At a party this is how my friend introduces me: "Hi, this is my friend Lisa. She has her own dining club." At first I was really weirded out by that comment because it isn't really something I want to share when I first meet someone. But I now I understand he is telling everyone my USP (unique selling point). It is a basic marketing concept. I went to school for marketing I should be practicing the concepts. The USP (unique selling point) is why your product is unique. In this case the product is me. Me is the most important product you will be selling in your life. In job interviews, they ask you why they should hire you. You are then trying to sell your USP to them. They are looking for something unique and different from everyone else.
I went to a few speed dating events. I wanted to spark things up a little bit. You only get 3 minutes to talk to the other person. The question I asked all the guys I met with was 'what is the most interesting thing about you?'. I am asking them about their USP. Some guys took that question seriously and others didn't give me a serious answer. I made them think a bit. They expected questions like "where did you go to school?", "what is your sign?"...etc etc. I thought those questions are a bit boring. I think when you are looking for a potential partner they want to know why they should be dating you (potentially going to marrying you).
He is right my USP is my dining club. It is a great conversation starter. Everyone askes me how I started it, what it is all about and sometimes how they can join. It is my creation, my baby. I don't think anyone can take that away from me. Sure they can probably create one too. I think a little bit of competition is healthy. It also helped me build my skills. When I started it, I had to learn about getting my own domain name, hosting and building my site. I had to think about ways to market it for people to come. Now I am considering if I should continue my dining club or its time to create something new? My dining club has been around since 2006. Maybe it's time to retire it? Email me your thoughts on what I should do.
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Definately continue it... I still havn't been to one of them. And there are quite a few places I'd like to try out as a group.
ReplyDeleteLisa I've always loved the fact that you created the dining club for the sole purpose of enjoying food and friends - no ulterior motives :)
ReplyDeleteI think there are lots of potentials for the club. Say, if you want to focus on the food connoisseur aspect, allow some post-dining food critic from members, either through tweets, blogs, or blog comments. Talk to restaurant owner for potential discounts or future coupons for the members, in return for the feedback (from foodies who dine out frequently no less!). Work with other sites such as dinehere.com to get more ppl rating eateries on their site; maybe the club will get some funding that way and you can use it towards improving your dining club's website ;)
If you want to focus on the networking, friendship, dating aspects, that's also fantastic. Vancouver is cliche-y, so we desperately need a way to make socialize over food. Make sure you establish a theme so the right type of ppl show up. Singles don't necessarily want to dine with old couples.
Maybe you can have "food" as the theme for one week, and "friends' as theme for another week. Alternating.
The dining club is an extension of you - your brand, so whatever you value the most, make it a point to establish that image around your club.