The Four Pillars of Wall-To-Wall Branding

The Four Pillars of
Wall-To-Wall Branding ©

"Build it and he will come."

"Field of Dreams"

The disturbing trend toward uniformity in food and culture threaten to make our planet a much less interesting place to live."

Patrick Martins

Well positioned, Wall-to-Wall Branding ©, has a single purpose: to provide a practical method to grow a profitable business and flourish in any competitive environment. It identifies and celebrates the strengths and unique characteristics the guest ascribes to you. It lays out a comprehensive method to orchestrate every detail of the experience, both inside and outside the retail establishment. It ensures the customer remembers you, despite the insane clutter of advertising and glut of competition so that they return. It uses the theater as a useful metaphor for the tactics and activities because, well, it is theater.

What are the Four Pillars of Wall-To-Wall Branding © ?

Pillar One: The Play

Develop operational values: commit to the walk you will walk everytime, without fail
Determine what makes you unique, what your WOWs are
Create the theme
Write the story as if it were the 'ideal guest experience'
Determine what you will sell: the services, menu, methods of distribution
Develop a sound business structure to ensure profitablity

Pillar Two : The Atmospherics

Map the ideal guest visit with a 4-Wall Walk-thru plan of every square foot seen, used or otherwise experienced by the guest
Direct the Design process
Build on budget

Pillar Three: The Cast of actors, technical help, stage hands

Hire the staff
Stage the experience
Retain the winners, wean the losers
Reinforce and reiterate your values and the staging daily
Recognize and reward performance daily

Pillar Four: The Audience

Determine your target
Understand their disposition: their likes, dislikes, attitudes and perceptions of your branded experience
Make it convenient for them to buy your services when and where they want them
Develop and nurture current guest relationships
Reach out to 'Birds of a Feather'
Measure guest loyalty & enthusiasm as well as, cast and show performance

Where do you start? Most entrepreneurs begin with Pillar One while most strategic marketers start with Pillar Four. It involves a little of both. Sometimes inspiration arrives and you must respond, but research before you go hog-wild. In the same way, determining a strategic segment to exploit is wasteful without the creative magic that gives a concept its reason for being. Remember the enthusiasm for Home Meal Replacement and its disastrous fallout? Witness the same frenzy in Fast Casual and be warned.

Americans respond to ideas that are heartfelt, quality driven experiences, executed with a fanatic commitment to hospitality. It seems so obvious as to be absurd. Then I go to a chain restaurant and eat 'me-too' food served with surreal and/or invisible service. Or I read the ghastly results of an industry survey on how our associates really treat the food we eat (it ain't good, folks). Or I open my newspaper and see the flurry of coupons that convinces me the product being hawked isn't worth its regular price. Finally, I see fabulous advertising that promises something the experience does not deliver. Oh, brother. These are the spent concepts, bankrupt philosophies and insane disconnects which ruin our business. It doesn't have to be that way. Build your business with indestructible Pillars.