The Eyelet.

Anyone who’s ever been through a Mlicki BrandLibs™ session (or read this blog) probably knows that we view brands and culture as being intrinsically aligned. In fact, when I picture the two concepts I see them as a strand of DNA — wrapping in and out of eachother in a thread that tells a story. The most successful brands manage to connect us to a set of compelling beliefs through a system of iconic brand assets.

Often in brand workshops, we talk about how the United States of America is an example of an iconic brand based on this philosophy. So, with Independence Day just around the corner, I thought it might be an interesting exercise to dissect the brand that is the United States of America, and share a little history of the brand assets that represent it:

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Whenever I travel, I enjoy seeking out and finding new, interesting local and regional restaurant brands. In some ways, I enjoy the hunt as much as the meal itself. I’m always curious to find a new take on a typical meal, a great service experience, or a really well designed brand environment. Often, I’ll pass 15-20 restaurants before finding the right spot to try. Rarely will I settle until I’ve sufficiently explored the area — no matter how hungry I become in the process, because you never know what might be around the next corner. Sometimes, I’m rewarded. Sometimes, I’m disappointed.

In a recent trip to San Diego, I got to thinking, “What makes me pass over one restaurant, yet stop at another?” I never read a review. At best, I’ll take a passing glance at a menu. I’m certainly not taking the time to look at a mobile site or a social media site, like Trip Advisor. And, asking someone for advice would be like admitting defeat. The decisions I make are based 100% on inferences I make in a split second about the restaurant from the sidewalk.

So, as I enjoyed an amazing meal at a local restaurant named Searsucker (a restaurant I settled on after about a 2 mile hike through every corner of the Gaslamp District), I came up with a few primary elements.

Three “Must Haves” to Acquire a Customer in 5 Seconds or Less:

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Remember Stuckey’s? Rax or Roy Rogers? G.D. Ritzy’s, Sambo’s, Howard Johnson’s? Some of these concepts still exist in some reduced form – mere shadows of their once great or promising selves. Others are road-kill littering the American retail landscape and early suburban boulevards. I have a little game I like to play, much to the chagrin or total disinterest of my family. “Hey, can anybody tell me what that Chinese buffet use to be?” Of course, I have the answer – “Golden Corral.” That same-day check-cashing operation? An Arthur Treacher’s. I could go on.

Who’s Responded Well During and Since the Recession?

In the eventual wake of our current recession, we’re going to see a new wave of restaurant concepts that are in the early throws of a never-ending downward spiral. Unfortunately, some of them will be concepts very near and dear to my heart and career, but the fact remains that hard times force consumers to re-look their consumption decisions. Considerations sets are recast. The long term fates of concepts are determined every day by how consumers vote with their feet and pocketbooks. Throughout the 90′s, and at times but less consistently in the first years of this new millennium, the restaurant industry hummed along pretty nicely. Of course some segments did better than others, but there were no obvious signs of any huge watershed moment. Development was still pretty rosy. Same store sales weren’t through the roof but they were within an acceptable range. Then came 2008/09 and significant shifts started occurring. Brands that had fairly recently become American icons already started looking and feeling tired and tarnished before their time. Applebee’s, whose same store sales that hummed in respectable single digit positive territory of a number of years, suddenly stalled and the folks in Kansas headquarters couldn’t re-engage the clutch. Outback looked like it was really going to go down-under. Wendy’s lost its voice and its differentiation. Wendy’s is making some good headway but they still have a lot to do. However, a few stewards of the previous era, like Olive Garden and McDonald’s, hunkered down and better defined who they were and they did just fine – even exceeded expectations. McDonald’s started reinventing their platform before the recession started and at times it was painful. Franchisees were complaining about more complicated operations and higher revenue without higher profits. They’re not complaining now. Some relative newcomers, like Chipotle, continued their meteoric growth as to if to say “recession, what recession?”

Why Are They Thriving?

Why are more than a handful of restaurant brands, some new and some old, weathering the economic storm just fine while others look like they may be on the brink of a long and painful decline? The concepts that are thriving during these challenging times have a clear vision of what their concepts’ brand experiences need to be and they maintain focus on how to consistently deliver their brand promises at every touchpoint. Olive Garden has been the butt of many pop-culture jokes – as recently as the movie “Hall Pass” and going back to the 90′s and Paul Reiser in “Mad About You.” But the folks at Darden aren’t dummies. They get the importance of a clearly defined and articulated positioning and promise. They got it a long time ago. Their internal credo and brand promise of “Hospitaliano” has driven them to more quarters of SSS growth in the past decade than most of us even care to keep track of anymore (not consecutive anymore, even Darden is human).

Newer concepts like Raising Cane’s and Chipotle are maniacally focused. Such narrow product offerings would have been scoffed at by a previous restaurant industry generation, but they have struck a chord – in part due to their superior product offering (never-frozen MTO chicken fingers and responsible fresh ingredients respectively), but also in how they have engaged their associates and their consistency of branding in everything they do. Raising Cane’s takes it to a level that’s almost cult-like. They reach such near mania levels of associate engagement that they call their associates “Caniacs”.

Who Will Lead Into the Future?

A new era in the restaurant industry is emerging from this recession and so will a new set of industry leaders. Only time will tell if Applebee’s will be the next Denny’s and Denny’s will be the next Stuckey’s, but don’t let your concept be the next independent Asian buffet. Be authentic, focused and consistent. Engage your associates like they’re your customers and find your voice. Be a brand maniac.

If I hear the phrases “global solutions” or “a leading provider of” again, I’m going to take a stapler and affix the offending tagline or brand positioning statement to the perpetrator’s forehead.

I was very recently asked to participate in a survey to help an unidentified agency determine the best of four “positioning statements” for their B2B client by providing ratings on a dozen or so key messaging points that the statements were trying to convey. However, they weren’t really your typical positioning statements that outlined what the brand does, for whom and how it is differentiated from others that do so. They were more like taglines and each one employed a variation of the phrase “global solutions”. The lines also used verbiage that the target audience would never understand – that even most of their own associate base wouldn’t understand. They were trying to use such lingo to give a more grandiose and broader spin on what they actually do – small batch document production. I gave each and every key measure an effectiveness rating of a 1 or 2 on a 5 point scale. Whether these lines were for internal or external use, they failed miserably to explain and differentiate what their client’s brand did, for whom and why it’s important.

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A couple weeks ago I wrote a post about Christophe Morin’s work in leveraging recent findings from the field of Neuroscience in marketing communications. I reviewed the 6 most effective stimuli of the reptilian brain and the 4 basic steps to leverage in order to persuade and influence it. Now comes the more tactical piece. What are the buttons we can push to activate acknowledgment and action by the reptilian brain? Well, if you haven’t picked up on it by now, you will after this post – Mr. Morin likes to keep things summarized in easy to understand and remember chunks. Our next sets of chunks are about the tactics to utilize and leverage the previously mentioned reptilian brain triggers.

Christophe has outlined a set of messaging blocks and their corresponding boosters to those messaging blocks that enable us marketing communications folks to get our message acknowledged and responded to by the reptilian brain. There a six such blocks:

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