Would People Care If Your Brand Disappeared
Is your brand meaningful to people? The Meaningful Brand Index, conducted by Havas Media Group, is used to measure the benefit brands bring to people’s lives and ranks over 700 brands among 134,000 consumers in 23 countries using 12 “areas of well-being.” Each brand is ranked based on the effect it has on quality of life for consumers. This study revealed some interesting findings, two that struck me, 1) brands in the Meaningful Brands Index beat the stock market by 120% and 2) most people in the United States would not care if 92% of brands disappeared tomorrow.
*Related: How you can become the brand your Customers cannot live without
201B & the 5:30 haircut – All businesses battle with going on autopilot and, from time to time, becoming numb to their Customers’ conditions. While consulting with a large hospital, I found out that too often their nurses and doctors would refer to patients as “201B.” Saying something like “201B needs their medicine.” They were saying room 201, bed B, instead of the patient’s name. At John Robert’s Spa, we are guilty of doing something very similar. Our service providers can look at their next guest as a “5:30 haircut.” However, we have guests who ask their family members to purchase them a gift certificate to our spa for their birthday. After they get it, they request a day off from work, have it on their calendar, and are counting down the days until they can get away from work, relationships, kids, and all the other stresses in their lives. They look forward to coming into the one place where they can relax and be rejuvenated, so they can leave and continue giving to everyone in their world. I can’t have my service providers looking at their next Customer as their 5:30 or their third-to-last appointment of the day, before they can go out or home. I need them to be present with each and every guest.
The bounce – You can make price irrelevant, if you help your entire organization focus on what your Customers are buying. At John Robert’s Spa, they believe they get to give our guests the bounce in their step. JR team members are trained that they have one of the coolest jobs in the world. They have the unique privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to have their guests leave John Robert’s Spa feeling like they are a “10,” whatever their “10” is physically, emotionally, and psychologically. When a person feels their absolute best, in every way, they have higher self-esteem. As a result of higher self-esteem, they are more likely to get the job, sale, promotion, date, or whatever it is they are going after. There is a myth that people who are more successful end up with higher self-esteem. It is totally the opposite: people with higher self-esteem become more successful. That is why we have an obligation to be the best part of each and every guest’s day. When we do that, focus on that, they walk out with the bounce in their step, and we have just made price irrelevant.
