Differentiate to Dominate

Which movie theater do you pick?

Until last weekend, I thought of movie theaters as expensive, fattening, and inconvenient.  Personally – I’d rather stay home.  After all, there are a ton of movies on DVD I haven’t seen yet.    

Here’s how the conversation at our house usually goes:

HIM:  Let’s go to a movie tonight.

ME:  Maybe.  What do you want to see?

HIM: (after an hour of research)  Let’s go see this movie.

ME: (reflecting on expense vs. pay-off)  Eh, forget it, let’s stay home and watch a movie here.  We can open a nice bottle of wine for all the money we’re saving.

What happened last weekend? 

I discovered a movie theater that had differentiated itself to appeal to me, to fix all the things I hate about going to the movie theaters.   Sundance 608 is unique, it’s different, and it’s going to dominate my demographic. 

Really, I don’t think I’ll ever go to another movie theater in Madison,WI again. 

What I love about Sundance 608 is:

• They have healthy and affordable food (salads, etc).
• They offer wine, beer and good coffee.
• They offer a place to eat right on-site, making the evening more social.
• You can reserve your seats.  Whoo-hoo!
• They cut out all the annoying advertising.
• They support local artists.

You get all this extra service for just a nominal amenities fee of $1 to $3 per ticket.  A price that’s totally worth it!

The marketing lesson here is that you CAN stand out.  There are thousands of ho-hum struggling movie theaters out there in the world today.  Sundance 608 is not one of them.  Sundance 608 didn’t concern itself with appealing to everybody.  They went after the 35+ market, and created an environment that appealed to them. 

The question won’t be, “Want to go see a movie tonight?” It’ll be, “Any good movies at Sundance 608?”

What can you do to make YOUR business stand out?  What can you do to knock all competitors out of even being an option?