Passion for your brand is infectious

Dining last night at Busaba Eathi - a Thai restaurant chain in London's Soho last night was a real pleasure. The food, atmosphere (and weather !) were all great last night, but that's not what made the difference.

The difference was the waitress, who had a genuine love and excitement about the food. She was just so keen to recommend her favourites, and delighted to offer sides of the delicious peanut sauce that they have (at no extra charge !). She was fast, efficient and just fantastic at her job, and did it all with passion !

This was not the usual friendly and forced smile, this was not the usual coached and trained service - no this felt genuine, authentic and honest. The positive energy and excitement rubbed off on me, and that makes all the difference to the consumer.

Brands. Don’t hide the facts - talk about price rises !

Kudos to Starbucks. I’ve been impressed with the recent Twitter communication from @Starbucks and the intelligent way they have engaged their followers after raising (and also reducing) some prices, by following 2 simple rules.


1.Be Transparent
As smart users of social media they maintained transparency in their communication, and didn’t hide from the facts. The first tweet was a link to an ABC report that was neutral in overall tonality; containing both positive and negative comments about pricing, but also referenced a competitors’ success (McDonalds).

2.Be Authentic
Today they posted a tweet to savvy sugar which gave 10 tips on how to save money, nicely balancing being informative vs overtly sales focused. The tonality of the piece felt authentic, and I love this grown up approach.

By building this kind of relationship with their consumers Starbucks is adopting a winning strategy to strengthen their brand.