Small is the New Big

Please take a look at this post from Seth Godin: Small is the New Big.  You can read it in less than 5 minutes, but if you truly take it to heart, it can positively affect your business for the next year and beyond.

From where I sit, it's about the advantages that (potentially) accrue to smaller wineries over the five-hundred-thousand-case-a-year giants.  Here's the catch:

Small is the new big only when the person running the small thinks big.

Small can be a competitive advantage if you're smart.  That's why I'm always a bit surprised at how uniform winery Web sites are in their appearance.  I think most of us are suckers for a compelling story, and most sites don't tell one.

Take a look at this site (it's not a winery).  Intrigued by what they're selling?  I was, even though I'm not in their target market. Can you imagine a winery Web site like this?  I can't (and we've surveyed over 2,200 of them).  The Web site for Stu Pedasso Cellars is certainly irreverent, but not necessarily compelling.  Jake's Fault tries a different, hipper tack, but starts off with one of those damnable age-verification screens (and then fails to deliver on the other side).  If you know of a truly compelling winery Web site, please leave a comment.  The most compelling stuff I see these days is in winery blogs, which are uniformly from small wineries.

Small is indeed the new Big.

PS - if you like Seth's post, he's got a whole new book of them by the same name.

Comments

[Josh]

My problem with the chipperchip site is that it is so irreverent and off the cuff that I had trouble understanding what they were actually offering at first. With no introduction and a lack of cues, I had to stop and ponder, and I got annoyed.

Perhaps thats just me, but I don't think so. I don't want to spend my time trying to figure out what someone is selling - I want to spend my time figuring out if what someone is selling is right for me.

[Mike Duffy]

Hi, Josh...

Yes, I've gotten some feedback about my mention of ChipperChip.com, and I'm certainly not holding it up as a example of near-perfection. My point is, I think, that most sites tend to be rather bland. That's why blogs are so welcome - the best ones (like pinotblogger) have an authentic voice to them, and that really stands out.