What Would Heston Do?

For those of you who don’t know, Heston Blumenthal is the owner/chef of The Fat Duck restaurant in Bray, England.  With dishes like egg and bacon ice cream and snail porridge, Blumenthal has been called a “culinary alchemist” for his innovative style of cuisine.

As a practitioner of remarkableness few can match him.  Blumenthal is the embodiment of  Seth Godin’s tenet “build the marketing into the product,” to make the product so remarkable that people can’t help but talk about it.

Blumenthal is a master at subverting expectation.  You expect ice cream to be sweet but you get savoury bacon and eggs.  Porridge should have brown sugar in it, not snails.  The experience, the pleasure, is in the juxtaposition of the expected with the reality of the experience.  The subversion of your expectations is surprising and delightful.

It’s more than that, though.  Blumenthal has 3 Michelin stars for the Fat Duck so what he is doing is not simply being outrageous; his remarkable food is unusual and of the highest quality.  It’s the combination that makes his food (and the experience) truly remarkable.  As Godin points out, being outlandish, being simply noticed, isn’t the same as being remarkable.  Anybody can make a big noise to get some attention, but that noise is quickly forgotten and was really only “noise” anyway.  Quality plays an integral part in remarkableness.

And remarkableness plays an integral part in the New Marketing.  These days success in traditional marketing is very difficult, trending towards impossible.  People are good at ignoring your advertisements.  The way forward is to “be found” by your customers and the best way to be found is to be talked about… face-to-face or online.  People want to hear about great products from other people, people they know, people they trust.  And if you don’t have a product or service that people feel is worth talking about, they won’t.

We should strive for that level of remarkableness in our business.  In order to be talked about.  Standing out is good.  Being talked about is good.

But, you say, what do I do if the business I’m in isn’t very exciting?

Well, you’re screwed.  No really, just give up.

*/Kidding/*

But, if you are in an industry that isn’t a thrill a minute (and there are plenty of them), there are other ways to be remarkable.  Try thinking of something that companies in your industry “always” do and then do the opposite.   For example, if you’re a builder and builders are known for taking longer to do a job than they originally state, then your company should finish the work early, leave the area spotless, fix that squeaky door while you’re at it, and give the owner a gift (flowers, chocolates, etc) upon completion.  Do you think those customers might tell their friends about you after an experience like that?  Especially when everyone is used to much worse?

So, no excuses.  Start being remarkable today.

Image by FotoosVanRobin