Brand: It’s About Words AND Actions
By Stacy Clark

From the time I moved to Dallas in 1998 I have been a dedicated customer of a small, expanding Texas restaurant chain that serves a great cheesesteak and scrumptious queso.

I am not just a regular customer — I am a loyal customer. I am the brand-loyal customer that multi-billion dollar companies spend countless dollars trying to convert to their products and services. I have invited my friends and family to experience the mouth-watering food that I have found so addictive. More times than I can count I have broken diets based on my craving for a chicken cheesesteak with extra cheese. I take my daughter there for a bite to eat and to catch up with each other when our evening conversations start to sound like status meetings. I actually get a warm, fuzzy feeling when I see the restaurant or the logo.

So you can imagine my disappointment during the last year when this wonderful relationship began to deteriorate. Several times I dialed in for pick-up orders and the phone rang and rang. I have arrived before closing time and the restaurant has been closed because “the computers are down” or because “they are out of food.” But, I kept returning. I am forgiving. I am loyal. Mistakes happen. Last week, I told the restaurant manager of my recent experiences and was assured that these issues would be eliminated. But once again, last Friday “the computers were down.” This time I have decided I just cannot handle the disappointment of seeing that “Closed” sign during regular business hours one more time. I am loyal no more.

Now, I don’t really know if this company has a brand strategy like Starbucks or Target, but if it does, it is not living its brand. (The blank “Brand” web page does seem like a cry for help.) If it does not have a brand strategy, things have obviously evolved to the point where the company can no longer operate without one. In order to continue to expand successfully, a company has to make a promise and deliver on that promise each and every time a customer interacts with it. All stakeholders — owners, the marketing department and most importantly the people who interact with customers everyday — need to deliver on the promise. Every customer experience should deliver an emotional benefit. The emotional brand experience at a restaurant should start the minute the patron sees an ad, a name or a logo and should continue to exist as a memory after the music, lights and aroma are gone. Every touch point is an opportunity to differentiate, to reinforce the brand promise and to further success.

Now, for those with deep brand experience, these principles probably seem obvious. But whether you’re a small expanding company establishing a brand or an established multi-million dollar corporation revisiting your brand, the following six basic branding steps can revitalize or refocus your business:

1. Identify or re-identify your brand promise. Is it believable? Is it sustainable? Does it differentiate you? Can you deliver on the promise?

2. Ratify the promise. Solicit feedback from your organization's stakeholders.

3. Incorporate emotional benefits in the brand promise. Uncover the key emotional benefits that have relevance for your customers and employees.

4. Strengthen that promise throughout all organizational touch points.

5. Communicate the brand to employees all the time in everything you do.

6. Live the brand.

So, as I begin my quest for a new ultimate dining experience, I pause to wonder if the company that I associate with such fond memories could win me back? And if so, would I be as loyal the second time around? Their actions would have to back up their word, that’s for sure.

E-mail the author: Stacy Clark

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