C Stores :: Retail Works

Why is it important to define your own brand? If you don’t do it – who will? And if it is not you – how can you control it? Is it important to have a good brand?

Good branding means more money in the bank! Simple as that…

Picture yourself say for example choosing a car, or a good burger…..what brands automatically came into your head?  Whiskey? What brand came into your head? Most of us will go out of our way to buy a specific product because we associate with that brand – we prefer it above other brands..this is true of most of us.

And the same thing goes for our singular choice of coffee – we don’t think of the logo, the typeface of that brand, the letterheads – things we all spend so much money on getting right! No it is our association of the total shopping experience in seeking out that motor car, or burger – or even a coffee.

Branding is the total customer experience in our stores. We could have the most significant PR company putting us on the map – but if a visit to our stores does not live up to the expectation in our customers heads, it is all really just a waste of good time and money.
And here I am not talking just about the beans used to produce that great cup of coffee…..I am talking about the whole customer experience when visiting our stores. Things like

• Was there Parking available?
• Was the entrance clean and inviting?
• Good music
• Inviting and more importantly engaging staff
• Attention to detail

These and more all add to my shopping experience – even if it was just for a cup of coffee…The experience locks our customers in. You can either make it easy for them to decide to be hooked for life on your store  - or you can just hope for the best.

If you don’t do it – nobody else will! And relying just on hope gets us nowhere….

Starbucks is a prime example of how to use branding to their advantage. I bet you more than half of their repeat customers could not tell you the colour of their logo or the staff uniforms!

On average their customers come back 18 times a month to buy coffee that costs 3 times more than anywhere else! Not because their coffee is three times better…..their loyalty is based on

• The total packaging
• Their music
• Their staff attitudes
• The same core experience regardless of which outlet they frequent

The customer does not make up this experience – it is made up for them.

Are you doing this in your business?

This Article was written by Jocelyn Daley