The task now is not just promising what you do but to deliver a real, authentic experience. Being as good as the competition is not good enough, being different is. Copying ideas and ways of doing things from other industries isn’t fraudulent, it actually makes great business sense just call it creative swiping. There are many examples.

Innocent Smoothies are very similar to Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. They were founded by old friends and have similar visions and values. Their marketing represents a ‘cool’ and ‘hip’ way of communicating with the marketplace through packaging, language and tone. They have a social conscience as well as being expensive and premium. Even banks have succumbed, HSBC has recognised it is a retailer on the high street and adopted that approach by creating January sales just like the clothes stores do.

You will think of others. In essence there is nothing to stop small businesses from doing the same. Consider Starbucks who didn’t invent coffee but created a whole new experience for the person in the street buying coffee. Not only that but they make us wait longer and charge three times the price it used to be. 

Tyre service companies could do with looking at the same approach. Rather than dirty, oily waiting rooms where the coffee machines are covered in grime, why not make it a pleasant experience. Most people waiting for their tyres to be replaced are in smart clothes even suits. Sitting down isn’t tempting in most of those environments, and if you do, it’s a swift visit to the dry cleaners round the corner afterwards.

Providing clean seats, coffee machines that work, spotless toilets and relaxing music wouldn’t go a miss and wouldn’t cost the earth, but, would provide that all important competitive advantage. There is nothing wrong with the tyre service industry looking at coffee shops and copying what they are doing, in fact, it’s innovative thinking, trend setting and simple to do.

Could you do the same in your business?