A few weeks back, I listened to a podcast that the host kicked off by saying that her guest was one of her favorite people, “I always love it when I see your name!”.
This made me think about all the people whose name makes me feel good, when I see or hear it.
I thought of my friend, Megan, whose fictional Google review of her experience at a hospital made me laugh so hard I almost spit out my tea.
I thought of seeing my BFF’s name in my Inbox with a subject line that is the day, like “Wednesday”, meaning this isn’t a mere forwarded email from J Crew but rather one of her lengthy dispositions on pandemic life in Texas.
Or when I see an incoming call, to the Maroon 5’s Sugar song, from Andrew.
I feel good when I think about these people.
I think that is what brands are supposed to do.
I’ll go out on a limb and suggest that the makers of Harley-Davidson bikes want us to think “tough”, Rolex watches, “personal success”, and Coca-Cola, “all-around fun times”.
On our launch of icing jars, we heard from a former PGB customer who has been in Nova Scotia for the last five years.
She asked if we’d consider shipping a cake mix and some icing to her.
She said that her kids loved Prairie Girl cupcakes when they lived in Toronto and even attached photos of her two adorable children eating mini cupcakes outside our store on Victoria Street. (like all children everywhere, they appear to be eating the icing first…).
When our customer took those pictures, her children were so happy on that beautiful summer day such that five years later, she emailed us to see about getting some icing.
No wonder we’re told as business owners to figure out the feelings we want to create in our customers. Once we do that – if we can- those feelings can last for years and survive a lockdown and a pandemic.
Logically speaking, when it comes to sustenance, I’m pretty sure we could all get by on some sort of shake containing the nutrients we require to live.
But thankfully we don’t, and foodservice businesses have an opportunity for their goods and services to do more than simply provide nutrition, to make us feel good when we think about them, like an old friend whose name we love to see.
