When your product is so dope

I ate at a ridiculously dope restaurant called Garde Manger last night. It was my second visit and the first for two of my companions.

What struck me as I sampled quail and lobster risotto was that the place, while high end and priced as such, had no pretensions. The service was great but the food (the real reason I go to a resto) was next level. The place delivered, even over delivered, on its value proposition which, succinctly stated, was to provide an incredible eating experience. Over delivery is rare, especially in an age where marketing is often better than product quality.Think about your last pair of Nike sneakers or McDonald’s hamburger. The ad campaign was likely far better than the actual product – part of why you bought the shoes or Big Mac was that you “believed the lie” to paraphrase Seth Godin.

Garde Manger, for its part, relies uniquely on word of mouth and the strength of its offering. It does no conventional promotion –  no paid ads in the Metro, no Facebook page, not even a damn website. It is really refreshing because they are not contributing to the white noise. The product is enough on its own.

While I understand that you and I need to engage in promotion for our businesses and livelihoods, wouldn’t it be nice if there was less clutter? Maybe more focus on the “Product P” rather than the “Promotion P” is the answer. I know…we need to keep producing cheap crap and marketing the hell out of it. But couldn’t we just do a little less of this?