Recently, Petra Coach presented a webinar, “Pink Goldfish” with David Rendall.

If you’re a business leader, this information is crucial to the future of your organization.

You can find the full recording here.

Order your copy of Pink Goldfish HERE. To augment the recording, we noted takeaways and tips from the presentation.

 

Top Takeaways

Case Study

“P is for Pterodactyl * The Worst Alphabet Book Ever*” by Haldar, Beddia & Carpenter teaches…

  • P is for Pterodactyl
  • K is for Knight
  • U is not for You

Why is this book in the Top 100 purchased on Amazon?

  • Differentiates from what we have seen as a successful alphabet book in the past
  • Strays from the standard
  • Avoids following the fundamentally competitive strategies in the industry

We always see companies and brands wanting to be the best – to provide all services possible. Pink Goldfish encourages a focus on your weaknesses, on those things we are terrible at. Why not be the worst at something if, in turn, it means we attract the customers we want and the culture we represent?

Case Study

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery.

  • Mend the broken areas with lacquer or powdered gold or silver, making it more beautiful than before

Intentional Imperfection

  • Illuminate the imperfections of your business or products
  • How do you create organizational or product kintsugi = FLAWSOM

FLAWSOM

A combination of FLAWS and AWESOME. This simple idea that your flaws hold the key to what makes you awesome. The FLAWSOM framework shows how you differentiate yourself in the market.

Stray from the normal. Find strength in your weaknesses. “Normal represents the standards within your industry. Normal defines the “right way”. Normal is NOT synonymous with strong.” – David Rendall

 

The 7 Types of Pink Goldfish

1. Flaunting

…to parade without shame. Flaunting is about being unapologetic about your organization’s flaws. Take pride in those unique characteristics!

  • Case Study
    • Snowbird Ski Resort in Utah ran an ad campaign flaunting their one-star reviews. Why? Snowbird does not want to be known for easy runs. They pride themselves in the difficulty of their trails and those are the type of skiers they are looking for. What you see is what you get.
  • Case Study
    • Buckley’s “it tastes awful and it works” slogan. This company is known for having nasty tasting cough syrup. Instead of looking to add flavor or try to hide the awful taste, they flaunt it. They make syrup that works and gets the job done.

2. Lopsiding

…take your weakness and exaggerate them. Most brands try to be balanced and well-rounded. This type encourages you to be unbalanced and imperfect. You need to amplify and magnify your weaknesses, not look to eliminate them.

  • Case Study
    • Hardee’s “Aporkalypse” biscuit or burrito. While other restaurants were looking to moderate their unhealthy vs. healthy menu items, Hardee’s decided to cut out all salads, yogurts, fruit and water offerings and went the opposite direction. They amplified their weakness and made their unhealthy options unhealthier.

3. Antagonizing

…is about polarizing, alienating, repelling and taunting. Do more of what some customers don’t want and then brag about it.

  • Case Study
    • Alamo Drafthouse. No talking – no texting – and don’t be late. If someone breaks the rules in this theatre, they are punished. A woman broke the texting rule during a movie and Alamo employees kicked the woman out of the theatre. They used her complaint voicemail as a PSA to kick off all their movies. This approach is not popular with everyone, and it is a great example of Alamo going more of what makes them weak and weird and less of what is considered normal.

4. Withholding

…is about limitations, restrictions, boundaries and constraints. It is about doing less of what your industry and competitors think you should be doing. Lopsiding is about doing more of what makes you weird. Withholding is about doing less, but not doing less of what makes you weird. This can involve fewer locations, fewer product offerings, fewer services, etc.

  • Case Study
    • Alt Hotel – we do less. Only the basic luxuries!
      • We do not have a mini bar, but we do have a hip lounge
      • We don’t have a pool, we do have a pool table
      • We do not offer room service, we do offer fresh grab-and-go meals

Limitations, not options, are what liberate customers.

5. Swerving

…is about deviating, diverging, and veering from competitors. As we see what successful companies are doing, it is natural to emulate them. When everyone is copying the leader then the entire industry starts to look the same. Small deviations from the norm.

6. Opposing

…is doing the exact opposite of what others are doing. It is being unlike the competition. Different from Swerving, Opposing is a complete break with convention.

  • Case Study
    • Boerne
      • 0.5k race (546 yards). A race that starts at 11AM and the first thing you do pre-race is drink a beer. Every step of the way in a typical race day, Boerne does opposite.

7. Micro Weirding

…the minuscule actions to differentiate your brand. You can set your brand apart with some cohesive master plan; you can be just a tiny bit weird.

  • Case Study
    • Magic Castle Hotel – #1 on trip advisor in Los Angeles areas
      • Popsicle Hotline – popsicles by the pool is a “peak” moment. People value and remember small and unusual moments more.
      • Power of Moments by Dan and Chip Heath

“Don’t try to stand out from the crowd – avoid crowds altogether.” -Hugh MacLeod, Gaping Void

Like what you see? Register for our upcoming webinars today!