How do you choose a hairdresser?
An economist would say that it is easy. You look for a salon that offers the best cut for the best price in the most convenient location. That would be the “rational” thing to do.
But in reality, we make decisions based on a huge range of different factors. Some rational, in a traditional sense, some less so.
You might choose a salon because you saw a special offer on social media or were given a gift voucher. You might go because a friend made a recommendation. You might be in a rush in a strange city and go to the first one you find on Google Maps. You might just walk past and like the look of the signage and decor. You might just like the music they play.
My brother travels half way across London to a barber shop in Kings Cross because he really likes the bloke that cuts his hair.
The reasons why we make the decisions we do are complicated, and understanding this can really help a business stand out from the crowd.
Janan Ganesh recently wrote a great piece in the FT about what to look for in a restaurant.
“The view must be rubbish,” he writes. “Or at least nondescript. A gastropub near me is so prettily situated that it could neglect the food without losing custom. So it does. LA has miles of ravishing Pacific coastline. Almost none of the city’s best restaurants are on it. Chefs who are serious about food know that a beachside setting will become a magnet for marriage-proposers and people who sing ‘Happy Birthday’ in public. For the same reason, no restaurant that isn’t a crucible of ghastliness was ever found in a skyscraper.”
In my experience this is all true, and yet sometimes it is a view that you crave. On those rare occasions the food, so long as it’s not terrible, or stupidly overpriced, can come second.
A business cannot be all things to all people. Making a choice about what matters to you (and by extension your prospective customers) can be the difference between success and failure.
The founder of Iceland captured this perfectly when he recently said, “We’re not Waitrose – a third of people love us, a third of people don’t mind either way, and a third of people wouldn’t be caught dead in us.”
