Fast Food for Thought: Large Brands & Careful Steps
Posted in Architecture | Building Systems | Communication | Communities | Economic Development | Innovative Solutions | Marketing | Project Management by Brad Breneisen (Graphic Design) on March 17, 2011

As I sat in a nearby fast food restaurant underneath a suspended 750+ hp NASCAR enjoying a meal that was prepared with the speed of a pit crew it seemed somehow…unbelievably appropriate! As I searched for an explanation, I kept coming back to core values, brand relevancy, and successfully exposing common ground between a global brand and a local community. Here’s how I got there and why it might be worth considering for your brand’s next expansion effort.

Developers engaged in expanding their brand(s) reach through building projects are often posed with an interesting dilemma. Their brand was designed to communicate with a broad (oftentimes global) audience and in doing so, ignores the concept of individual communities and their cultural values or historical elements. Brands with a broad reach are often only able to communicate who they are, not where they are. Do, you have a brand that effectively communicates on a macro level? What happens when you zoom in?

Brand expansion efforts are often met with an opinionated response from the local residents, businesses, and competing brands. Most would agree that it is in a brand’s best interest to draw support from the communities they do business in and achieve success in order to ward off competition and foster growth. If you feel that your brand expansion efforts are missing the bull’s-eye when you zoom in, you may think about learning the local slang and identifying common ground for each project. This may sound daunting but can be done in creative and cost-effective ways that preserve your brand and help to gain local support each step of the way. For some brands this may NOT be beneficial, especially if your offerings are completely consistent and necessary on a global level (ie. humanitarian organizations). For brands like this, it may be in your best interest to avoid any specific cultural references and strive for as much consistency as possible. For brands that offer a more eclectic taste in offerings, it may be completely necessary to acknowledge your surroundings – no matter how diverse or challenging.

All competitive brands have identified and fostered a set of core values, but have you identified the core values of the community surrounding your next footprint? One approach is to identify the overlapping core values of your brand with the specific communities impacted by its expansion, then align them in a clever way that enhances the brand experience. If done right, this can provide a seamless dialogue from the top down that reaches out to individual communities in a respectful way – extending the brand rather than compromising it. Nothing says “We’re all about speed!” like hanging a giant racecar from the ceiling – especially if your brand is on the hood. In a community of racing fans it might just get the enthusiasm you’re looking for.

Many brands try this type of thing and the result somehow feels disconnected or inappropriate. These often: 1. try to show “variety” in a very superficial or predetermined way – like having a variety of canned interior decor themes for franchise owners to pick from (think tacky collection of abstract paintings that you know you saw somewhere else), or 2. compromise the brand completely and exclusively showcase the locale in an attempt that is transparent and unappreciated by the patrons (think overload of local kitsch collecting dust on every inch of wall space).

A suspended racecar is not for every brand. This is where creativity and research comes in. You might find that a black and white photography series of local landmarks with your brands mascot super-imposed as if they were on a sightseeing tour is right for your brand, after all this could be done virtually anywhere (think the tourist postcards from the movie Amélie). No matter how might you choose to apply this concept, it should be done in a way that provides a more thorough and considerate brand experience.

At LDG, our Brand Architects are invested in the success of the brands they serve, and we understand that achieving brand success through architectural services demands innovative and sensitive design solutions that effectively establish your brand for the long haul. If your brand has an interesting story to tell in this respect, we’d love to hear it. If you feel this is just the kind of creative problem solving needed to put your brand’s best foot forward, our brand architects can help you make the next footprint a local landmark. Vroom, Vroom.

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