January 16, 2010 95 Comments

Do One Thing Very Well

Beignets from Cafe Du Monde

During my most recent visit to New Orleans, Tom Martin took me to the Cafe Du Monde, a famous coffee place in the French Quarter. That little pastry and powdered sugar delicacy up there is called a beignet, and the Cafe Du Monde is famous for them. When you look at their little menu, though there are a few other things tucked on there, it’s pretty much all about beignets and coffee. In fact, I’m going to venture that ordering anything other than a beignet is a signal for surly bouncers to come out, brandishing butcher knives, and chase you out of the cafe.

Imagine you’re the owners. You’re making a reasonable revenue, but say you want to bump it up. Do you add things to the menu? Do you make a raspberry-filled beignet? Do you offer NEW! Beignet-minis! (exclamation points extra), or do you franchise out, and put your beignets at every gas station?

For whatever reason, it seems obvious when we use this example that one has to treat the brand carefully, that there are so many ways to hurt things on the way to expansion. But other times, with other products, we don’t tread as carefully. Why?

Not every brand has to be a sole product experience. We’re okay with Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Cherry Coke, for instance. But for others, and I’d suggest Cafe Du Monde’s Beignets are in this category, sticking to a core product and experience is key.

How do you evaluate the products or services you offer? What makes you decide what to do with regards to your brands? And when you turn that lens on you, how do you fare? (My answer: not so well. I’m a jumble.)

What’s your take?

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  • http://www.rockandrollmama.com rockandrollmama

    First if all, drat you for that picture- one of my all time favorite things/places. I may have to make up a reason to go. (ahhh! Jazzfest! Sold.)

    I digress. To your point, I agree that some brands can be diluted more than expanded. (Starbucks, when they offered breakfast sandwiches, and the smell made the coffee smell too non-evident. Response: They killed the breakfast sandwiches.)

    Other brands that've built a successful business on a tenet first, product second, fare well when extending that tenet into different markets. I'm thinking specifically of Zappo's, whose core philosophies seem to be responsiveness, customer service, and exceeding expectations. It worked for shoes.

    So they branched out into clothing and home goods. And while those services are lesser known, and Zappos is still a “Shoe” brand in most minds, that diversification is well served by the original tenets.

    Off to make an espresso and pretend we have beignets.

  • http://www.kyjen.com Kyle Hansen

    I think this is good in theory, tough in practice. I'm a big fan of the book “The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing” which preaches about this kind of thing. But, if the market or category one is in is not large enough, then you must expand beyond just that one thing or into other categories. I think they key when going beyond the one thing is to create seperate brands that all have a unique reason for being. Line extension never produces the profits of a focused brand doing one thing right.

  • http://twitter.com/swoodruff Steve Woodruff

    Reminds me of Loveless Cafe (http://www.lovelesscafe.com/)in Nashville. Fried chicken, scratch biscuits, homemade jam. The best around, and been there forever. Plus, the site of one of my most memorable customer service stories – I think I'll have to write that up on my blog.

  • http://www.tommartin.typepad.com Tom Martin

    Chris

    First, thanks again for coming to NOLA… we loved hosting you and look forward to you coming back.

    Second, great post. I remember when Cafe Du Monde first opened a second location in Metairie — a suburb of NOLA — we all wondered if it would “be the same” and other than the addition of a drive thru, it is pretty much.. which is a great testament to the folks at Cafe Du Monde.

    Third, the other thing I love about Cafe Du Monde is that they built a brand on something really simple. Beignet's are basically deep fried dough with powdered sugar and coffee is pretty straightforward. Two simple items, which always taste great. Top it off with a great experience (dining outside with the sights and sounds of the French Quarter surrounding you) and you have a recipe for a great, long-lasting brand — provided you as the owner don't screw it up. More brands should learn this lesson no?
    @TomMartin

  • http://twitter.com/BriefEpisode Gib Wallis

    Chris,

    Looking at your list, a few things popped up for me.

    It seems that for branding, we sometimes might think a company is selling two things when actually they're really selling one. Coke, Diet Coke, and Cherry Coke are all colas, just like MacDonalds has Big Macs and Whopper juniors and built a brand selling burgers.

    Also, Coke is a senior brand. So even within their diversity in selling colas, they've had since 1886 to hone their brand and have made a few misteps (New Coke, although great hordes of publicity). Notice, too, that the flavors they sell were field-tested for decades at the counter. Fountain Cokes had all the currently available flavors as syrups: cherry, vanilla, etc.

    If Cafe Du Monde found out that a large percentage of their customers were taking home their beignets and putting raspberry jam on them, or chocolate syrup, maybe they should add that to their offerings somehow.

    Amazon seems like they can't decide what they're selling, books, then magazines, then electronics and now clothing and groceries. But I think what they're really selling is fast delivery of purchases made online at decent prices. So each iteration of the business builds on that, even the Kindle.

    A friend of mine has a line of organic cocktail mixers (ModMix), so there is a marguerita mix, a French martini mix, and more. But she's not selling the single flavor, but the convenience of great home made cocktails with certified organic ingredients.

    When it comes to the services I offer, I try to find a way to harmonize the seemingly disparate skills and background I have. I used to leave off my tech resume my MFA from USC Film School. Now I leave it on because there aren't a lot of people with my background working in training and instructional design for technology. I speak French and Spanish and used to leave that off, but when I included it, it led to classroom training in Paris and Mexico City.

    I'm currently retooling my online presence to blend my interests and expertise of the day job as a tech training consultant with my writing and composing experience as an artist. It's a little different to bridge those worlds, but I'm looking for that underlying theme, but it seems easier to find it in goods like Coke, Amazon and Cafe Du Monde than in services.

    Lastly, I suppose there's a part of a brand that you don't have a choice about. Maybe Cafe Du Monde really would like to be a global coffee shop, with coffees from around the world or all the goodies listed in their catalog, but people like you really just go there for the beignets.

  • http://m2.atstuff.com Mike Masin

    Interesting that you mentioned Coke. They demonstrated your point when they introduced New Coke and changed their core product (in the US). They had to scramble to clean up the mess.

    In my case I am my brand and product. Thank you for the reminder that I should continually turn the lens on myself and make sure the brand that everyone else sees is the brand that I want be.

  • http://www.jacksonwightman.com/ Jackson Wightman

    Thanks Chris. The decision to stick to a core business activity/product offering or to diversify is a tough one and I am not sure it is as cut and dry as you seem to be intimating (maybe I am reading too much into the headline – if so my bad). Completely agree re the need for some companies to “stick to their knitting”

    However certain firms have NO choice re diversification if they wish to survive (think of companies in declining industries like say newsprint). The decision around the boardroom tables in these places is not whether to shift or expand focus but when and how. I agree that the when and how are critical as you suggest.

    There are a myriad of examples of incredibly successful companies that play in disparate and seemingly unrelated industries. Looking at a firm like Power Corp or GE it almost seems as though the businesses have little to do with one another. Culture is the tie that binds.

    Firms that succeed in playing in diverse fields are fundamentally self aware in my view. The evaluation of whether to get into a new industry or launch a different product is based on a number of variables but I think chief among these is answering a two-part question re “how do we as a company learn and is our style of acquiring new competencies suited to the nature of the game we plan to enter?”

  • ahockley

    I think it's ok to branch out into multiple products and such (like your Coke example) but the key is to get REALLY good at a core product before branching out. Nobody wants someone who is mediocre at a lot of things.

  • abradleyhole

    My friends and I were making our regular weekend trip to CDM for beignets and cafe au lait, and I decided to bring along a newish boyfriend. He had the audacity to order orange juice. He didn't last much longer.

  • http://www.teamandadream.com/ skipshoe

    Important advice, even if it is tough to follow. From my perspective, focus provides differentiation, opportunity, credibility and humility.

    Differentiate. Being the best at something is a great way to set yourself apart from the pack.

    Opportunity. Through focus, you shine light on nooks and crannies you didn't know existed. The closer your get to the fire, the more you see the embers. Those nooks and crannies often are opportunities in the market that others don't have a close enough perspective to find.

    Credibility. Entrepreneurs who do their homework on their market gain instant credibility with investors. Business people who have done the deep dive on their markets can demonstrate competence to prospects quickly

    Humility. Guys and Gals like you, Chris, who really embrace the complexity of their work end up being humbled by the sheer depth and breadth of it all

    Thanks for the great post… but the picture is just too much for my willpower!

  • http://twitter.com/lesleyeccles lesleyeccles

    The important thing is to understand your customers and what they really want, and how they actually use your product – there's no way for you to know that unless you ask them. Gib Wallis made an excellent point about Cafe du Monde's customers perhaps going home with their beignets and covering them in raspberry jam. Unless you ask them, you'd never find that fact out.

    Sean Ellis in his Startup Marketing blog (http://startup-marketing.com/) bangs on about this very issue all the time, and he's spot on.

    There's rarely a month goes by when we don't survey some portion of our customers. If you're clever about it and don't target the same people all the time, then they don't mind. This is all the more important when you're a web comapny, and not a coffee shop, not interacting face to face with your customers on a daily basis.

  • http://www.gossamar.com Eric

    Chris;
    Once again a great post – thanks!
    Back in the 60s, I think it was (for some reason, the 60s is somewhat of a blur to me these days…), Theodore Levitt wrote an article for HBR which he called “Marketing Myopia”, which he defined as “the inability to correctly define the core of one's business.” His logic is just as valid today as it was then, and it bears directly on your post. When company's stray too far from their core strength, they usually get whacked. Defining what that core strength is, however, is not easy, but its well worth the hassle. Levitt gave several examples, but the one which resonates best for me was his story about the Railways. He said that the Railway Titans had squandered an incredible opportunity because they defined their undertaking as “The Railways Business”, whereas in fact they were in the “Transportation” business. If they had embraced first Trucking and then Airplanes as a part of their business (instead of first off thinking they were jokes and then – too late – regarding them as competition), they would still be the Giants of Transportation today: Imagine each station with an attached trucking terminal and airport, and while you're about it, why not move all three to the nearest port? Who could compete against that when it came to moving anyone or anything?
    Either way, getting at one's core competencies is always one of the most difficult things to do. Sticking to the knitting when you have done so can be equally tough, but looking back on my years in business, I can honestly state that when I have done both in one company, it's been a success. And in those where I didn't get both right, the loss of focus has bitten the strategic rear end off my company and it's fallen flat on its now non-existent end.

  • benlamothe

    There was a time not long ago when the line being used by many was that it's more important to be capable at a variety of things than really good at just one thing. Mind you, that was in journalism school when everyone was being forced to diversify. I agree that it's more important to be really good at one thing, because over time you get better and better at it. If you're Just OK at five things, you'll continue to stew in the Just OK realm for those five things because nothing gets more attention than the other.

  • http://deliverbliss.com Tim Sanchez

    I was in New Orleans for a bachelor party a couple months ago and we dropped in to Cafe du Monde for some late night beignets and coffee. I don't remember seeing a menu; why do you even need one?
    As far as products and services, I think it is important to concentrate on a couple things and get really good at them before expanding into other markets or adding new offerings.
    Build a wide and solid foundation first, and then go straight up.

  • http://twitter.com/smashadv Jim Mitchem

    Tom's a good man. He does that well.

  • http://website-in-a-weekend.net/ Dave Doolin

    Trying hard to focus, but I'm a bit of jumble as well.

    Problem: Once I figure something out, I get bored with it. Not sure what to do about that.

  • http://www.onlineinvestingai.com/blog/ George

    I've been there! Yes, they are famous for one thing. And they do it great.

    It's natural to get bored with our own single product, and want to branch out. But many companies have gone bankrupt because they started doing different things and “lost their focus”.

    I don't know. I think it can go both ways. Sometimes, we don't know what product or service will work. New technology allows us to develop and test so quickly, that maybe that old focus is not as important as it used to be…

  • http://www.engauge.co.uk Vandy

    This one can be a tough call. It's one of those areas where you could build an arguments both ways.
    In my view the key is to stick to your theme and do what you do best, but develop variations on your core theme. I think the soft drink companies illustrate this well.

    It's natural to want to expand your offering and to some extent it makes sense to sell more product/service to the same customers. The judgement call always comes in when working out two critical issues:
    - how broad to go, and
    - in which direction (does a deli bring in a range of frozen meals, or start an outside catering service?)

    Diversifying is always a risk, but if you stick close to the stuff you've built your reputation on, it's probably worth the leap (once you've weighed up the potential costs if it doesn't work).

    This is always a dilemma for me. I love developing new ideas and am always tempted to leap into something fresh. I do have to take a step back and apply the commercial tests to make sure I'm not being led astray by my enthusiasm for the new.

  • http://thedynamiclife.wordpress.com/ Hugh

    Chris I was in NOLA in December and went to the Cafe du Monde – those beignets are amazing! (not a fan of the chicory coffee though). The Cafe represents that sticking to what you know and doing it very well is a (although not the only) recipe for success. I've been to NOLA 5 times and have never seen that place less than packed.

  • http://socialbootstrap.com Adam Wood

    Yes, yes, yes.

    I was just thinking about this idea as I happened to run across one of the more interesting incredibly specific and oddball niches:
    http://weshootbottles.com

    Talk about doing one thing.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Shawn-Morton/500320191 Shawn Morton

    All I could see in Google Reader was the title of your post and the first couple of words (“During my most recent visit to New Orleans”), but I immediately thought of Cafe Du Monde. One of my absolute favorite places in New Orleans.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Rob-Chuah/745442367 Rob Chuah

    Hey Lindsay

    Great point ! I'd go after building a brand based on tenet and stick to that. Brand itself in the first place is something rather vague and hard to tie to a particular product/service. It's the Tenet/Philosophy that really drives brand perception.

  • http://www.rockandrollmama.com rockandrollmama

    Thanks, Rob. I'm working on defining my tenets right now, but balk at committing to them- it's a line between naming them and waiting for them to evolve.:) Cheers- L

  • usaha

    It is definitely an interesting trade-off between the core business and the periphery products. I have been managing a couple of gas stations for the last year, and I have learned some things which were rather counter-intuitive for me. We have lots of tiny small products, which on an individual basis, people rarely purchase. However, there are just so many random products, that the sum total of all of the “rare” purchases does add up to quite a bit.

    Another study I read found a similar pattern in comparing Facebook apps. They pinpointed the three common attributes of the most highly successful Facebooks apps, which were: 1) Highly social 2) competitive 3) Rich with features. Point three was very interesting. The study explained that the more features you have, the wider range of people your app will appeal to. Even if not everyone uses each feature, overall your population will be happier if your app has more flexibility to pander to their disparate interests.

    Our site, http://www.keeples.com beta has been released. Please take a look and leave feedback!

  • http://www.petershallard.com/ Peter Shallard

    This is something my clients have struggled with in the past… and too be honest, I still do.

    If you've never had the experience of success with a single, fantastic product/service then it's very hard (scary!) to start out in business being super niche.

    Inexperienced entrepreneur newbies have to fight the impulse to model the “big boys” like Coke.

    Of course, be too niche and you won't be able to easily scale up. Do you think the owner of the cafe here works more than 40 hours per week? She might be happy doing so. Or maybe not.

    Just a (sneaky) thought.

  • http://twitter.com/BrandiNGrays Brandi N. Grays

    You have to be careful with expansion when your brand is built on more than your product. If your brand is built on ambience, customer service, and a certain intanglible quality, it is harder to replicate than simply making more beignets. It is possible, and quite lucrative, to do the extra work to create that special quality again. However, I am sure that it is not easy.

    My products and services: They are gettibg better all the time. I know my competitive advantage and try to leverage it to the hilt :-)

  • http://www.yukiba.com/ Travel

    O jummie you made me hungry for beignets now!

  • http://www.ivanwalsh.com Ivan Walsh

    In Warren Buffet’s first biography (not Snowball) he says that he only invested in companies that he understood – and by understood he meant that he knew it inside out.

    At one point he read annual reports for 1 year before deciding to buy the next stock. He just read, and read and read. Then he acted!

    He didn’t invest in technology as he didn’t understand the business model. This changed when he befriended Bill Gates in the late 90s.

    The point here is that you need to focus on what you can offer – and do it relentlessly.

    The companies that perform best over a long period are those with focus, when they diversify, they start to crumble. AOL, Time Warner, Sony, Yahoo etc

  • http://www.ivanwalsh.com Ivan Walsh

    <Amazon seems like they can't decide what they're selling

    Amazon's long term strategy is to be the #1 publisher.

    They will define how the publishing industry works.

    2009 was the first year more digital books were sold on Amazon than 'real' books.

  • avilbeckford

    Chris,

    Thanks for bringing back memories of New Orleans. A few years ago, has to be at least 6 years by now I went to New Orleans, and before I went there, I was told that I had to try beignets from Cafe du Monde. That says something because I live in Toronto.

    While I was there the line-up to get them were very long. That says something about the brand. Though in these times people are expected to do many things well, it's still important to have your “signature” that one thing that you are best at.

  • http://www.ivanwalsh.com Ivan Walsh

    Eric,

    Would you agree with this?

    “Core customers don't want you to diversify? They're fine as things stand.

    It's the urge to find/please/capture the other 20% that leads us astray and, in time, lose both the focus and the once core customers?”

  • musingsofahousewife

    Thanks a lot. Now I won't be able to sleep till I try a beignet from Cafe Du Monde. I've never been to New Orleans. Perhaps it's time to make a trip! ;-)

  • ellenhoenig

    Great point. Jeff Jervis' book “What would Google Do?” reinforces the same point using Google as an example…they do search really really well, and this brings them many other learnings and informs other new products/services as well…so doesn't just have to be limited to 'products'….in their case fundamental business strategy…

  • http://www.synapticlight.com/ SynapticLight

    My products or services being the information and experiences I share on my blog.
    I try a lot of evaluating of the response to that content as apposed to the content itself.
    As I put the Microscope onto my blog it just turns it's lens around to look upon me and just shakes it's convex head. lol

  • christaavampato

    Hi Chris,
    There is such a focus on diversification in American business. I'm all for it if there is a reasonable connection to a core product and a company has completely mastered its core offering. Many companies make diversification the end game rather than mastery, and that's where brands run into trouble.

  • scrawfordbit

    Didn't Krispy Kreme try this? They were famous for their awesome donuts and not so good coffee. I believe here in Canada the expansion didn't go so well once the initial novelty wore off.

    Cheers

    Stuart Crawford
    Calgary, AB, Canada
    Web: http://www.ulistic.com
    Blog: http://stuart.calgarybloggers.ca

  • mikeydiy

    Sticking to what you do best is the same message I try to convey. The question I frequently raise in discussions on that subject is an old story I heard. (Source unknown.)

    A basketball coach was asked his theory in this scenario. If a young basketball player is an excellent right handed dribbler should he/she strengthen his right hand dribble, or develop a left hand dribble? Not many can do both equally as well. So the answer was continue to strengthen the right hand dribble.

    As time marches on, and the player matures and ages, aspects of the total game may change. Losing a step in driving to the basket may mean the necessity to develop a better jump shot.

    Not many star major league baseball players are switch hitters. Not many Chicago Bear's excellent punt and kickoff returners make excellent receivers.

  • gerardmclean

    Just got back from Philly. That is a city of “do one thing well” restaurants and shops, Genos, Pats, Sarcones, Paws in the City. These guys do one thing well and you better either want what they sell or go buy elsewhere. But my favorite “do one thing well” is Pointers Pizza in St. Louis simply because it is also a metaphor for business in general. http://bit.ly/8ICASa (Orville Redenbacher would be very proud)

    A lot of restaurants want to be everything to everyone with huge menus. And they end up being nothing to everyone, just another place to get a burger. No reason to go other than you are hungry or bored. And many of them could easily “fix” that by pulling out one dish, making it a signature, home of the “World Famous Whatever” and folks would flock to them, like they go to Cafe du Mond for beignet (which BTW should be on everyone's bucket list. The one who dies without tasting a beignet and getting powdered sugar up the wrong air hole loses…) Same with agencies or Internet services… anyone who does Internet can do social media, right? Just slap that service on the What we do page.

    We sometimes lose focus because we listen to the chatter of customers who want us to be everything to them. Seth Godin touched on this, albeit a bit unwittingly, in a post this replies to http://bit.ly/2yw9cN

    Sorry for the long comment and the multiple links. Your short post was a point of convergence for a whole lot of ideas knocking around in my noggin for a while, nagging at me to simplify and focus. In fact, it got so bad that when someone recently asked me what I do, my improv answer came out, “I'm an Internet roustabout :-) http://internetroustabout.com third link.. sorry!!!

  • whitneyhoffman

    Sometimes an experience is all about the time and place. For example, even though I can buy a package of mix and try to recreate Cafe du Monde's beignets or coffee at home, it's not the same without the french quarter- it's just a souvenir. I can order the fantastic pralines from New Orleans or Savannah, but they are souvenirs- the actual memories that I associate with them are much more powerful. (Although the excellent bourbon vanilla for cooking I order especially from New Orleans is more than a memory- that's a “paying it forward” experience!)
    What I guess you are trying to say is excellence doesn't have to be in all things, but can be that purple cow, to quote Seth Godin; I would add that sometimes the time & place and who you share it with are equally important in making it a memory that sticks with you.

  • http://josephrooks.com Joseph Rooks

    If books really are their top priority, I imagine getting people on the site to buy other things helps them sell more of those, which is a great strategy.

  • http://maximumcustomerexperience.com/ Kelly

    Gib,

    Re: Customer tweaks leading product development—you've got this all wrong!

    A beignet you intend to take home will never make it there.

    :)

  • http://www.inbound.marketing.automation.ca/ Eric

    Ivan;
    That sounds right to me, although I do think there may be ways to find additional revenues from existing customers by adding new services and or products. The trick is to find these additional sources of revenue from within your core strengths. If your strengths are in making things out of aluminum, for example, find new things the customer needs which need aluminum's light weight; don't look for a product which needs steel, no matter how “similar” that may be to your capabilities.

  • http://www.inbound.marketing.automation.ca/ Eric

    Ivan;
    That sounds right to me, although I do think there may be ways to find additional revenues from existing customers by adding new services and or products. The trick is to find these additional sources of revenue from within your core strengths. If your strengths are in making things out of aluminum, for example, find new things the customer needs which need aluminum's light weight; don't look for a product which needs steel, no matter how “similar” that may be to your capabilities.

  • http://www.melaniekissell.com melaniekissell

    Even though “Variety is the spice of life”, diversification can be risky and confusing to your market. I think it's wise (at least in principle) to excel in one arena first before taking on a proverbial juggling act (best left to circus performers!)

  • http://dirtycoast.com/ HumidHaney

    Send me your address. You earned a free shirt:

    http://dirtycoast.com/product_view.php?id=17

  • http://www.BoxOfCrayons.biz/ Michael

    Steamwhistle, a local brewery here in Toronto, has as their slogan:

    Do one thing very very well.

    And so they do.

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    Might be that you have to do something well that someone else wants. : )

  • http://www.peaceandprojects.com/ Melissa Gorzelanczyk

    I think people can do one thing very well, and that's their work. So whatever venture you choose, think if you are doing it “very well.” I think that will answer this question for every project.

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  • http://doug-caldwell.blogspot.com/ Doug Caldwell

    In the book, Trade-Off [watch video synopsis http://bit.ly/6v9btb, the author asks what are you best at; a high-fidelity or high-convenience product or service. Whatever it is, identify it, make it better, keep improving it, and stick to it. And don't try to do and be both high-fidelity & high-convenience. It's one or the other. Much thanks to Randy Mayeux of http://ffbsccn.wordpress.com/ and his monthly book synopsis program for sharing the book.

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