working Knowledge.
Summary
Chef Ferran Adrià is by any reasonable standard an awful businessman. His restaurant elBulli is only open part of the year, and has a notoriously confusing reservation system. He charges 230 euros for dinner, intentionally limits himself to 8,000 customers per year, and overstaffs his restaurant with 30-40 cooks preparing dinner for no more than 50 patrons each night. And yet, he is at the very pinnacle of his industry, because he provides his customers with a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
What does this mean?
Lots of restaurants try to service niche populations (Bamboleo used to be my favorite provider of Cuban-Brazilian fusion dishes in Glastonbury, Connecticut), while some try to provide the finest of dining experiences. However, elBulli stands alone.
"If the product is merely food, Adrià should move the restaurant to Barcelona or Madrid," says Norton, who has written a case on elBulli with Julián Villanueva and Luc Wathieu. "Another view is that the product is the whole experience, from start to finish—so driving for two hours in the mountains is a crucial aspect of the product."
Ferran Adrià understands that there are many ways to satisfy the dining preferences of the rich and elite. However, he's not selling a niche restaurant or fine dining. He is selling the much more romantic idea of a 'once-in-a-lifetime culinary experience'. By developing an understanding of romance and lasting memories, he was able to construct a unique opportunity which for many is a life-long goal to be experienced.
"Adrià's idea is that if you listen to customers, what they tell you they want will be based on something they already know," Norton observes. "If I like a good steak, you can serve that to me, and I'll enjoy it. But it will never be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. To create those experiences, you almost can't listen to the customer.
If you work for a product or service provider, you may never get the opportunity to create this sort of 'dream experience' for you client. If you disagree, remember that a free year's subscription to the Jelly of the Month club (or other bundle) is NOT going to be seen as romantic. However, there is an important lesson to take away here: knowing your customer goes much deeper than asking questions.
Here's an example from one of our past projects: Patio heaters function just as their name suggests; they heat patios. If you ask a potential customer how to improve one, the typical answer will involve more or better directed heat (ease of control, or aesthetics notwithstanding). However, if you sit with customers of the product in context, you will quickly realize that users are far less concerned with their heater and far more concerned about entertaining. Knowing that patio heat is all about entertaining, suddenly the opportunities for innovation becomes apparent (the Bistro Table Patio Heater was born).
Its time to quit asking questions and start observing. Really get to know your customer. Only then can you truly innovate and offer the product or service he/she really needs.
Do you think the iPhone came out of a study on how to make a better portable CD player?
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