Sweat the details
A brand — and the promise ingrained in that brand — should be clear to the public at any point of contact.
That means using the right font style on all signage and letterhead, conveying a consistent image through carefully selected advertising avenues and smartly crafted messages, giving all physical facilities an appropriate look and feel, making sure employee’s dress codes and demeanor reflect the brand … the whole ball of wax.
“Everything has to be congruent,” Mitchell says. “You can’t not have white tablecloths and charge $60 per person for food. That would be a disconnect. You can’t have real loud, energetic music in a fine-dining restaurant. It doesn’t make sense. It goes all the way through to the details of the china and the music. It needs to match the environment, which needs to match the concept, which needs to match the service level and guest expectations, which the price needs to match. All the way down through the line, we want everything to be congruent. If it’s not, we have disconnects.
“The brand has to appeal subconsciously to people, too. They may not realize consciously that the music is too loud or the lights are too bright, but subconsciously, they pick that up, and it kind of agitates people. So they may not have a good feeling or may not be completely endeared to that restaurant.”
The same could happen to any company that overlooks seemingly minor details in building a brand — such as the hold music callers hear or the paint color and style of furniture greeting customers in the lobby. Everything must carefully and consistently add to the brand. “This is a business of 1,001 details,” Mitchell says. “It’s true. All your T’s have to be crossed and all your I’s have to be dotted. It’s very challenging to have it all work together and have that magic happen.”