Chapter 20
Expand the Frame
How do you take your business to the next level?
In this chapter, we borrow some concepts from “social dynamics” theory to dramatically expand the frame of your business. Let me start with a quick story. A past client has a business selling wine jelly. Yes, that's right. Wine jelly. Apparently, it tastes really good. But that's not the point. Before we met, his website had products ranging in price from $4 to $28. They included different sized jars and one package deal with four large jars. Now, imagine what you might think if you were to stumble upon his website.
If it were me, I would picture a retail shelf vendor and nothing more. I would picture a few jars with a particular label sitting there on the shelf beside dozens of competitive products. Nothing would jump out at me. And that's precisely the problem. He was a retail shelf vendor and nothing more. We needed to expand the frame. To do this, we introduced a once-annual three-day retreat in the Napa Valley wine country, including an extensive tour of a winery on one day, an afternoon workshop on a second day (teaching participants how to make wine jelly in their own homes), and three gourmet meals per day, each featuring wine jelly in one fashion or another. The price for the retreat was $3,995 and he featured it on his homepage. Now, imagine once again what you would think if you were to discover this website.
In the first case, you found a retail shelf vendor selling little jars of jelly. In ...
