Without confidence, we don’t have trust. And without trust, we don’t have a relationship.
By George Aveling
WHY do millions of people like me keep going back to Starbucks? Is the success of this organisation based on the fact that Starbucks makes the best brew in the world? I’m not so sure of this. It’s not that Starbucks doesn’t make a good cup of coffee, but I don’t think that this is the essence of its success. There is more to Starbucks than its coffee. I feel good when I go to Starbucks. I’m not sure why, but I do.When I want to have a bit of time out for myself, I think Starbucks. When I want to have a casual business meeting, I’ll often choose Starbucks. The Starbucks formula seems simple enough. The service is friendly. There is the Starbucks décor, music and ambience. And, of course, I have my Starbucks coffee. It certainly doesn’t seem like rocket science!
There is, however, some brand magic going on. The magic lies in the consistency. I trust that Starbucks will deliver a consistent experience every time I go there. I am confident that, when I go into any Starbucks, I will get a feeling of respite in a comfortable environment. Starbucks knows that its brand is a trust mark. Without confidence, we don’t have trust. And without trust, we don’t have a relationship. Trust is earned when a brand delivers on its brand promise time and time again.
We are now getting to Tricks #1 and #2 in the brand magician’s tool box. Trick #1 is to define, in a very simple, understandable way, your brand promise. This is your company’s pledged experience to your customers. Trick #2 is to relentlessly focus on making sure your company delivers on the brand promise, day in, day out. Trick #2 is the art of execution of your brand promise.
The Starbucks brand promise, embodied in its Mission, is, “To inspire and nurture the human spirit— one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.” Starbucks aims to give people like me a respite, even rejuvenation. The thing that amazes me is that, in a way that I can’t describe, it has that effect on me! Now, before you say to me, “George, get a life,” I will repeat the old saying – perception is reality. I’m the customer. I have the dough, they deliver the experience (and the coffee) and we both are better off as a result of the exchange! And so do millions of others like me!
The Starbucks brand promise is simple. It gives the organisation a clear direction. It sends a message out to people involved in all aspects of the business. Trick #1 from the brand magician’s tool box has now been successfully performed. In fact, many aspiring brand magicians are working on Trick #1. However, they only become successful brand magicians when they successfully master Trick #2. This is the hard one. It’s about execution of the brand promise. If you are a small business, you may find it challenging to have your people deliver on the brand promise every day. The challenge is magnified many times over once you have a national or global organisation.
I had a casual conversation with two very friendly and engaging Starbucks employees. They mentioned that there is quite a thick manual that drives the operation of the outlet. I recall that they said that it was 140 pages long! Herein lies a major clue to mastering brand magic Trick #2: it takes lots of effort and perspiration to build a culture that delivers your brand experience, customer by customer, day in, day out. There is no one formula to achieve Trick #2, consistent implementation of the brand promise. Different companies use different frameworks. However, they do have a number of factors in common: Once you have defined your brand experience, communicate it clearly and consistently to your people. Make sure that you get feedback from your customers that they are experiencing your brand promise. Engage your people – excite them, educate them, train them, congratulate them, reward them, communicate to them – so that they have the willingness and the skills to deliver. Of course, you have to recruit people who can deliver the magic on your behalf. The old adage used to be “recruit based on attitude, train for skills”. The new adage is “recruit for brand-fitness, train for delivery of the brand experience.” And, of course, you need to make sure that your tools, systems and processes allow your people to deliver on the pledged experience. As you can see, a key to building a powerful, trusted brand is to master the more involved brand magic Trick #2 – the art of execution. I will speak more about this in subsequent articles in Marketing Magazine.
Let me give you another example of a highly successful brand that has mastered brand magic Trick #1 and #2.
I’m a fan of Build a Bear Workshop. (At the moment, there is not a Build a Bear outlet in KL). Like Starbucks, on face value, Build a Bear sells something very simple – teddy bears. In reality, Build a Bear sells an experience. The Mission of Build a Bear – its brand promise – is “to bring a teddy bear to life”. Great! The company has successfully completed brand magic Trick #1. It has defined, in a simple, understandable way, the Build a Bear experience. When I was in Las Vegas on a brand accreditation workshop, my TMI colleagues said to me, “You just have to visit Build a Bear.” Now, when your grown up colleagues tell you to visit a teddy bear shop, there has to be something special that has grabbed their hearts, minds and wallets! So, my wife, Poh Lan, and I curiously went to a Build a Bear shop…and had the most amazing experience! We came away not with a teddy bear, but with Elvee, a teddy bear that we had created. We started with an empty teddy bear shell. We then gave it a voice – sound recordings of our voices that were inserted into the teddy bear’s right paw. We then saw the teddy bear start to come to life as we filled it with stuffing. We gave it feelings when we put a heart into its little chest. We spent 10 minutes choosing the right clothing for our special little teddy bear (we chose the “gangsta look”. We then named our teddy bear Elvee (with a birth certificate to make it official!). Elvee was not just a “store bought” teddy bear. Rather, he was a “store birthed” teddy bear that became a part of our family! The two Build a Bear “shop assistants” were just 17 or 18 years of age. We had a huge amount of fun as the assistants went about delivering on Build a Bear’s mission – of bringing this bear to life for us! At the end of the experience, they asked us whether we would be happy to call the Build a Bear customer hotline number to give feedback on our experience. Of course, we were happy to do so! The reward for them for delivering on the Build a Bear brand promise was not only that we walked away happy, but also that they would get rewarded based on our customer feedback. Elegantly simple! We were that taken by the experience that we visited a Los Angeles outlet of Build a Bear and saw lots of people – young and old – having a similar experience to us…and walking out with lots of teddy bears. From Build a Bear’s point of view, there was the continuous, happy sound of the cash register ringing. I took video of my experience at Build a Bear. I took photos. I trust Build a Bear enough to recommend them to everyone. And I know that the Build a Bear will deliver that consistent brand experience. By the way, this trust mark known as Build a Bear sells over USD400m worth of teddy bears globally. Trust pays. Oh, I almost forget to mention…we bought an extra set of clothes for Elvee while we were there!
So, let’s get some key points from this article. Your brand is otherwise known as a trust mark. It’s all about delivering a consistent experience to your customers across time and across boundaries. If you want to create magic with your brand, you need to learn two important brand magic tricks. Trick #1 requires a lot of thinking at senior levels. It’s the simple definition of your brand promise. This will drive the unique brand experience that your company will deliver and your customers will experience.
Trick #2 requires a lot of effort and perspiration. It’s the art of execution of your brand promise. If you master Trick #1 but don’t master Trick #2, you will have trouble in building a trusted brand over time. Both Starbucks and Build a Bear, put a lot of effort is placed to build a culture that delivers a unique brand experience. As I said, it’s not rocket science. But, neither is the pulling a rabbit out of a hat. ‘‘All” you have to do is master a few tricks and be prepared to keep working at it. Your journey to mastery will be a continuous one, for as they say, the road to progress is constantly under construction. To be continued!