…or ‘Why Differentiation Doesn’t Always Work’.

There is a fast-food shop on Oxford Road in Manchester that sells the type of takeaway fare instantly recognisable by countless drunken students across the UK and Europe.

However, even though it is located right on this major thoroughfare, recent unofficial polls by me suggested nobody knew it was a fast-food shop. Even though the people questioned habitually walk past the shop and indeed have done so with me on many an occasion.
When pressed, they variously replied that they thought it was a gift card shop, a milk shake vendor, etc.

Why?

Because the owner has painted his shop pink in the manner of a burger joint from ’50s-era Americana. One can only imagine the lost trade due to this unfathomable mistake.

Yes, we may laugh at unimaginative “Mario Pizza”, “Italia Ciao” or “Pizza Bella” (all genuine businesses round my area) shop names but these are names expected by the customers and it clearly doesn’t pay to deviate from the trodden path in this circumstance.