A simple process to help find your brand essence / Delegate the important stuff / Get your customers complaining / Vegetarian restaurants on the rise

A SIMPLE PROCESS TO HELP FIND YOUR BRAND ESSENCE
Danielle Rodgers’ post on Small Business Branding got me thinking about brand essence again. In her post, Danielle describes her “intricate and complex journey” to find the essence of her own brand, which had eluded her for a long time. Recently, Danielle came to a turning point, when,

“Suddenly I realised (sic) that the key to my brand’s essence is not out there at all; it’s in here, in me. Here I was thinking it was ‘all about my customers’ and therefore separate from me. I was trying to find the essence of my brand in other people. Nice aha moment.”

It sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? But for many companies, this simple truth remains elusive as they continue to search for the branding Holy Grail, out there. Me, I’m sticking with Danielle.

PERCEPTION BALANCING
Here’s a simple process anyone can do to learn more about the essence of their brand. We call it Perception Balancing because it helps to balance your perceptions about your organization with the perceptions of others, as well as ferret out the negative perceptions that may be holding you back.

1. Make a list of descriptive terms that describe how you think your company is currently perceived by your clients and your industry. Take your time, list as many as you can think of, and be honest — list positive and negative perceptions. Use words and phrases like “professional,” “caring,” “accurate,” “expensive,” “out of date,” “cool,” “expert,” “has integrity,” “slow,” “average,” “visionary,” “friendly,” “approachable and engaging,” “old school,” and “inexperienced.” Ask other people in your company to add to the list. Ask vendors and clients (ones who will give you an honest assessment) if you’ve covered everything.

2. Then make a second list with terms describing how you’d like your company to be perceived by your clients and your industry. Again, take your time. Some of these terms will be the same as the ones on the first list, and some will drop off. Be honest, and be slightly aspirational, reach a bit — you may think of some descriptions that don’t fit you quite yet, but that you’d like to work towards, go ahead and put them on your list.

3. Now compare your lists. Study them. You can see where there’s work to be done. You’ll be able to see the negatives that are holding your brand back — find ways to dispel them as quickly as you can. Separate these negatives and post them where you can see them with the headline “Negatives to dispel” or “Things we are not” to remind you to shake these negatives. Right now, they’re part of your brand essence. You may need to smile more or communicate better or even change your strategy, but it will be worth it to get these monkeys off of your back.

4. Now look at the positives, especially the positives that show up on both lists. These descriptions will give valuable hints to your brand essence — your brand character and your brand personality. They describe not only what you want your company to be, but what your company most likely already is. Cull this list to the best of the best, to five or six descriptions that are the most important to you. Separate these descriptions and post them with the headline “Our brand essence” or “Things we are” to remind you to always think, speak, and act in these ways. Over time, you can tweak these descriptions a bit, but most likely you’ll find that by beginning to take them on consciously, you really do own them, and they’ll become more conscious parts of your authentic brand.

“. . . in the truest sense, the synonym for brand is ‘reputation.’
It’s the power of a blend of ideas, a sense of identity,
and it helps consumers make decisions in a crowded marketplace.”

— Robert Friedman, formerly with AOL

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DELEGATE THE IMPORTANT STUFF
There's a difference between delegating and passing the buck, and it's at the root of one fundamental misunderstanding that many managers have. If you as a manager have a lot to do, it's only natural to send some of the less desirable, low-thought work down to your subordinates while you tackle the bigger, more important tasks. But this is passing the buck, and it won't foster trust or empowerment. It will foster resentment.

Instead, delegate the most important work to talented subordinates and handle the grunt work yourself. One major role of managers is to keep the people that work under them happy, and to engender loyalty and trust. People are happier and more fulfilled doing important work than grunt work, and will appreciate the trust you've placed in them.

Penelope Trunk, Yahoo! Finance columnist and author of Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success suggests that managers keep the following in mind when delegating:

1. If you do none of the office grunt work yourself, people will think that you "do nothing."

2. Judge the importance of a task or project based on what is important to the person who you are delegating to, not on what is important to you. This means furthering that person's progress toward their own career goals and playing to their strengths.

3. Young people especially are happiest on the job when they are learning. The number one factor for job happiness is training. Coach people through projects and allow them to explore skills that they enjoy and feel are important.

For more articles like this about managing employees, see Recognition do's and don'ts and Measuring employee engagement.

Source: PenelopeTrunk.com

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GET YOUR CUSTOMERS COMPLAINING
Never trust a silent customer. Customers can suffer quietly for a long period of time, putting up with what they feel are numerous nuisances or poor quality. Then, one day, these silent customers simply leave and you never hear from them again. You may not even know they've gone until enough time passes and they fail to show up. It's also difficult to track these folks, because they're so stealthy. You could be losing huge amounts of business without even knowing it.

The solution is to get these quiet customers to speak up. Get them to complain. When something is bothering them, you want to know all about it so that you can fix it and keep their loyalty.

Most companies treat complaints like a nuisance, and treat those who complain like pests. It's rare that there is a clear procedure for a person to follow when they're unsatisfied with something. A company may have a 1-800 number, but rarely is "ombudsman" an option at the voice prompt. A company may distribute feedback forms, or have one available on its website, but the language on these forms is vague, and there isn't a clear procedure on the back end of this feedback -- such as an immediate response to address criticism and make customers happy. For most people who are unsatisfied, it's far easier to simply leave and never come back than it is to determine the right way to complain.

It's unrealistic to assume that all of your customers are satisfied 100% of the time. Remember, it costs eight times as much to get a new customer as it does to keep a current one. You want to know when people are unhappy, and you want to do whatever is necessary to fix it. So ask your customers what they think, and if they are unsatisfied with anything. Create a clear, obvious complaint procedure. Then, bend over backward to correct the situation and reward the customer for speaking up. Do whatever is necessary to make amends, and you'll soon have your customers trained to speak their minds -- and to be anything but silent.

To learn more about building customer relationships, see Marcia's review of The Ultimate Question.

Source: Psychotactics.com

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VEGETARIAN RESTAURANTS ON THE RISE
Vegetarian and vegan food was once relegated to a few token dishes in most mainstream restaurants. If diners wanted a totally meat-free menu, they usually ended up in a small and grungy establishment -- of which, by the way, not many existed. But things are changing. VegDining.com reports that the number of vegetarian restaurants in the U.S. has nearly doubled in the past seven years, now totaling between 1000 and 1200 nationwide.

One reason that vegetarian restaurants have been able to prosper of late has to do with advances in cooking which allow non-meat ingredients (like tofu and tempeh) to taste more like meat. Another reason is simple expanding global thinking, which has opened a whole realm of different cuisines to people who otherwise might never have heard of them. This has allowed vegetables to graduate from side dish to entree. The move is picking up momentum as celebrities get on board -- restaurants like Candle 79 in New York boast regulars such as Paul McCartney and Woody Harrelson.

While the growth in vegetarian restaurants is a definite trend, meatless establishments face several daunting obstacles. One, it is notoriously difficult to change a person's eating habits, so enticing meat-eaters to try vegetarian fare is tricky. And two, ingredients can be expensive. While these restaurants save the expense of meat, they often forfeit that savings by using expensive organic ingredients.

For more articles like this about foodservice trends, see GenY drives foodservice trend and Dishing it up at cereal cafes.

Source: MSNBC