Wait til I tell you what happened at the diner! I went to have breakfast with my caffeine-deprived adult son. We went to the kitschy 50’s diner we usually go to– painted with the perfect mid-century palette, old posters, and nick-nacky collectibles. Before arriving, my son had stopped at a national coffee chain for an extra large dose of joe. We sat down at a booth, but before we even had a chance to open our menus, the manager swooped in with one of the diner’s very kitschy coffee mugs, popped the lid off the my son’s coffee cup, poured the brew into the mug and then walked away with the take-out cup.
My son was left a bit stunned. I started laughing at this swift manuever. On the way home we finally had the opportunity to think about what had happened and realized it was a fabulous example of defending their brand. Their brand, and their reputation, is embedded in every inch of their decor and in every nifty-50’s plate and mug they use for service. Any cup from outside challenges their brand. Take-out containers challenge the diner’s brand with competing logos, and may lead other customers to wonder if the food is so bad at the diner that you have to supplement it from the outside. With such strong implications, my son is lucky they didn’t eject him onto his sweet spiky head!
If you let someone weaken your brand message or down-right trample your brand, you may not have a brand at all! It doesn’t mean that you’ll have to engage in a cat-fight or drawn out litigation, a simple swift manuever is a great defense ploy. We recommend that you pay attention so you’ll recognize the opportunity to swoop in to defend your brand. It’s savvy business strategy to learn and to practice defense with grace and ease.
