For many who are in the restaurant industry, this week's Nation's Restaurant News has an article that definitely will help to benefit the industry. The article entitled, "Is your brand on target?" It breaks down the four age groups--Seniors, Baby Boomers, Generation Xs, and Millennials--as customers. The article lays out the argument that for each age group the customers are looking for something in particular that is important to them. Every age group desires: Convenience, Atmosphere in restaurant, and Personal Connection with brand out of the seven categories mentioned.
I am always amazed at how employees are so focused on making money as their focus. In the article, I do not see anything about how customers really want to give money away to the people that serve them, and provide them with service. I guess that is just the perspective of why I am a leader for a company working on forming team members mind-set, and having many look at business other than from one point of view.
Let me suggest excerpts from one interview in the article with Dave Jenkins, Partner of CustomerDNA. The question was asked: How do brands create emotional bonds with customers? "By reinforcing the offering steadily over time so that bond gets stronger. It's repetition that builds the bond," Jenkins said.
Jenkins points out: "... Marketers are simply developing what the brand promises, creating expectations. Marketers have to put expectations in the consumer's mind. If they are met, that reinforces that bond, and if they are not, it starts to put doubt in the consumer's mind."
It's not about the focus on money. It's the focus on the customer/guest. That is what's going to make more money for YOU!
---May 2, 2012 at 11:00am
