Video of the week - Malcolm Gladwell - What we can learn from spaghetti sauce

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We’re introducing a new feature today. Each week, we’ll post a video that brings insight to aspects such as relationships, marketing and business. Some might be short, some might be long but we’ll try to post videos that bring a new perspective to your business and how you see the world.

This week’s video features Malcom Gladwell, author of the Tipping Point and Blink. It’s about 17 minutes long.

In this presentation Malcom Gladwell follows the career of a food industry consultant who uncovered a key secret to what eaters like. Running huge focus groups to find customers’ truest tastes, Gladwell’s hero draws a radical conclusion, an epiphany that has defined food marketing ever since.

In thinking about this video in terms of real estate, it’s evident that much of the design and marketing in Steamboat Springs has become very homogenized. The horses, ropes, barns, cowboys, rusted roofs, etc. all have become “western” elements that we think people want. Developments, spec homes and retail shops get the “western” treatment and get put on the market. What this video tells us is that there may be other very successful options that aren’t being considered. Focus groups may not have the answer either and the field is open for new designs, new markets and new approaches.