Stay the course
Brugger felt the pressure every day to cut prices and hold blowout sales to get customers in the door. But he did not give in to it because he was committed to the company’s niche of being a high-end furniture dealer and not a discount retailer.
“Every end consumer, even people with money, everybody is asking for a discount at the moment,” Brugger says. “So it is tough, but it pays out long term. You might lose a customer, but if you begin to go in that direction, it never stops. It’s tough to make that clear sometimes on a daily basis, but long-term-wise, it’s obvious.”
Every successful niche company needs a brand, something that it can identify with that resonates with consumers. If you feel strongly about that brand positioning and you want to maintain it, sometimes you have to find a way to weather the storms.
You need to take steps to show your people that you believe in what you’re doing.
“If a store owner begins to panic and to agree with every discount, which some people do right now at the store level, that would be completely wrong in the long run,” Brugger says. “We jeopardize our image and our brand and everything. Our goal is to offer this environment in our franchise stores in order to explain to people we are French high-end quality.”
So how do you get people to believe in your strategy when they see people they know at other companies losing their jobs and wonder if they might be next? The answer is you convince them that they are part of a team that is going through the challenge together, not alone.
To weather the storm, get people involved in coming up with plans and strategies that fit your vision and maintain your brand image. Make people proud of what it is you stand for and show that you are committed to fighting for it.
“Pride is a very important engine to get people to bring ideas to the table and to bring the company further than only being employees,” Brugger says. “You don’t only talk about the measures they have to take, but the goals and objectives we want to reach when we achieve those measures. It’s a better understanding of why we do this. We don’t just dictate what to do but also show where that should lead to.”