What Great Retail and Restaurant Brands Do
Each of us has our own favorite stores; we all have those restaurants that we keep going back to. Some restaurateurs and retailers have managed to cultivate our loyalty and we love going to them. We tell our friends about them, we “like” them on Facebook, we gather groups to go to their stores with us.
We love these brands because of what they do for us every time we walk in their doors, how they make us feel, the products they sell, and the experiences they create. We’re not overly concerned with what their logo looks like; their tagline might be clever but that’s not why we go there. We love them for what they do and how they do it — their brand.
Great retail and restaurant brands became great by creatively designing and consistently delivering great experiences. They’ve build their brands through actions, not advertising. Their brands aren’t simply images, they’re instruments that drive, align, and guide everything they do. For them, brand-building isn’t just creative or strategic; it’s operational.
I’m excited to announce that my next book, Extraordinary Experiences, will show you exactly how some of these great brands did it. This new text examines seven remarkable restaurant and retail brands and how they have developed strong, valuable connections with customers. I show you how they follow the seven brand-building principles in my first book, What Great Brands Do, and execute on them in emotional, memorable, impactful brand experiences. You’ll learn how:
- a mid-sized fast-food chain fought back from near financial bankruptcy and franchisee mutiny by applying the first brand-building principle, Great Brands Start Inside.
- a grocery brand has managed to thrive by subscribing to the notion that Great Brands Avoid Selling Products even though it’s in an industry that’s undergoing some of the most dramatic changes since supermarkets emerged in the 1940s.
- Great Brands Ignore Trends is the secret behind a casual dining restaurant success, defying the downward cycle of its category.
- a club warehouse shows that Great Brands Don’t Chase Customers isn’t just a principle for premium or niche brands.
- a retailer with only a handful of stores makes an extraordinary investment in its customer experience because Great Brands Sweat the Small Stuff.
- Great Brands Commit and Stay Committed is embraced by the leaders of a fast-casual restaurant brand who have run the regional company through 40 years of ups and downs.
- three college students started a restaurant brand that is now admired by industry leaders in part because they operate according to the principle Great Brands Never Have to ‘Give Back.’
Slated for release in a couple of months, Extraordinary Experiences is a shorter, e-book — a companion to What Great Brands Do. It will make brand-building as tangible and real as possible for businesses of all sizes and types. I can’t wait to share it with you. Stay tuned for more details.
P.S. Let me know here if you’re interested in joining the Great Brand Society, a select group of my friends and colleagues who receive early access to the book and exclusive content and who will help me promote it. I’ll be sure to send you a mini application when I’m ready to select the members.