Brand Building, Boston Stylerighthandplanning.com/marketing-news/brand-building-boston-style

“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillfulexecution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives." - Author unknown

Even small improvements to a company's product, service or environment signal acommitment to quality that reassures customers, employees and other businesspartners that they're dealing with a business that cares about them and theirexperiences.

"Quality" Now the Price of Entry

And quality today is really just the price of entry. Most products and services "do thetrick" just fine to the extent that we consumers only notice when something goes verywell or very wrong with a transaction.

Small Touches Build Brands

The way to really stand out is to find thoughtful and unexpected ways to enhance the way customers experienceyour brand. In fact, opportunities exist to grab customers' attentionoutside the process of delivering your product orservice.

As you'll see in the examples below, impressions can be made while waiting in line, miles from the point of sale,while a business is closed and even in the rest room. Even large national companies engage in enhanced design orbrand building touches in ways that have little to do with the actual consumption of their product.

Why is "Brand Building" Important?

Strong Brands

Command a premium price

Increase customer loyalty

Reduce employee turnover

Resist competitors

Create brand evangelists

Are extensible

Boston BrandBuilding Examples

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Below are some examples we've collected that show the unique and creative ways afew Boston area businesses have employed to showcase their brand's personalities,stand out from their competitors and demonstrate their commitment to quality inmemorable ways.

DeLuca's Market, Charles St., Beacon Hill, Boston

DeLuca's, Boston's oldest grocery store, is a Boston institution with locations onNewbury St. in Back Bay and Charles St. on Beacon Hill.

Sadly, a fire in the Charles Street location closed one of DeLucas' two retail stores. Asdevastating as that must be, they still decided to take extraordinary measures to keeptheir brand and locational heritage in the front of customers' minds.

They did this by painting the plywood of the under-construction storefront the brand'sburgundy color and completely covering the location with photos and the story of theircompany's proud history.

They may have temporarily lost sales from this location during its rehabilitation, but theyare maintaining their physical presence. It's hard to imagine the community (theircustomer base) not being supportive and rooting for DeLucas' return when you comparethe closed store in these photos with a typical graffiti-covered plywood construction scene.

Bubble Car Wash, Near Mass Ave., Boston

A car wash makes dirty cars clean. It's a pretty satisfying service at it's most basic level,and throughout Boston's rainy and snowy seasons we Bostonians have plenty ofopportunities to enjoy a car wash's service.

That's why I was pleasantly surprised to see the multiple ways that Bubbles Car Washtakes advantage of the waiting-in-line phase of their service to brand themselves. Firstthey get customers excited about running this errand with this eye-level sign that says,"Prepare to be HAPPY". I couldn't help but smile and think, "Ok, this is starting to seemkind of fun".

As I continued sitting in line for my turn a flashing message board to the left caught myattention. It said, "Bungee Jumping Friday Nites" and rotated through several other sillynon-car-wash-related messages ending the series with, "Voted best car wash 12 yearsin a row".

I'm not surprised they're voted number 1. It's now more than just my local car wash,because I know it's run by a person with a sense of humor who is willing to take theseunnecessary but thoughtful extra steps to get me exicted and keep me entertainedthroughout the delivery of their service.

And the staff here are always friendly and upbeat (and remember, this is Boston!). It's not surprising, they probablyhave a fun boss. What do you suppose the employee turnover rate is there compared to other car washes?

Framingham Starbucks Bathroom - They'll Clean It NOW

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OK, Starbucks is a national company but I had to take a picture of the sign on the backof the bathroom door at this Framingham Starbucks because I've never seen one quitelike it.

Many companies have a bathroom cleaning checklist, initialed hourly showing someonelooked in on it. And some restrooms have a sign asking you to let management know ifthe facilities are not clean, presumably so a future customer can have a betterexperience than you did.

The reason the management of this Starbucks made the list is because they've goneabove and beyond a passive commitment to cleanliness by taking it to the level of offering to fix the problemimmediately. If management feels strongly enough about the cleanliness of the bathroom to post a handwritten signoffering to clean it immediately, how do you think they approach the cleanliness of the food prep area and the rest ofthe restaurant?

Considering this location is in a family-oriented community (and that this bathroom is also used by the peopleserving your food) I think it's an excellent example of a simple, thoughtful improvement to an already strong nationalbrand.

National Brands Show "Nice Touches" Now Price of Entry

Think these examples are unnecessary niceties put in place by a few passionateeccentrics?

Then take a look at the old-fashioned Coke bottle dispensing area of this Coke machine,and the two Freihofer's tractor trailers with product photos and the logo as two examplesof how national brands understand that there is value in doing just a little more thansimply delivering quality products.

Neither of these two examples are groundbreaking or new, but when you consider thethinking and costs that went into implementing these little extras that have nodemonstrable ROI, it becomes clear that the big brands have long been aware of thevalue of "brand building".

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