What is this book about?
Lynda Resnick is a serial entrepreneur. She is the co-owner of The Wonderful Company (https://www.wonderful.com), which owns brands like POM Wonderful, FIJI Water, Wonderful Pistachios, and Teleflora. In her book “Rubies in the Orchard: How to Uncover the Hidden Gems in Your Business,” Lynda shares her experiences and insights from building successful businesses and brands.
Resnick provides her own real-world experience in starting a business from scratch, growing an existing business and business turnaround:
- Built POM Wonderful brand from scratch and popularized it as a household name.
- How Resnick transformed FIJI water into the #1 premium bottled water (surpassed Evian) in the US with sales that have increased 300% since 2004 (Lynda Resnick and her husband invested $150 Million to acquire FIJI water)
- Turnarounded Teleflora, a struggling flower delivery service that is outmatched by its competitors to become a market leader
Key Messages from the book:
Resnick shares her experiences and insights on building successful brands by laser-focusing on value. By focusing on the value that a product or service provides to customers, entrepreneurs can ensure that their marketing strategies effectively communicate and reinforce this value proposition. All marketing efforts, from advertising to content creation, should be centred around the unique benefits that the product or service offers.
Value serves as the “what” in a business, representing the core offering that sets the brand apart from its competitors. All other aspects, such as marketing, operations, and customer service, act as the “how” – the means through which the company delivers and communicates its value to customers. She demonstrates how placing value at the core of a business and building marketing strategies and operations around it has been key to the success of her ventures, such as POM Wonderful, FIJI Water, and Teleflora.
Resnick also encourages entrepreneurs to adopt transparency as a core value in their businesses to create lasting relationships with customers and improve brand reputation. Resnick shares her experiences and insights on how embracing transparency has helped her businesses, such as POM Wonderful and FIJI Water, stand out in competitive markets. By providing clear and accurate information about their products, the companies have been able to foster consumer trust and loyalty, which are crucial for long-term success.
My take on Rubies in the Orchard – How to Uncover the Hidden Gems in Your Business
I think the book delivered on its promise on “How to Uncover the Hidden Gems in Your Business” Resnick emphasizes the importance of value and listening in marketing, which is crucial for entrepreneurs to understand. Instead of solely focusing on marketing tactics like SEO, SEM, or social media marketing, Resnick highlights the need to articulate the intrinsic value of a product. By listening to customers and understanding their needs and desires, entrepreneurs can develop marketing strategies that effectively communicate their products’ unique benefits and value propositions. This customer-centric approach helps build strong connections between the brand and its audience, leading to lasting relationships and, ultimately, greater business success.
Despite this book was published in 2009, and digital marketing was still in its infancy relatively speaking. Resnick displayed remarkable foresight in recognizing the unique potential of the web as a medium for communication. Unlike traditional media channels like TV, radio, and print, which primarily facilitate one-way communication, the web enables two-way interactions between businesses and their customers.
Even today, many traditional businesses still view the web as just another channel, failing to recognize its unique potential for customer engagement. Marketing on the web, or digital marketing, is not simply an extension of existing channels; it requires a fundamental shift in how businesses approach their customers. To fully leverage the web’s potential, businesses must embrace this two-way communication and adopt a customer-centric approach that puts the needs and desires of their audience at the forefront.
Here are some of the tools you could use to implement the principles from the book:
Create your customers persona: HubSpot offers a free tool to help you https://www.hubspot.com/make-my-persona
How to listen to your customers and understanding their needs and desires?
- Check out reddit on what people say about your products or your competitors’ products (FIJI water, florist services…etc)
- Check out testimonials from your competitors’ case studies and pay attention to what problems this particular product/service solve
Key Quotes from the book:
Page 12: Every marketing campaign begins with the same question: What is the intrinsic value of the product or service? Before you are able to convince consumers of the value of something, you have to be able to convince yourself. If it’s not immediately apparent to you, it won’t be to them either. (marketing POM Wonderful initially)
Page 33: What good are advertising, marketing, and design if the product is junk? (On her decision to decision to exit the ad agency career)
Page 42: Ultimately, marketing is all about listening. You want to be the equivalent of a good friend. (What marketing really is according to Resnick)
Page 51: Economies, like societies, are dynamic. They change constantly, but the fundamentals do not. Value is rewarded, while the absence of value, sooner or later, is always exposed and penalized. (Why you need to focus on value)
Page 91: In building a successful business, you have to disciplined enough to leave money on the table. (On her decision to sacrificed growth by not using Iranian pomegranates despite a pomegranate shortage in their farm in California’s San Joaquin Valley)
Page 110: If your message is a paragraph long, you don’t have a message – you have a paragraph. (On the messages about your product)
Page 127: Whether the subject is pomegranates, pearls, or Mother’s Day, authenticity matters. (on how to connect your brand with your target audience)
Page 142: Community is the heart of the Web, and the advertisers that find a natural home there will prosper. (Resnick’s view on the web as a medium)
The website for this book is no longer active: www.rubiesintheorchard.com (after all it’s been published 15 years ago, but you can check out the previous content in https://web.archive.org). Lynda Resnick is definitely ahead of her time, you can still find out more about her in wikipedia or The Wonderful Company website.
From https://web.archive.org/web/20090622021911/http://www.rubiesintheorchard.com/
