RESTAURANT PERSPECTIVES - Tom Kelley and Concept Branding Group

Giving back to the industry in challenging times -- our proactive approach

Concept Branding Group has several initiatives to assist our colleagues facing challenging times.   We would look forward to talking with you should we be able to assist and add value:

1) www.restaurantTuneUp.com RESTAURANT TUNE UP -  a value priced service to assist operators tune up or turn around their restaurants.

2) Partial pro bono organizational consulting for industry trade groups  -  offering revenue development, marketing and brand assistance to trade associations at substantially reduced pricing as a show of support for OUR industry.

3)  Creating alliances  - working with industry groups to form win-win alliances leading to greater profile and greater program effectiveness.

We look forward to hearing from you.   Please contact any of us directly at:

Steve Ravinski, Senior Consultant, So. New England: EMAIL STEVE steveravinski@conceptbrandinggroup.com
Denis Sparagis, Regional Director: EMAIL DENIS denissparagis@conceptbrandinggroup.com
Tom Kelley, Managing Partner: EMAIL TOM tomkelley@conceptbrandinggroup.com

Hotel Guests Throw in the Towel on the Environment - From Scientific American

A good read:   Scientific American- Hotel Guests Throw in the Towel on the Environment

August 25, 2008 in Mind & Brain

Hotel Guests Throw in the Towel on the Environment

When it comes to using towels in hotels, it's herd mentality, not eco-principles, that leads patrons on a greener path. Christie Nicholson reports

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[Below is the original script. But a few changes may have been made during the recording of this audio podcast.]

 

When you last stayed in a hotel room, did you have the towels replaced after every shower?
 
Your behavior may have been influenced by the message the hotel used to explain how having to wash more towels harms the environment.
 
  A study to be published in the October Journal of Consumer Research found messages highlighting environmental impact are not as successful as those focusing on the actions of fellow guests.
 
They studied the effects of alternate cards placed in hotel rooms. Some guests saw those that read, "Help Save the Environment," others, "Join Your Fellow Guests in Helping to Save the Environment."
 
  It was the latter, implying other guests were cooperating, that led to an increase in reusing towels—from 35 to 44 percent.
 
Researchers were able to further boost participation with a more specific message: Seventy-five percent of guests in this room reused their towels.
 
The authors note: more than three quarters of Americans consider themselves environmentalists, but the effective message reminded individuals to how the majority behaves, regardless of principles.

 

At least this is progress—remember when hotels were only concerned with preventing guests from stealing towels?

 

 

 

- Christie Nicholson

© 1996-2008 Scientific American Inc. All Rights Reserved

We're Glad You're Here - a piece of hospitality history from one of the best operators - a tribute to Mike!

Hurst exults: 'We're glad you're here!'

Nation's Restaurant News, Oct 22, 1990 by Milford Prewitt

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Hurst exults: `We're glad you're here'

Mike Hurst drew attention to himself the old-fashioned way. He disrobed in public.

At the outset of his speech at MUFSO, the president of the National Restaurant Association took off his tie, suit coat, suspenders and shirt.

But he stopped at his T-shirt, which bore the slogan, "We're glad you're here." The disrobing was a crafty way to wake up a morning audience with a highly energetic address that pushed the importance of service and humans over profits and costs.

"The national priority of our business should be customer focus," Hurst said. "We have to stop learning to process people and instead learn to serve them. Hospitality is the gift of friendship, and it has to begin with the people we hire.

  "We have to manage for people, not profit. We have to manage, not from the back door, but from the front door."

Getting through the dog days of summer

Even at summer resort towns, we are hearing about much slower volume at the nation's restaurants.  We see it in Boston and even more so here from our Washington, DC vantage point.   Over the next several days, we'll post some advice we've provided to our clients that might be helpful to operators trying to get through the dog days of summer.

First is about authenticity.   Hope it helps!

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Branding: Authenticity is key to long-term success
-Tom Kelley and Rick Wolf, Concept Group USA

We hear story after story about companies and organizations trying to reinvent themselves or wondering
why they have lost market share or stakeholder support. Often times they are so close to
the root challenge that they overlook it and try to advertise or promote their way out of
slumping sales. A better approach: look deep to examine and refine your true brand
essence and never loose sight of the essential emotional connection your brand must
make to each guest, customer or stakeholder.

Over the years we have accepted the challenge of assessing and developing strategies to
both launch and expand market share for operators and their suppliers in a multitude of
industries. There’s always been a common thread: be true to what made your brand
great and never loose sight of what makes you, your product, and your service authentic
and unique.

Often times, when business goes south, the immediate reaction is either to slash proactive
marketing expenditures or to try to advertise to regain market share. Neither works.
What does work is having all principals and operations folks look back to what drove
business when expansion was taking place. What products built the company? What
did the brand stand for? How was it conceived? What made guests and customers come
back?

With increased competition comes a desire or tendency to “act like the Jones’s,” rather
than keeping the focus on a unique and authentic brand story. Long-term success, we
have found and suggest, is found in remaining steadfast in delivery of a product that is
beyond anyone’s duplication. Good managers, in any type of business or organization,
will realize the need, every couple of years, to take an objective and impartial view of
what message their brand is sending – both by operational execution as well as through
visual merchandising in all form of external outreach.

Our advice to operators in today’s ultra-competitive environment: examine and refine
your core brand. You may too close to daily operations to see how your original focus
has morphed into something that is truly “not you.” Don’t be afraid to call in expert
help to look at all that you are doing, internally and externally, to see if you are truly
showcasing your authentic core message. Whatever you do, don’t wait until it’s too late
or spend thousands on unfocused advertising dollars.

When you stand back and get assistance in taking a hard look at what truly put you on the
map to begin with, you’ll realize that same core brand message and product can take you
to new heights as well. Just realize that as you examine your brand and your operations,
you need to always seek to build emotional connections with your guests, customers and
stakeholders.

Great brands aren’t reinvented, just are continually improved and reinforced. When’s
the last time you really took a hard look at how true your operations are to your brand
promise?  Now would be a good time!
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Tom Kelley is Managing Partner and Rick Wolf is an Allied Partner at Concept Group USA (www.conceptgroupusa.com), a strategic brand consulting firm in Washington, DC, New England and Canada. The firm specializes in examining, refining and expanding brands and operations for small and large businesses, trade associations, and non profit organizations.