Last night while driving home, I had a chance to listen to Marketplace, one of my favorite programs on NPR. Good luck for me. I heard a story that would make Kevin Roberts (originator of the Lovemarks! concept) and Dan Hull (author of What About Clients and noted proponent of the boutique experience) proud.
The story was about Tom Stemberg. Stemberg founded supply giant Staples in 1986. He developed something known as the “category killer,” a name given to chains like Staples or Home Depot that dominate specific retail segments. Stemberg is nimble too. Today, he is the Managing General Partner of Highland Capital Partners, a venture capital firm. HCP has created a fund to invest in retail, but not in “category killers.” Stemberg is quoted on the show as saying retail is not about category killers anymore. “The real opportunities are serving consumer niches which are too small to be served by the very large stores.” He goes on to say that “I think there’s lots of opportunities to serve customers better and to make a lot of money doing so.” Highland has created a $300 million Consumer Fund to invest in companies “with unique product or service attributes.”
The Marketplace story went on to interview Patty Edwards, an analyst at Wenworth, Houser & Violich. Her money quote:
“The experience is a big deal. The small, intimate experience where you actually get help from someone focused specifically on what you’re looking for is a big deal.”
Kevin Roberts has been singing this tune for a while, though in fairness to the Magic Circle and Amlaw 100, neither Roberts nor Tom Stemberg have applied this concept to the legal industry.
And we all know that the legal industry is unique, unlike any other and that we have nothing to learn from other industries. Right?
You can listen the full Marketplace story here.