What can we learn from Tebay Services?

When you think of a service station, what do you think? Queuing for loos and wondering why there are arcade games here, and if anyone has used the ￡2 massage chairs in decades.

There’ll be a clinically generic Costa backing out on to a Burger King, a WHSmith full of sweets, magazines and toys, and if you’re very lucky, there’ll be an M&S food and a space to stretch your legs a while.

What you don’t think of is a beautiful restaurant and farm shop, serving only homemade locally sourced foods. A peaceful lodge, with its own lake, ducks and sheep. But that’s exactly what you find at Tebay Services, a service station like no other, situated off the M6 in Cumbria.

Instead of doing what everyone else does, they do their own thing, and they are loved for it.

They’ve flipped things on their head – instead of visiting them being a boring necessity, it is a joy. Instead of picking up some sweets and an overpriced coffee, you can have a delicious home cooked meal, made using local ingredients. People now go ensure that a stop at Tebay Services is part of their schedule.

Which leads me to the main point of this newsletter: you build a brand that people love when you venture to buck the trend, to be yourself and be different.?As author Marty Neumeier says, “When everyone zigs, zag”.

“When everyone zigs, zag” - Marty Neumeier

As small business owners, sometimes we aren't even conscious that we're desperately trying to fit in, but standing out is where brands can really gain momentum.

Setting up a condiment brand? Look at the shelf you'd be stocked on in a supermarket and make note to do the opposite. Lots of red, yellow and busy text? Why not go super minimal and blue?!

Before Deliveroo, take away was mainly black, red and yellow and delivered on motorbikes. They bravely 'broke' the rule that said blue and green were not colours to connect with food, and gave it a healthier image (at least to begin with!) with fresh turquoise and delivery via bicycles.

Another great way to zag is to look to another industry completely for inspiration.

As Hello 7 founder Rachel Rodgers says "This is how you build a bomb ass brand - have juxtaposition. Ask what am I bringing to this industry that's not already there? Let me bring some of that energy to it and that's what's going to make people pay attention."

So let me leave you with this question, how can you zag in your industry?

This is taken from my full newsletter Shelf Appeal which you can sign up to receive here.