From the Harvard Business Review - 

Sell it for more. 
Here, your product or service provides better performance on attributes that are important to target customers and for which they are willing to pay a premium. This approach must continually avoid the following pitfalls:

• Meaningless or false differentiation: the points of superiority are unimportant to customers or based on a false presumption of superiority.
• Uneconomic or invisible differentiation: customers are unwilling to pay for additional performance or are unaware of the difference.
• Unsustainable differentiation: the product or service features are imitated over time.

Or......


Make it for less. 
Here, your cost structure allows you to sell and make money at prices that competitors cannot. Realities in many industries typically allow only a few firms to compete successfully in this manner. Once they do, moreover, their scale advantages make it difficult for others to duplicate. To be a viable value proposition, therefore, this approach must avoid these pitfalls:

• Price wars: any cost advantage is lost in price competition and no one extracts value.
• Substitutes: you may have a cost advantage over competitors, but not over substitutes that are available to target customers.
• Cost reductions versus lowest costs: lowering cost doesn’t necessarily mean your cost is lower than competitors and, in any market, there is only one lowest cost competitor. Never confuse these different cost positions.

From TabletopJournal.com......

"Design is becoming extraordinarily important and people want their uniqueness, they want their own look. The idea of it is certainly starting to ramp up. These places are wanting to set themselves apart and make the crockery more of a part of the experience of their restaurant." says Australian tabeware importer and manufacturer Daniel Grundman of H.A.G. Australia in a just published article in Hospitality Magazine written by author Rosemary Ryan

TabletopJournal feels has been discussing for some time now - that tabletop, particularly the dinnerware, but all tabletop - plays a mjor role in defining the guest experience and helping to differentiate a restaurant. With white plates of all sizes, shapes, and quality (remember when square plates were "edgy"?) the tabletop area has become treated as almost a commodity area. I mean, since you have to have plates why not just get the cheapest white plates you can and be done with it. Right???

As restaurateurs more and more grasp the idea that they are not in the food & beverage business, but rather the dining experience business, they discover the need to make their dining experience unique and special. And while it is still true that in the theater of dining out, food & beverage are the leading stars, tabletop remains an exceptionally strong co-star. Like the great character actors whose name you cannot quite remember, great tabletop adds a sensory texture to the meal and the entire dining experience while remaining rather unobtrusive. And like those same great character actors that quietly elevate a movie's cimematic impact, it is the tabletop that often helps transform a "good" meal into a something far more memorable. The glassware, cutlery, dinnerware and serving pieces all have roles to play in elevating the overall dining experience. That's why TabletopJournal always trys to recognize and applaud the well-thought out tabletop.

So far now, we will continue our evangelistic journey to raise the conciousness and help tabletop gain its rightful respect in the role it plays in the guest experience. Thanks to author Ryan in joining us in this pursuit.

You can read Rosemary Ryan's entire article by going here:
http://www.hospitalitymagazine.com.au/management/an-appetite-for-colour-tabletop-trends?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Hospitality%20Newsletter%20MREC%20-%20send%20-%3E%2028/06/2012%202:27:09%20PM&utm_content=