Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

One of the sites I started to read recently is Gordon’s Republic, the blog of the editor of Brand Republic. I found one of his recent posts about hotel branding quite interesting because he notes “people have more of a relationship with a bottle of Heinz Ketchup or Tide washing detergent because these brands deliver on their promise. Hotels have so much to deliver on and so much can go wrong, but then hotel rooms are a little more pricey than washing detergent.“

It really got me thinking about how when human interaction is introduced to a brand, things can go terribly wrong. Normally in these situations I state how the customer isn’t always right, however the number of organisations that go about building brands, but don’t live them is shocking.

What do I mean by living the brand? It is quite a BS phrase. What I don’t mean is that the CEO of Nike should be out doing slam dunks in his Air Jordans on his lunch break. What I do mean is providing consumers with an experience.

Many summers ago I had a summer job in Marche Movenpick in Toronto. I didn’t really enjoy the job itself, but I learnt some of the most important lessons about customer service in that restaurant and they have stuck with me ever since. Basically it boiled down to making sure the customers enjoyed their meal. If someone you were serving didn’t like what they were eating, you’d take it away and get them something else instead.

This sounds like something all restaurants do. Try walk into one and do it without feeling awkward though. At Marche Movenpick we’d proactively make sure our customers were happy and they would often be quite surprised at the service.

Guess what? The same customers kept coming back and telling their friends. No surprises that Marche Movenpick happens to be a very successful restaurant. It has established long term valuable relationships with its clientele due to the fact that it drives home customer service to its staff.

Consumers are looking for an experience these days and Ireland is no exception as Amarach’s latest research newsletter points out (Amarach is an Irish research firm that publishes a biweekly newsletter called , sign up for it here):

Mass affluence is the democratisation of luxury. The products and services that were once the exclusive preserve of the rich over time become the taken-for-granted commodities of the greater part of the population…Ireland’s prosperity means that we are quickly evolving into an ‘Experience Economy’, one in which affluent consumers dedicate a growing share of their spending power to tailored, personalised experiences.

Living your brand means setting yourself apart from your rivals in terms of the experience you provide them with. It doesn’t mean undercutting them on price. While some people would have us believe that consumers always opt for the cheapest option, in the real world it can be seen that if they recognise the value of your product/service, then they will happily pay the premium to purchase it.

As Gordon points out, “Hotels have so much to deliver on and so much can go wrong, but then hotel rooms are a little more pricey than washing detergent.” The problem is that quite often companies treat their customers like washing detergent. Unfortunately, doing so means leaving a stain on their relationship.

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