Location. Location. Location.
Traditional marketing wisdom would lead one to believe that where a business is located makes a difference. And that makes logical sense, most of the time. A recent experience, though, suggests that location can be trumped by other things – novelty and product/service quality, for instance.
This week, my husband and I went along with another couple to a “restaurant” I’d heard about from another acquaintance. The A to Z Pizza Farm in Stockholm, Wis., is – as one writer put it – “one of the best hidden pizza ovens in the rural midwest.” And, hidden, it is. In fact, according to the small amount of press that you can find about the place online it appears that the owners are anything but publicity hounds.
But it doesn’t matter. As we drove down the long, winding, out-of-the-way dirt road to get to the place around 4:15 p.m. on a Tuesday (the only day it’s open), there were a line of cars already ahead of us, lined up on that dirt road. And people by the dozen already setting up their tables and chairs and ordering their pizzas. It was a great experience, delicious pizza and a lot of fun. We’d definitely go back again. And we’re telling all of our friends about it.
And there you have it. Location – location – location doesn’t matter so much if you have something even more important: positive word-of-mouth. And, of course, positive word-of-mouth is dependent on a strong product/service. This place has it – by the time we left there were literally hundreds of people milling around the farm.
Moral of the story – a good location can’t save a bad product. But a bad location won’t necessarily hurt a good one.
