Are You a Supermarket or a Boutique?

No, this is not a Cioè personality test (if you are too young, ask Google what I am talking about), but it is a reflection that came to mind while I was writing this article.

I am working on a new communication strategy for a client. It is a somewhat unusual situation because we are transitioning from an old management structure to a new one that will not, however, become active immediately, so there is a need to introduce new ideas into the plan without completely overturning it.

Specifically, I was (because now I have stopped to write here) working on the target based on the services offered by this business. And I realized that there is really a lot, perhaps too much.

My "supermarket theory"

When preparing projects with small businesses or freelancers, we often run into the issue of "I want to speak to everyone." Now, let us debunk a myth: wanting to speak to everyone is not wrong in itself, or at least to a very, very broad and multifaceted target. Supermarkets are an example.

Mid-range supermarkets are stores with products designed relatively for everyone: you have the 1€ salad pack, but if you want, you also have the organic one, with quinoa pampered and sung to at 10€. Simple, they rarely fail, and they are those stores that give their audience a sense of certainty, making them an almost immortal business at the level of funeral homes (we are talking about the big ones, of course).

It seems easy, Coop does it, so why can I not do it too?

That is where the problems lie.

We want (we need) to be boutiques

Supermarkets work as a business because they have such a vast offering that sooner or later, someone will buy that 9€ cardboard-tasting biscuit, while hundreds buy the 1€ snack pack that covers all the other expenses. They do not need to be "beautiful" or "appealing" or convince us that they are better than others. They just need a broad basic assortment and then work on promotions.

We small, poor sole proprietors or SMEs cannot afford that. We can only afford to be boutiques.

Already for a matter of time: we are often alone or in small teams, so we have a finite and limited number of hours to dedicate to our work (and let us remember that work should not drain our soul just because we wanted the bicycle). Then there is the cost issue, which follows directly, because yes, the supermarket is bigger and has more expenses, but everything scales in proportion: if I am small, I will have fewer expenses, but also fewer opportunities to break even.

With just these two points, we understand very well how we are almost forced to think like a store that sells niche and expensive products.

The importance of the target

That is why choosing your target carefully is essential.

It does not mean we have to lock ourselves into a single service and a single target, absolutely not, but the best approach would be to go step by step:

• first I convert one product for one target
• when that is loyal, I start creating the second product for the second target
• and so on

Our time is extremely limited, and having too many things to sell to too many people splits our energy, our motivation, our money, and consequently our income, often leading us to situations of extreme discouragement and confusion.

We need to make peace with ourselves and accept that speaking to everyone at the same time is not impossible, but it requires a mental and practical effort that does not pay off for us at a business level.

Conclusion

The absurd thing? We all say we would like to be boutiques, but driven by anxiety, we end up acting like supermarkets with rock-bottom prices and countless services (that we sometimes do not even like) just to catch even 20€ from cicciopippo53 who has no idea what we do.

I am not saying it is simple, far from it, but let us admit it: having your own business has never been simple, and just because there are now many more possibilities and things you can do, it does not mean everything is easier to achieve.

The thing that really works in our favor is the size of the market: thanks to social media, we can reach millions of people, and that is wonderful because it puts us in a position to reach our target niche much more easily, as long as we focus on speaking mainly with them.