Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor, Mich., is considered one of the most innovative and successful food companies in the country.
What started as a deli in 1982 has now become a sizable collection of small businesses including a bakery, candy shop, coffee roasterie, full-service restaurant, creamery, and caterer.
Ari Weinzweig is one of the founders of Zingerman’s and has authored many articles and books on food, small business ownership, leadership, innovation and culture.
So what’s the secret to Zingerman’s success? Below, Weinzweig lays out seven factors that have worked for Zingerman’s, and while they may not work for every business, there are some good universal principles for any business:
1. Make something special.
If you want to have a special business, you’ve got to make and sell something special. Exceptional. Engaging. Interesting. Different. Put something out there that people will get excited about, take note of, talk about and want to actively get behind, through good times and bad.
2. Create something people are going to want.
It’s so obvious, but people go astray on this one. Zingerman’s finds foods that hardly anyone in Ann Arbor has ever eaten but that are traditional and popular in their place of origin. That might mean pimento cheese from the South, harissa from Tunisia, vinegar-based barbecue from eastern North Carolina, or fried cheese curds from Wisconsin. There’s not much research needed for this stuff: people from these regions will tell you exactly how good these foods are. So it’s not a huge leap to forecast that Ann Arborites are going to like them, too.
3. You’ve gotta believe!
People who work at Zingerman’s believe in what they’re doing. Employees feel comfortable selling the products. And from there, they generate the solidity, trust, calm confidence, appreciation and abundance mentality that are found in any mutually rewarding relationship.
4. Substance sells.
The product actually has to be good—not just have good marketing. In order to get the emotional buy-in and passion, those who buy from Zingerman’s have to understand why their products are distinctive, why they cost what they cost and how they will make their lives better.
5. Definitely sweat the details.
Ideas are wonderful, but when it comes down to the food, it has to taste good every day in the real world, not just in the test kitchen. In order to make this happen they have to watch the details. All it takes is someone forgetting to add the salt, or serving tepid soup and pretty soon a guest is having a bad experience.
6. Keep getting better.
They’ve got a 30-year track record of success, but they know they’ve got to keep improving, always.
7. If the food isn’t good, people aren’t coming back.
From the day they opened in 1982, they’ve believed that the burden was on them to produce something—food, service or, better still, both—that would make customers want to travel a long way to buy from them over and over.
As Jim Van Buchove, long-time director of the Henry Ford Museum (30 miles east in Dearborn, Mich.), has said, “Zingerman’s is a place where you wait 15 minutes to order, you pay $15 for your sandwich, you wait 15 more minutes to get it and when you’re done you say, ‘Damn, when can I do that again?!’”
Finally, Weinzweig points to the famous quote: “The harder I work, the luckier I get!”
He admits that none of it’s easy, but when you strive for all seven of the points above – when you do the hard work required – the staff gets happier, sales improve, and guests return over and over again.
Have a great week.
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