When the World Zigs, Zag
The Power of Brand Distinctiveness In The Face of Ultimate Disruption
There are two versions of us all. Version One ’The Rational One’ who navigates purely by the facts rigorously eliminating risk for self-preservation. Yes, there is implicit costs and sacrifices in our decision making but the information is black and white. Figures don’t lie. Then there is Version Two, ‘The Impulsive One’ who responds to the situation, well…impulsively. “SAT NAV” well and truly set to a “gut feeling” on route to turning experience into memory in the wake of the evolutionary pull towards…oooooooh a shiny thing. The decision appears reckless, throwing caution, and glitter, to the wind as behaviour seems responsive and intuitive.
As a restaurant, bar, retailers or hotel in the face of the coronavirus pandemic which version of yourself do you want to be?
Version One right? The Sensible One. Self-preservation is everything. Tighten that belt of yours, do them projections, fire the dead weight, batten down the hatches, make every cut you can while waiting for this all to blow over. Keep the brand and business ticking over. We can’t get emotional about this all. Facts are fact.
WRONG! Yes, self-preservation is everything. But the Sensible Version is not, nor will ever be, the one who will secure that for you. It’s time to get impulsive. Why? Because your and your customers’ decisions are never made rationally -it’s always the impulsive mindset with their hand firmly on the wheel. Those quick on their feet in this situation, agile, ready to adapt and make things accessible to the new way of life will win.
As Jonathan Haidt, author of The Righteous Mind, the rational mind: “thinks i’s the Oval Office when actually it’s the press office.” In what seems a pretty black and white situation look beyond even the grey - you need to be slinging bright and bursting technicolour.
Now more than ever you need to be taking risks. In the words of Sir John Hegarty (Founder of BHH) when the world zigs you need to zag. It’s fecking zagging hard at the moment! Pivot your business models to that which will make you stand out, be remembered and ultimately survive. You’d be a fool to think that this pandemic won’t change hospitality forever. (Forget future restaurant design plans where cramming in the covers was THE financial objective.)
So, start adapting now. We don’t know what the future holds but you must be prepared to transform into whatever iteration of your business and the brand it demands.
A Rory Sutherland metaphor helps explain…the kicker has just punted the ball, it’s flying, arcing in the air in your direction - your eye sees it coming and you respond almost automatically running and positioning your arms and body to make the catch. It falls effortlessly in your grasp. By evolution, we have developed responsive muscle memory that can track flying objects and catch them. If you responded to that hurtling ball with the rational mind, you’d start trying to work out velocity, trajectory, wind resistance - you simply don’t have that cognitive ability or agility to meet the needs of the situation.
See this pandemic as a very fast, very tricky ball and you need to make this catch - so listen to the emotive cues from your business and your customers rather than trying to do the math. As opposed to spending time thinking rationally about getting it right. As the ball will fly past you, straight into the hands of a more agile competitor.
If you missed that ball? Get back into the game. Be light on your feet, be ready to flex, change, add, test, monitor, repeat over the upcoming feet. Just don’t stand there and leave the pitch.
Now, more than ever, you need to prioritise strategic brand growth and see it as the firm road to present and future sales. Rather than just taking the yellow brick road that Marketing team want you to go prancing down for shits and giggles. The only way to survive this monumental disruption is to be distinctive. When everyone else is burying their heads in the sand, waiting for the all-clear, you need to dye your hair pink and hold yours up high because goldfishes have better memories than consumers.
This pandemic is a game changer, start thinking long term adaptations to meet new guests’ needs.
Act impulsively…pivot, pivot, pivot!
Stand out, be distinctive. Customers’ memories are short and fleeting - stay in mind positively.
Get creative with it! Look outside your category and keep it simple and above all accessible.
Here are a few excellent examples of those sporting pink hair at the moment, who have pivoted like pros. Those who have been distinctive in the face of the Covid-19 disruption:
👏 The Frying Pan Pizza Kit - Pizza Pilgrims
Pizza kits you cook in your frying pan delivered to your abode - accessible and masterfully executed. It’s on another level. Here’s the how to video.
Lesson Learnt: Home Entertainment Level 100!
👏 From Pub to Market Place - The Parlour
The Parlour has created the marketplace of dreams. Their homemade Desperate Dan pies, backdoor smoked salmon and artic roll sit next to the briming boxes of the British produce delivered with the same kooky flare their famous for.
Lesson: Support Your Community, There’s No Such Thing As An Empty Space
👏 Spread the Love - Happy Endings
Purveyors of ice cream sandwich epicness and all round dessert bosses Happy Endings, have managed to continue spread the love with collaborating with different brands to get a steady stream of well needed desserts out there to the very grateful sun basking public. Everyday they’re cooking up something new and cool to surprise and delight, like their cookie project with Berber Q for the NHS.
Lesson: Collaborating =. Celebration. We’re Stronger Together.
Footnotes:
For the nerds out there, read Choice Factory by Richard Shotton. In Chapter 4 Richard explains how distinctiveness is an unwavering and unquestionable psychological bias that’s a hugely viable consideration for when advertising brands. Proven time and time again by countless experiments over the decades the ‘Von Restroff Effect’, or aptly also called the ‘Isolation Paradigm’, shows how by standing out in a set you will categorically be remembered. The theory was coined by German psychiatrist and pediatrician Hedwig von Restorff (1906–1962), who, in her 1933 study, found that when participants were presented with a list of categorically similar items with one distinctive, isolated item, it was that solo item that is remembers from all others on that list. Find Out More.
