On Product Management

The Power of Differentiation

Have you ever walked by a hot dog vendor on the street and wondered how they compete with other similar vendors?

If you haven’t, that’s understandable. If you have, you’re likely an overworked Product Manager.

Do they try to differentiate on price, location, variety of condiments, selection of drinks, cleanliness? Do you think they even think about differentiation?

They probably don’t think about it much unless a competitor co-locates very close to them.

Regardless, have you ever seen a hot dog vendor with line ups an hour long? Do you think major international media outlets would take turns interviewing one particular vendor in a major city?

Well, this is exactly what happened to one specific street vendor during the recent Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

The vendor is known as Japadog, and serves a unique variation on the frankfurter. Japadog can most simply be described as a Japanese take on hot dogs.

Most of the meat in the buns is either beef sausage or bratwurst, although they do offer fish sausage and promise a Kobe beef sausage  in the future.

Toppings include items such as seaweed, bonito flakes, mashed potatoes, cabbage, teriyaki sauce and Japanese mayo. Here’s the menu from one of their cart locations.

(click image to enlarge)

While this may sound strange to hot dog traditionalists, it’s incredibly popular with Vancouverites and visitors to the city.

The media attention received by Japadog, particularly during the recent Olympics, made it so popular that expansion plans to other cities are in the works.

The lesson here is simply a reminder of something we all know, but often forget. Differentiation is your friend. Find a unique way to position and offer your product to the market, particularly when the market is commoditized (as is the case with many hot dog vendors), and you create the opportunity to rise above those competitors and attract both market share and recognition.

Look at virtually any market leading product and you can usually clearly identify how it’s makers created compelling differentiation  from it’s competitors.

And for those of you who want to learn more about Japadog, here’s a short video.

Saeed

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