Comments on: Get Inspired but don’t Follow the Formulas http://www.marketingtechblog.com/2008/04/06/get-inspired-but-dont-follow-the-formulas/ new media strategies and other marketing gems Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:44:00 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Erik Deckers http://www.marketingtechblog.com/2008/04/06/get-inspired-but-dont-follow-the-formulas/#comment-98452 Erik Deckers Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:38:19 +0000 http://www.douglaskarr.com/?p=2124#comment-98452 I think the last sentence -- "Make your own formula!" -- is the most important one. In business language, it's called Best Practices. Basically, find what works, tweak it, and then adopt that as the standard operating procedure. This is what Starbucks did. They took Henry Ford's lesson of mass production, and used it to their own ends ("You can have any color you want, as long as it's earth tones"), which made them successful in the sense that costs dropped, they were able to control the consumers' experience, and do only those things that made them successful without a lot of guessing and trying things that might fail. I think the last sentence — “Make your own formula!” — is the most important one. In business language, it’s called Best Practices. Basically, find what works, tweak it, and then adopt that as the standard operating procedure. This is what Starbucks did.

They took Henry Ford’s lesson of mass production, and used it to their own ends (”You can have any color you want, as long as it’s earth tones”), which made them successful in the sense that costs dropped, they were able to control the consumers’ experience, and do only those things that made them successful without a lot of guessing and trying things that might fail.

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