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Seth Godin
Case Study: Chip Conley
My friend and colleague Chip Conley runs more than a
dozen hotels in San Francisco. His first hotel, the Phoenix,
is in one of the worst neighborhoods downtown.
Chip got the hotel (it’s really a motel) for next to nothing.
He knew that it wasn’t a hotel for everybody. In fact,
no matter what he did to the Phoenix, hardly anyone
would choose to stay there.
Which is fine. Because “hardly anyone” can be quite
enough if you’ve got a hotel with just a few dozen rooms.
Chip redesigned the place. He painted it funky colors. Put
hip style magazines in all the rooms. Had a cutting-edge
artist paint the inside of the pool, and invited up-andcoming
rock-and-roll stars to stay at the place.
Within months, the plan worked. By intentionally
ignoring the mass market, Chip created something
remarkable: a rock-and-roll motel in the center of San
Francisco. People looking for it found it.
Make a list of competitors who are not trying to be
everything to everyone. Are they outperforming
you If you could pick one underserved niche to target
(and to dominate), what would it be Why not
launch a product to compete with your own – a product
that does nothing but appeal to this market
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