Benihana's food is ordinary on purpose. The night is the product

Benihana's food is ordinary on purpose: steak, chicken and shrimp, lightly seasoned. What they put the effort into instead is the night itself. There's no kitchen in the back, so the chef cooks right at your table, often next to strangers, and ends on the onion volcano.

That's how a restaurant serves more than a hundred million meals of food you can get anywhere. People weren't going for the steak, they were going for the night.

When you're busy shaving every cost and optimizing everything, it's easy to miss the one part customers tell their friends about. Your product can be ordinary too. Make buying from you something people tell a friend about.

Be the obvious choice, not another copy.