Marketing has some important evergreen principles. One principle is this: just because a brand-business is customer-focused does not mean that customers come first. Customers come second. Customer-focused employees come first.

Regardless of your industry, employees are the frontline when it comes to customer relationships. Internal brand-business pride is an essential success factor affecting brand-business outcomes.

Here is another brand-business truth: you cannot reinvent or reinforce your brand-business experience if your people are not proud and inspired to be part of that brand-business experience.

If you want your employees to love your brand-business, you have to love your employees. If you want your employees to be passionate about and proud to deliver a superior brand-business experience, you have to show employees that you are passionate and proud about what they do for the brand-business experience and who they are as dedicated employees.

Foundational marketing truths.

Too bad that it seems as if a few brand-business leaders have forgotten what it takes to lead. Currently, there are some unfortunate brand-business situations where employees are apparently not feeling the love.

The CEO of Wayfair, the online furniture and accessories brand-business, has seemingly trampled on these brand-business truths in a cringe-worthy manner. Wayfair’s exemplary list of core values seems to have just taken a gut-punch.

Wayfair institutionalized this element into its every day operations and internal marketing:
Galvanizing Team members to Create and Deliver the Promise and Desired Customer Experience

For galvanizing Wayfair team members, there are three key aligning elements:

1. Great People
2. Great Ideas
3. Great Ambition

According to Wayfair, these three elements anchor the Wayfair people principles which must deliver against these priorities:

• Relentless Customer Focus
• Deliver Results With Agility
• Use Good Judgement
• Build the Best Team
• Collaborate Effectively
• Respect Others
• Be an Owner
• Innovate & Improve

Sounds so good. Sounds so customer-focused-employee beneficial. And, yet, the force behind these words has been diminished by the brand-business’ behavior. About a month ago, Wayfair CEO, Niraj Shah, publicly chastised employees and told them “… to work harder.” He said, “Working long hours, being responsive, blending work and life, is not anything to shy away from. There is not a lot of history of laziness being rewarded.”

Not exactly inspirational. Who knows whether this was necessary to say. Certainly not publicly. But, in todays’ world, nothing is secret. So now we are all aware of the CEO’s sentiments.

Unfortunately, there was little time for this “work harder” edict to settle in, because just a bit later, Wayfair CEO Shah said that Wayfair will to lay off 13% of these potentially “harder working” employees (about 1650 people). This mass firing is because the brand-business must cut costs to boost financial results. Profit has sagged for almost 2 years.

Apparently, too many people were hired due to COVID-19. That “expansion” is not working in today’s marketplace. Wayfair has already undergone 3 rounds of layoffs since 2020. One might think that it is not the number of employees that is holding back the brand-business but something inherently wrong in the overall cost structure strategy.

Wayfair is just one of many brand-businesses that went “overboard” to deal with locked-down customers who spent money on home furnishings. Many brand-businesses are trimming employee ranks that grew due to Covid-19. And, many brand-businesses are letting go of redundant employees. So, it is not the layoffs per se. It is the seeming hypocrisy of CEO Shah’s announcement coming on the heels of the “you must work harder” dictum that rankles.

Mr. Shah’s reorganization or “strategic recalibration” (hyperbole for “you are fired”) announcement was a letter to the organization. The letter indicated that the brand-business had “veered away from its core principles.” Reading the above core principles, one might say that leadership has veered away from Wayfair’s core principles. Galvanizing people around the idea of working better to improve the brand-business and then reneging on that purpose seems to be veering away from the core principles.

At a meeting to discuss the layoffs, according to The Wall Street Journal, many employees questioned the tone and timing of the “work harder” memo. Employee were told that it would be everyone’s fault if Wayfair went into bankruptcy by the co-chairman of the Board who is also a co-founder of the brand-business. “If bankruptcy is inevitable then shame on all of us for not working harder.”

Google News and other business news outlets appear to be keeping this story alive. The more Wayfair is seen as treating employees poorly, the worse it becomes for the external image and trustworthiness of the brand-business.

Wayfair wants “faster-decision-making and committed small teams.” For this strategy to work, Wayfair must be more adept at handling the “internal friction” that it has created due to the mixed messages. Making employees feel as if the entire burden of success is one their shoulders is poor brand-business management.

To be fair, Wayfair is not alone when it comes to dampening trust among employees.

A recent opinion piece on Bloomberg.com describes the behavior to which Burger King crew members must adhere. The writer describes Burger King’s behavior as putting “the burden of turning around company culture on already taxed workers.” The writer references Burger King’s new policy that all employees must offer customers a carboard crown and tell customers “You rule.”

The writer indicates that Burger King “should focus on improving work conditions that might create authentically content (even happy) workers who are motivated to give diners genuinely good service.” Apparently, crew members are faced with offering cardboard crowns and “You Rule” compliments regardless of the customer. Burger King will send monitors to restaurants to ensure the policy is followed.

Crew members and customers are finding the irreverence is “undignified and unworthy of respect.” The article describes these supposed brand-business enhancing behaviors as “cheesy, feel-good antics.” Burger King believes the extra time needed to offer the crown and the “You rule” compliment will nurture customer satisfaction. The “extra two minutes generates engagement” with the brand-business. According to Business World, Burger King sees the priority as “patron feedback over order speed.” The underlying idea is to make the staff appear to be more friendly. McDonald’s tried this with its initiative around seven steps to a friendly smile. The upshot was that you cannot teach people to be friendly: you just need to hire friendly people.

Even though the Burger King jingle has become an ear-worm (you know, the ubiquitous “Whopper, Whopper, Whopper, Whopper….”), Burger King has “struggled” in its brand revitalization strategy called “Reclaim the Flame”. Two of Burger King’s biggest operators filed for bankruptcy. And, even an infusion of cash into the system has not completely helped the brand-business’s leaders right the ship.

Part of putting customer-focused employees first is making the brand-business a good place to work; a place where an employee can gain skills for a lifetime. This is bigger than income. It is also a career path where employees are valued. People need to know that the organization cares about them and their work. People need to feel valued.

Part of the problem probably rests with Burger King’s owner, Brazilian 3G Capital, that enforced zero-based budgeting. This system did not support brand-businesses such as its Kraft Heinz brand-businesses. Brand-business focused actions were considered costs to be avoided. Encouraging employees was probably seen as part of these costs.

The Bloomberg.com writer suggests that employers must recognize that there is both functional labor and emotional labor. Both Wayfair and Burger King seem to have forgotten that employees have to work both internally with each other and externally with customers. There are the functional tasks and the emotional/social deliverables. Creating situations that workers deem embarrassing and upsetting is not putting customer-focused employees first. You cannot create a “positive aura” if your people do not feel positive.

Inconsistency and demoralization erode internal trust. Lack of internal trust affects external communications with customers. Customer-focused employees are the frontline of every brand-business. Build employee pride.

Customer-focused employees play a powerful role in shaping brand-business perceptions. Proud employees’ communications and advocacy of the brand-business enhance internal and external perceptions. Data show that employee pride translates into higher job satisfaction. Higher job satisfaction contributes to customer brand-business satisfaction. Customer brand-business satisfaction generates brand-business value leading to enduring profitable growth.

A theme of recent business press writing is brand-business turnarounds. For example, Barron’s, the financial newspaper, points to the successful turnaround at clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch. The Wall Street Journal reports on the underway turnaround at VF’s Vans, the sneaker brand-business.

Brand-business turnaround strategies are not the same as conventional growth strategies. A conventional growth strategy is not appropriate for a brand in urgent need of a turnaround. A growth strategy is very different than a survival and revival strategy. A conventional growth strategy is for a brand that is on a sustainable upswing. Growth is a longer term outlook.

A conventional growth strategy is for going forward, full speed ahead. It is designed to accelerate quality revenue growth.

The principle components of a conventional growth plan are to:

• Broaden the brand appeal to build a bigger customer base.
• Focus on changing people’s attitudes to change their behavior – you have time to spend on slowly changing the way people think in order to make them use the brand.
  Expand and extend the franchise:
  1. Increase availability
  2. Expand to new geographies
  3. More customers (new customers, new segments of people)
  4. More occasions (new occasions)
  5. Extend the brand offers – new products that appeal to new customers and/or satisfy new occasions

Implementing a conventional growth strategy for a brand that is in need of a turnaround will only accelerate brand decline.

A turnaround plan is a business approach for a business that is going in the wrong direction at an accelerating pace. According to Barron’s, Abercrombie & Fitch has successfully navigated a turnaround. Vans is in the turnaround process. Both brand-businesses employed turnaround strategies.

A turnaround plan – survival and revival – is a short-term strategy. The brand-business is at a tipping point: if there is no short-term achievement, there will be no long-term. The turnaround approach has specific actions designed to achieve the specific short-term objectives. The turnaround plan has a specific timeline.

Abercrombie & Fitch was in trouble. Its CEO told reporters, “The brand health was declining tremendously. The business was double-digit down. It was going to be a true opportunity to brand build and bring it back. I just felt they were two iconic brands that deserved to live again.”

The first step in a brand-business turnaround is to stop the bleeding. But, there are two types of bleeding that must be stopped. One is financial. The other is the bleeding of the customer base.

Financially, to stop the bleeding, the goal is to restore positive cash flow, usually by reducing capital expenditures. Abercrombie & Fitch was lucky. The brand-business was able to close stores, open smaller stores and lower its inventories. Aiding the financial situation, Abercrombie & Fitch took advantage of reduced inflation. Wall Street and analysts are pleased with the way in which the brand-business has stopped the financial bleeding.

Vans is stopping the financial bleeding, too. Vans is planning to cut $300 million in costs primarily by eliminating 500 jobs globally. Vans plans to focus on plowing some of the savings back into innovation.

To stop the bleeding of the customer base, a brand-business must:

• Stop the decline in average frequency
• Focus on reinforcing the brand with the core customers
• Focus on increasing frequency and loyalty, not on brand expansion
• Build on brand strengths
• Defend the core enduring brand truths
• Focus on immediate behavior change
• Shore up the existing business now instead of making a risky bets on the future

Abercrombie & Fitch recognized that its brand-business needed to evolve. The teen-based, hyper-cool, shirtless male chest imagery, “beachy” vibe was not working out. Teens are notoriously fashion fickle. As one letter to Barron’s stated, the younger demographic tends to be more “unpredictable” when it comes fashion. Focusing on a more “mature audience” that is also more “affluent” makes sense.

(it appears as if Gucci is adopting this more mature, more affluent targeting, leaving the “baroque, jewel-toned colors” that enticed younger customers. As written in The Wall Street Journal, Gucci has lost status and sales and is undergoing a “transformation.” To address its place relative to its luxury competitors, Gucci, “… while it continues to court younger buyers with ornate pieces, the brand is also trying to better reach other clients who want to buy clothes or accessories that are more timeless.”)

Abercrombie & Fitch did not abandon its core customer base: the brand-business evolved to meet that core customer base where it lives, that is, with more savvy adult clothing. As the teen audience aged, they aged out of Abercrombie & Fitch. To satisfy the needs of its now-older customer, Abercrombie & Fitch’s CEO told Barron’s, “We’ve evolved the purpose and promise of each of our brands.” But, just because the target audience is now slightly older – 20 to 40 years old, Abercrombie & Fitch is still seeking to be “cool.” Abercrombie & Fitch’s CEO indicates that the goal is to have a “more inclusive and modern identity.” This seems to be working.

Knowing the core customer is critical. According to online reporting, Abercrombie & Fitch’s former audience is looking for “affordable, quality and stylish” apparel. For women, dresses have been extremely successful, not just for the customer but for the image of the brand-business.

Abercrombie & Fitch’s women’s sales have grown almost 40% in the last three years globally and almost 60% in the US.

Abercrombie & Fitch is not shooting itself in the foot, however: the younger teen crowd is being “funneled” to Hollister, the company’s “teen-centric” brand. Younger audiences are too young to remember the what previously defined the Abercrombie & Fitch brand-business image. And, today’s teens seem to be accepting of where Abercrombie & Fitch has taken the brand-business. Importantly, Abercrombie & Fitch has now created a portfolio that allows younger teen buyers to seamlessly segue to the Abercrombie & Fitch brand-business as they age.

Vans has a similar problem. It has lost its “outsider mindset” that defined the skater brand-business’ target audience – and the internal culture of the organization. The cult-like Vans became more mainstream. The brand-business lost its mojo. Innovation came to a halt. Vans became comfortable riding on its previous momentum. Vans lived off of its successful, five “classic” styles. Furthermore, those five shoe styles are still made for skaters. Non-skater customers want a difference shoe feel. The Wall Street Journal reports that Vans fell into complacency. The past success of the skater shoe created a sense of risk aversion.

Organizational alignment between the VF center and Vans created bottlenecks and loss of resources and relevance. VF created a centralized organization. Instead of following the rule that the center provides leadership, the regions provide management, VF brought all meaningful responsibility and accountability into the center.

Under its new CEO, VF is changing the way in which the organization works. A goal is to re-instill internal excitement and commitment to the brand-business. At the same time, there is a focus on relevancy via innovation and renovation. Some of these innovations and renovations show up in Vans’ collaborations.

For example, Vans has produced a second shoe with pro skater Rowan Zorilla. The Rowan 2 has “… underfoot improvements and an upper with an appearance that’s more distinctly its own,” according to Footwear News online. The shoe has “ImpactWaffle tech” and other improvements that offer more whole-foot protection. Other innovations use Van’s “SickStick rubber for better protection and board feel and bringing an element of sustainability.”

Vans has also produced a shoe with BMX biker Parker Heath. Parker Heath is also an artist. The new shoe features Mr. Heath’s designs. Online Sourcing Journal reporting indicates that this new BMX shoe “… is part of a BMX-specific slip-on collection designed by BMX rider Dennis Enarson.” For example, the shoe has a waffle bottom “… designed to give BMX riders a better pedal grip.”

In a turnaround situation, the first goal is not to change the minds of the general population. It is first about stopping the bleeding of the customer base. Both Abercrombie & Fitch and Vans know this about a turnaround: the main core business must be protected and cultivated. But, this focus may need to alter to reflect relevant attitude and behavior changes. Devote all of our energies to the core. It is the core that will finance the turnaround profitability and provide the platform for the future. Focus on current customer retention and increasing current customer frequency. Core customers already know what is great about the brand-business.

There were brand-businesses that did not survive in 2023. Bed, Bath & Beyond, Rite Aid, SmileDirectClub, Lordstown Motors to name a few. There are several reasons for the demise of these brand-businesses. However, there are evergreen principles for building and maintaining powerful brand-businesses. Here are seven solutions for surviving in a changing world. Many of today’s successful brand-businesses implemented these strategies in the past years.

• Know Your Market

Sounds simple. But, many brand-businesses do not define their market properly. A market is a specific group of people who share a specific want (need, problem) in a common context. Product categories, channels and price categories are not market segments. There is no such thing as a granola bar market. There is a market for portable, quick, energy-dense easy-to-eat nutrition. There is no such thing as an upper upscale market even though hotel and auto brand-businesses use this nomenclature.

Know your customers as if they were your best friends; your closest relatives. Know as much as possible about your market in order to understand just how your brand-business will satisfy in a relevant differentiated manner.

Claire’s, the “fun fashion destination for jewelry, cosmetics, accessories and ear piercing” is a fabulous example of a brand-business that knows its customers. Claire’s market is tweens, teens and young women who are “…fearless, authentic and wildly creative in the ways they show up, and our brand is a platform that creates space for them to express all sides of themselves.” 

• Use Needs-Based Occasion-Driven market segmentation.

How does a brand-business learn about its market? Conduct needs-based occasion-driven market segmentation. Needs-based occasion-driven market segmentation creates a customer-driven map of the category divided into a) what are the needs? b) who has the needs? and c) in what occasion do these needs exist? Who x why x context.

Segmentation identifies a brand-business’ customers providing competitive advantage. Segmentation provides a strategic focus that is essential for effective marketing. Segmentation provides direction for identifying market priorities driving the brand-business strategies.

AB InBev, maker of one out of four beers sold worldwide, uses market segmentation to its advantage. AB InBev stated that insights from its needs-based occasion-driven segmentation have already changed the marketing for its brands. AB InBev recognizes that satisfying customer needs and problems while understanding the specific occasions in which these occur is the key differentiator between marketing and selling. Selling is convincing customers to buy what you know how to make. Marketing is about profitably providing what specific customers need or might need or might solve their problems in specific occasions. Superior understanding of customer needs and occasions provides the basis for outstanding competitive advantage.

• Satisfy contradictory needs.

We continue to learn that people do not like to compromise. Customers do not want either/or solutions. Customers expect brand-businesses to optimize conflicting needs. Single-minded solutions are not as powerful or appealing. Brand-businesses are promises of complex, multi-dimensional, multi-faceted, relevantly differentiated experiences. Brand-businesses should focus on delivering the benefits of contrary needs. The best trade-off is no trade-off. A trade-off means losing something of value.

Barnes & Noble is a rejuvenated brand-business. One of its critical strategies has been the optimization of two contradictory needs: the maximization of an independent, local bookstore experience with the depth and breadth of a mass marketing bookstore.

• Create a Brand-Value Strategy.

Brand-businesses must create a brand-value strategy. This is not a calendar. A calendar prioritizes tactics. Tactics are how you implement a strategy. A brand-value strategy is a plan. It is a plan to create trustworthy brand-business value.

A brand-business value strategy affects R&D, not just marketing. Brand-businesses must engineer value into products and services. 

One goal of a brand-business-value strategy is “amazing value.” Amazing value is not offering a lot for the money. This is brand-business-value tonnage.  Amazing quality is a great brand-business at a great price. A great brand-business with a price that will entice. Staggering value is unique, high quality at a price that amazes the customer.

Whole Foods’ 365 brand-business is a stellar example of implementation of a brand-business value strategy. Whole Foods 365 changed customer perceptions by remaking 365 into an affordable  high quality brand choice across multiple categories. 

• Respect and reflect the brand-business’ provenance.

A brand-business’s provenance – whether historical or newly formed – acts as a constant. The brand-business’s provenance is a force for understanding and appreciating a brand-business’s past while helping to engage in the present. A brand-business’ provenance lays a relevantly, differentiated trustworthy foundation for the future. 

A brand-business’s provenance is its consistent and motivating theme. A brand-business’s provenance is not about preserving a past; it is about preserving the best of the past for the present and future.

The power of a brand-business’ provenance is significant, especially in an uncertain world.

When times are uncertain, customers seek trusted sources. This drives the need for provenance. A brand-business is more than a trademark; it is a trust mark. A trusted brand -business influences customer consideration and preference while increasing willingness to invest by all stakeholders. It is a hedge against uncertainty. 

Elizabeth Arden is using its provenance in beauty to reignite and reintroduce its brand to younger generations. Elizabeth Arden’s global General Manager stated “We drill down on the history of the brand, and it manifests itself in the creative. We have this rich legacy, but I would argue there’s a lot of modernity in who we are and what we do, and we’re very focused on science.”

• Have a relevantly, differentiated brand-business promise.

A brand-business promise describes its expected relevant, differentiated, trustworthy experience. A brand-business promise is something that a brand-business continuously strives to achieve. A brand-business promise is a future-focused description as it states what the brand will do for its customers. Regardless of industry or category, a brand-business must have a brand promise. Otherwise, it is a commodity.

Art Basel is focusing on becoming a powerful global brand. Art Basel has articulated elements of a distinct, compelling brand-business promise. Extrapolating from discussion in the press, Art Basel sees this: For people who desire community engagement and are excited by our changing cultural world; Who seek a broader cultural perspective or who want to share their art to intrigue others; Creative, festive, innovative Art Basel offers people an opportunity to engage with local creators, learn what is happening culturally, participate in events, and purchase art. Art Basel will do this because it offers trophy-level art, varied cultural experiences and community level engagement.

Brand-business building is not just about advertising. Brand-business building is not just about message management or device management or digital management. Brand-business building is about promising to profitably deliver an expected relevant, differentiated, trustworthy experience to a specific audience. 

• Adapt to the changing world.

Disregard for the changing world is marketing mismanagement. Disregard for the changing world is mismanagement in how a brand-business treats its customers. People change. Behaviors and attitudes change. Staying the same in a changing world signals to customers that the brand-business no longer cares about who they are and how they feel.

With changing perceptions and medical innovations, the world of weight loss is rapidly altering. In order to remain a powerful brand-business in an altered landscape, Weight Watchers International has reimagined its purpose.

Instead of relying on its points system, its workshops and weigh-ins, WWI is now offering access with advice to the science of weight-loss drugs. Previously, WWI described drugs as the easy way out. WWI’s approach focused on will power and changed behaviors. No longer. WWI has admitted publicly that it made mistakes. WWI is now ready to change how it delivers weight-loss to customers.

Losing touch with a changing world is a disaster for brand-businesses. Losing touch with customers and their changing wants and problems will mean the brand-business is not up to speed. Not innovating or renovating means a brand-business is not thinking about the present or thinking about the possibilities for tomorrow.

Brand-businesses should resolve to use these seven strategic solutions in 2024. There is no indication that 2024 will be a less challenging environment than 2023. Instead of always seeking the latest blue-sea idea, it is important to focus on and implement evergreen strategies that have been proven over time to help generate enduring profitable growth.

In 2017, pre-pandemic, Starbucks founder and Chairman, Howard Schultz, said that the way forward for brand-businesses is making your branded space an “experiential destination.” The Starbucks CEO, Kevin Johnson said, “To survive, merchants need to create unique and immersive in-store experiences.”

Today, after several years of lock-downs, people are shopping outside of their homes. People desire something other than the four walls at which they were staring for three years. Providing a spatial and sensory shopper environment is now an incredibly strong driver among retail brand-business owners.

It is all about Place. 

Employees, product, service, price and promotion all have an effect on the successful delivery of the brand-business experience. And, so does place. In fact, when it comes to delivering a relevant, differentiated total brand experience, place is becoming increasingly critical. 

Place is the face of your brand. 

Place is multidimensional. Depending on the brand-business, place can be a website, a restaurant, an office, the waiting room, the hotel room, the customer’s office, a tablet, a mobile phone, a showroom, shelf space, buses, vans and trucks.  It can be a drop-down menu, an app on a mobile phone, or a watch. Place can be a virtual chat room, an online community or an airline club. Place can be the customer’s home place, as it is for products such as invisible dog fencing. Or, as it used to be for Avon door-to-door beauty products or Tupperware parties.

No matter where or what place is best for your brand-business, that place must attract and not detract from the brand-business. The brand-business interface must be kept in good repair and kept up-to-date with the forces that shape the world. “Nothing happens until it happens at retail” wherever that occurs. Retail is the moment of truth. Place is the most powerful, most intimate, most credible brand-business message. 

This is why, designing place is becoming a more experimental and experiential brand-business essential.

The focus on the total brand experience as a physically and emotionally “immersive” destination is not a new concept. But, it is a concept that has new traction as we navigate a virtual, digital, post-pandemic environment. 

In 1998, B. Joseph Pine and James H. Gilmore wrote a pivotal, highly influential article for Harvard Business Review titled, “Welcome to the Experience Economy.” The authors stated that experiences are distinctly different from products and services. Increasingly, brand-businesses are “explicitly designing and promoting” engaging experiences, and charging for these experiences. An experience happens when a brand-business “… uses services as the stage and goods as props… creating a memorable event.”

Retail establishments are making huge investments in changing the physical spaces where customers interact and, hopefully, bond, with their brand-businesses. Department stores, such as Macy’s and Nordstrom, are betting on smaller spaces. Fast fashion establishments, such as Zara and H&M, are betting on larger establishments. In both instances, the desire is to create a more powerful, more compelling, more affinity-creating brand-business experience.

Last year, Macy’s decided that smaller stores, based closer to where its customers’ live, is a more attractive and compelling – as well as profitable – format. According to The Wall Street Journal, Macy’s decision to create smaller format stores with fewer items and more digital services reflects a customer base that is increasingly suburban and prone to more frequent grocery shopping and in-store pick-up of pre-ordered items.

Macy’s smaller format stores take into account many pandemic-changed attitudes and behaviors, such as digital purchasing, purchasing without touching or trying-on and fewer human contacts. Macy’s smaller stores offer a more frequently updated product array of both staples and “trendy” items. Macy’s smaller stores also serve as pick-up and return venues that allow returns from online shopping or purchases made at other stores.

Macy’s also discovered that its smaller stores benefit employees, also, as these smaller stores are easier “to stock and staff.” Data show that small size formats “…allow for elevated customer service.”

Nordstrom has also opted for smaller-format stores that offer a multitude of non-shopping services. Aside from offering pick-up and return services, Nordstrom’s smaller stores provide clothing alterations and salon-type offerings such as “stylist appointments.” In this way, Nordstrom’s can more visually emphasize its core benefit of personalized service.

On the flip side, are fast fashion brand-businesses such as Zara and H&M. Zara and H&M are betting on a larger space offering all sorts of features such as beauty salons, repair, coffee shops (like Starbucks inside of Barnes & Noble) and digital offerings including the ability to virtually explore the store. Data show that these larger formats tend to increase the duration of the shopping trip.

Research on duration of shopping and duration of shopping implications for brand-businesses indicates that length of visit has an initial higher purchase ticket, but over time, length of visit leads to a smaller purchase ticket. The research posits that, perhaps, we are just too quickly and easily bored. After a while, the new is mundane. To be fair, the research does indicate the brand-business’ experience can become stickier even when the customer is purchasing less. Affinity may grow while purchases are smaller.

By offering a world of side services, Zara and H&M hope to make their places destinations, in the way that the original Nike stores were destinations. 

Zara’s executives believe the larger, roomier stores are more personal because these spaces eliminate the sense of “crowd.” And, the larger spaces can house small boutiques that feature “individual” collections – just the way department stores operate or used to operate.

H&M’s executives believe the larger format allows customers to become “inspired” and engaged with the H&M total brand experience.

As department stores become smaller and fast fashion stores become larger, it seems as if the two forms of retail are just exchanging formats looking for a new dimensional way of delivering brand-business’ expression. Department stores are downsizing while fast fashion stores are upsizing. Place is increasingly becoming a very fluid concept.

In a Plan to Win, after articulating the brand-business’ Purpose and Promise, the next step is to describe the 5 Action P’s: People, Product, Place, Price and Promotion. Then, state the way in which the brand-business will manage Performance. The Five Action Ps of the Plan to Win define what the brand-business will do for its customers. In other words, the 5 Action P’s define the total brand experience the brand-business wants to deliver. The Five Action Ps are the brand-business’ essential, common, must-do-now list. 

Regardless of offerings, Place, as an action P, is undergoing massive restructuring in a world where anyplace or any-space, can be a brand-business Place. 

Many brands create spaces that become destinations where the customer can be immersed in the core essence of the brand-business experience. REI in Seattle opened in 1996 with its REI Rock Climbing Pinnacle, a 5’9” wall (the third largest indoor rock climbing structure in the world, apparently). Before it closed due to safety threats and thefts, Portland, Oregon’s Nike Town was a great Nike experience. Dave & Buster’s and Chuck E. Cheese are restaurants that are entertainment destinations with food.

Hopefully, the emphasis on place does not happen at the expense of people, product (service) price and promotion. Hopefully, purpose and promise are not negatively affected. And, hopefully, performance measurement shows improved performance. All the 8 P’s are essential for generating more customers who frequent the brand-business more often, who are more loyal and more profitable. Each P must reinforce each other P.

Department stores and fast fashion stores may be experimenting with each other’s’ layouts, where size seems to matter. But, the reality is that whatever changes are made, whatever size matters, Place must still represent the face of the brand-business’ core promise. Becoming a destination only works if the place creates a space where the customer can develop affinity, love and trust with the brand-business.

We live in an uncertain world. We have become more skeptical and distrusting. Our environment seems unsettled, unpredictable and unstable. And, then, to magnify these feelings, we experienced Covid-19.

During the coronavirus pandemic, many behaviors and attitudes changed. Our desires for satisfaction of contradictory needs and wants grew stronger. We simply do not want to compromise. We are no longer willing to trade off. It seems as contradictions rule.

Brand-businesses that were strategically and culturally flexible – able to address our contradictory needs and wants – emerged successful from the siege of coronavirus. Managing paradoxes is now an essential strategic characteristic for brand-businesses in their quest for high quality revenue growth. The fast food industry has been particularly successful at managing in our post-pandemic paradox planet.

One of the most visible and game-changing paradoxes that brand-businesses face is the idea of Alone and Together. Or, as some brand-businesses call this, Connection and Disconnection. The Economist magazine calls this paradox the Hermit Consumer. The hermit consumer is someone who no longer has the stomach for services, as services involve directly dealing with other people. 

Interestingly, certain behaviors honed during lockdowns have endured. of The Economist’s observations. Increasingly, people eschew “up-close-and-personal services.” People work at least one day from home. People changed their attitudes about being social, opting for more solitary pursuits. The Economist concludes that, in general, Covid-19 pulled people apart.

The Economist’s data support a world of reduced in-person socialization. People changed their attitudes about being social, opting instead for more solitary pursuits. Or as another observer wrote, people emerged from the pandemic with less tolerance for interacting with strangers. As one consumer told a reporter, “I lean on that feeling of not wanting much interaction. Working from home for three years really zapped my social skills.” 

But, at the same time, belonging still remains a strong human need. We just do “belonging” differently than we did pre-coronavirus. Managing the intersection of connection and disconnection is now a signal of brand-business leadership expertise and intelligence.

No industry has mastered the art of connection and disconnection better than the fast food industry.  The New York Times heralds this force as the age of the drive-thru. The drive-thru allows for anonymity while someone at the window is focuses only you. Apparently, anything more personal, such as employees walking through the drive-thru lines taking orders is way too much “interaction” for some people. One customer told The New York Times, “I got out of the habit (of being social). I think I’m like a lot of people who just don’t necessarily like being social that much anymore.” Another customer responded, “I do the drive-thru so I can be antisocial.” 

Here is how some fast food brand-businesses are managing the contradiction:

• Chick-fil-A is planning a two-story four lane drive-thru that will be able to manage 75 cars at a time.

• Taco Bell opened a store with no dining room and a kitchen on the second floor. On the ground floor, there are four drive-thru lanes. Three lanes are dedicated to delivery drivers and customer app-order pick-ups. The fourth lane is for drive-ins. 

• McDonald’s states that currently 40% of sales are from digital orders. McDonald’s recently opened a store in Dallas, TX, that has no dining room. 

• Shake Shack just opened a drive-thru option.

• Popeye’s is cutting the size of its dining areas. 

• Starbucks is expanding drive-thru lanes forsaking its original proposition as our “fourth place.” It seems that sitting in the café is not as appealing (too social?) as driving away with an order to take someplace else.

But, this new love of the drive-thru is drive-thru with a twist. Yes, consumers – mainly younger generations – prefer the drive-thru. But, just because they prefer being alone in their car does not mean they are alone. Posting the solitary experience on social media has become de rigeur. 

Socializing the solitary is the new DTC. Previously, in marketing, DTC meant direct-to-consumer. Now, there is a subtle change: DTC means drive-thru-culture. And, drive-thru culture optimizes both feeling connected while being disconnected. The president of Taco Bell told The New York Times that Gen Z customers have made the drive-thru cool. Posting on TikTok while placing an order is now a usual occurrence.

One example of how belonging has changed is the video from a YouTube star. He and his pals visited drive-thru lanes of 100 different restaurant brands over the course of three days. The New York Times reported that the 23-minute video of this DTC garnered almost 10 millions views.

There is another dimension to the alone-together syndrome: safety. People felt unsafe during lockdowns and post-lockdowns. Drive throughs are safe. In the movie Apocalypse Now, when Frederic Forrest’s character, Chef, comes fac-to-face with a tiger in the Vietnamese jungle while picking mangoes, his fearful answer is, Never get off the boat.” Today’s mantra is “Never get out of the car.” One university student stated that she visits drive-thrus at last 8 times a week and posts her interactions on TikTok. She thinks that there is something about the car that makes her not want to get out of her car.

It is not just the drive-thru, though. Apparently kiosks are also favored by Millennial and Gen Z customers. According to QSR Web, 67% of Gen Z customers prefer kiosks to interacting with a crew member at a fast food store. Fifty-eight percent (58%) of Millennials agreed. Other data from Catering Insight shows that more than 60% of Millennials and nearly 80% of Gen Zers found using a kiosk easier to manage than reading a menu board.

For Gen X customers, a kiosk makes creating a custom order easy; a kiosk reduces ordering pressure; providing more time for browsing the menu; was easier to navigate and allowed the customer to track the order on the screen. And, you do not need to deal with crew members.

We accumulate masses of digital friends while we marginalize in-person interactions. Social media has been the leader in optimizing individualization and interconnectedness. Now, technology is allowing restaurants to challenge that leadership. Kiosks and drive-thrus are masters of the alone-together paradox. Take-out the food by yourself and spread the experience to the world.

The New York Times finds DTC as supported by the automobile. But, as kiosks show, there are ways to deliver alone but connected that do not necessarily need a car. Cars do isolate us but so do other technologies that help us avoid personal interaction. And, the web’s social media platforms deliver belonging, even if belonging is online only and not in real life.

The fast food industry has jumped on the band wagon of satisfying the need to be disconnected and connected at the same time. The desire to be anonymous while belonging to a digital world of recognition is a growing need. The ability to optimize these contradictory needs is changing the world of fast food. What industry will be next?