Personal or Classy? Two Tour Companies, One Region, No Competition

On its own, a brand strategy can look wishy washy. "Make the customer the hero of the story." What does that even mean?

Rules the strategy writes

Guiding principles answer that. They're example rules that show what it looks like when the strategy leads decisions in different parts of the business. I usually write ten to fifteen and make sure they cover at least three or four areas. If we hire staff, they will share these values. When we deal with customers, this is how we speak. When we're working on new products, they must meet this standard.

Let me show you how much a single word changes.

Personal

Say a winery tour company has gone through the process and uncovered "personal" as their one word. Their guiding principles might read like this.

We remember names. Once is enough for us to commit a name to memory. We personalise every tour, so no two groups ever have the same experience. We introduce guests by name to each winery. We tour wineries where we can introduce guests to the person who makes the wine they're tasting. The images we share are personal and unpolished. We find ways to pleasantly surprise our guests, like giving the organiser a personalised bottle at the end of every tour.

Classy

Now replace that word with "classy". The principles become completely different.

Our drivers and vehicles look and feel luxurious. We prioritise wineries with experienced staff, sommeliers or a hatted restaurant. We never run tours that aren't there for a high end experience. No bucks' nights. We know it would damage our reputation for bringing classy guests to wineries. Our pricing is premium and our service matches. We open car doors. We make sure winery staff are ready when we arrive, so our guests feel important. The images we share always look classy. People are well dressed, and the glasses are full.

There's a massive difference between the two, isn't there? Each set acts like an entirely different filter. How you'd brief a photographer would be significantly different. So would the website, the vehicles you buy and the people you hire.

Same region, no competition

Here's the part I love. If those were two real companies operating in the same region, they wouldn't be competing. They'd attract completely different customers from the moment they started communicating. The less you look and sound like other businesses, the more you attract your tribe, and the less you're genuinely fighting for attention.

A common mistake small businesses make is to appeal to too broad an audience. Fear of missing out drives it. The irony is that if you try to appeal to everyone, you look vanilla, and that's what causes you to miss out. Customers can't identify why they'd choose you. They don't feel you're for them. If your word is classy, don't fear charging a high price for visiting the most expensive cellar doors. You won't appeal to everyone. But you'll appeal strongly to your ideal customer, which is far more valuable than generic.

Then write the strategy

Once you have the principles, the strategy itself gets easier to write, because it only has to read like their parent. For the personal tour company, it might be: relationships power our business. They are why we have access to share otherwise inaccessible experiences. Unique and unforgettable personal moments guests rave about.

Check it against the principles. If we can't remember names, we can't build relationships, and relationships can't power the business. If we tour wineries where the winemaker will meet guests, we can share otherwise inaccessible experiences. Every principle reads like a child of the strategy.

Keep the strategy as short as you can. Every. Single. Word. Must. Earn. Its. Place. I've written one as short as two words. The principles can be as long as you like. Five if that covers it. Thirty if you need thirty.

Your job from this post: pretend the strategy already exists. Write the rules it would make you follow.