A Real Brand – Real Customer Loyalty

September 7, 2009 · Filed Under Business Ideas & TIps · Comment 

I love to hear of stories of great companies who have built a real brand. This is a brand that has a loyal customer base and when the brand is mentioned people can tell you stories (great stories) of this brand. Recently Peter Day of the BBC interviewed the CEO of WD-40.  Yes those distinctive blue and yellow cans with that spray we use to solve all sorts of problems.

As Peter stated in his notes – ” it starts off as a lubricant and then generates all kinds of other uses, most of which give the users the wonderful feeling that it’s their cleverness to spray on the WD–40, rather than the product’s versatility.”

Originally WD-40 was designed to stop space rockets corroding.  This formula was the 40th attempt to come up with a water dispersant.  However as some of the people who worked for the company started taking the product home it started to gain other markets.

There are a number of lessons that can be learnt from the business.

It has been a business significantly built on sampling. They give a sample to someone to try which has led people to purchase. From this word of mouth has done a lot of the business building.

But this word of mouth has been helped by the company. It you visit their website you will fine a fanclub and a page devoted to 2000 plus uses of the product. The 2000 plus uses are full of stories that people can tell each other, try out and otherwise create word of mouth marketing.WD40 ask people to continue to send in examples of how they use the product.They are fostering the word of mouth.They are creating a tribe around a spray can.

The brand has a promise of being able to solve all those little lubricant issues around the house or business. But more than that even keep squirrels from climbing a pole. Read some of the 2000 uses for some crazy examples.

Also it is interesting how little detail is important. The smell that comes with the spray is added. It is not necessary to make the product work. But the smell is important for us to remember the product.

WD40 really take the time to understand the customers need and how their products can help.

So the lessons in summary -

  1. how are you fostering word of mouth
  2. how can you allow your customers to sample your product or service
  3. what little details can you do to your product or service that will leave a memory eg smell, touch etc
  4. how can you really understand the customers needs better.

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Interesting Grocery Store

July 27, 2009 · Filed Under Customer Service, Small & Medium Businesses · Comment 

Recently I was in Hobart on business and was invited to go to a grocery store in Hobart that I was told was “Australia’s best grocery store”. The person who told me this was just a customer, not in any way involved in the ownership or management of the business. The grocery store is Hill Street Grocer, which can be found at www.hillstreetgrocer.com and it is an interesting story. The business is a gourmet grocery store specialising in fresh fruit, vegetables, deli goods, locally grown meat, dairy products and specialist breads and cakes. They source most of their product from the local growers, and their fruit and vegetables don’t travel very far, to ensure the maximum freshness.

So I went into the store at 6pm on a Saturday evening. It is not a large grocery store. Upon walking in, the thing that most struck me within metres of entering was that there was a buzz, and that the design, layout and presentation of all aspecs of the store were excellent. The attention to detail was extremely good. The fresh fruit was perfectly displayed in a very appealing fashion. Hanging from the ceiling above the fresh fruit was garlic, leeks etc making a interesting display. Behind the counters was quite an array of local wines. Further around were the specialty breads. Overall, the store had a fantastic feel, and at 6pm on a Saturday night, it was buzzing. There was a lot of traffic to and from the store. It was well staffed store with attention being paid to the display.  It is a small business taking a niche within the grocery industry in providing fresh fruit and vegetables and specialty breads and wines amongst other grocery items, and creating an atmosphere that encouraged you to visit again.

Unfortunately, this story doesn’t end there. I believe that the Hill Street Grocer is a very positive business, and if you are ever in Hobart, I would recommend that you do visit the store, because you will see aspects of the business that can be applied to all manner of businesses – the attention to detail, the creation of an atmosphere, the presentation, a niche produce or service, consistently delivered.

But I had a disappointing experience after this. Looking around the store I realised I want to share this story on my blog and to my clients so I took a phone on my IPhone of the display.  I was approached by one of the management, who having seen me take the photo on my iPhone, asked me to stop taking any more photos. He did not ask why I took a photo or anything about it. If I was a competitor, they wouldn’t need to take the photo to understand the value of the business, but at the point I had taken the photo, I was going to be putting an extremely positive story on my blog, and whilst this post is a postiive story by and large, I don’t feel as positive towards Hill Street Grocer as I did, after being reprimanded about the photo.

To me, he neglected an opportunity to further encourage word-of-mouth marketing by allowing a photo of his store to be put on the web. By allowing the promotion of something unique that would surely, through word-of-mouth, deliver more customers.  his immediate reaction was that my taking of a photo was somehow a breach of his privacy and accordingly, without asking me why I took the photo, or what I was doing, or anything, recommended that I cease taking any more photos and delete the photo.

So I respect his request but I feel he has neglected an opportunity to develop further word-of-mouth marketing, I’m still somewhat impressed by his business, though I think he could learn more on how to engage with his customers in a way to promote further word-of-mouth.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you think that I shouldn’t have taken the photo? Or do you think, like me, that he neglected an opportunity of a way to engage further with his customers?

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

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