{"id":386,"date":"2012-11-27T15:49:37","date_gmt":"2012-11-27T20:49:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/?p=386"},"modified":"2016-11-04T15:52:27","modified_gmt":"2016-11-04T19:52:27","slug":"risk-being-different-with-your-brand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/?p=386","title":{"rendered":"RISK BEING DIFFERENT WITH YOUR BRAND!"},"content":{"rendered":"

[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_video admin_label=”Video” src=”https:\/\/youtu.be\/QnZ6ESeoF60″ \/][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n

As I sit here facing the Atlantic from a balcony of my condo at the Palmetto Dunes resort at Hilton Head Island, SC, it\u2019s very apparent that the developers of this island and the resorts that occupy it had a unique vision when they started building some 50+ years ago.\u00a0 Having visited beach resort cities from Maine to Key West, I have always been disappointed how the developers and communities seem to think that tacky and overcrowding were the prerequisites for appealing to the tourists that support their economy.\u00a0 Hilton Head risked being different\u2014to the point that if you drive down the main street of the town (HWY 278), you wouldn\u2019t even know that there\u2019s one of the east coast\u2019s most beautiful beaches just a couple blocks or more away.\u00a0 No tall skyscraper condos or 3-star hotels, no neon signed surf shops, no strips of fast food or lousy food restaurants, no billboards.\u00a0 Sure there are businesses, but they have substituted taste and design in making this a pleasant drive despite the traffic.\u00a0 Just like other successful brands, Hilton Head sought to differentiate itself golf resort with beaches and tasteful homes for people who really want a relaxing beach vacation.\u00a0 Great restaurants are tucked away with the golf fairways and retail blends in with the many trees that shade an otherwise hot and sunny beach resort.\u00a0\u00a0 This is a brand that works and the lodging and resort rates attest to its appeal\u2014even in the off-season.<\/p>\n

\"img_1022\"That brings me to Black Friday!\u00a0 Once again this year, retailers have abandoned any semblance of building a brand prior to the holidays in favor of the biggest sale of the year (or so they say).\u00a0 Even the name\u2014formerly a trade description for the sales and profit potential of the day after Thanksgiving\u2014is nothing more than a big clearance type of event.\u00a0 And it\u2019s not just the retail stores.\u00a0 Black Friday is a good time to buy a car, clean your carpets, get your teeth whitened and just about any other business that is trying to get more customers at this time of year.\u00a0 Don\u2019t have anything more to say about Black Friday?\u00a0 Just open the store even earlier\u2026like Thanksgiving am or maybe even Wednesday pm.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As a student of retail marketing, I admit that I went through every circular in the Thursday paper and didn\u2019t find one that really stood out.\u00a0\u00a0 Kohl\u2019s and JCP outweighed the others but the messages were lost in the Black Friday shouting and screaming.\u00a0 Kind of like driving down the Grand Strand at Myrtle Beach or A1A in Daytona.\u00a0 Ycccch!\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0The broadcast was equally boring, although Target dared to be different with some silly carolers that turned me off after the 6th<\/sup> time of seeing the spots (in one night).\u00a0 It\u2019s time to give customers a reason to shop and then have a sale that means something other than a day of the week.<\/p>\n

Finally, CBS News had interviews with the Ron Johnson of JCP and Bruce Nordstrom of my favorite department store this week.\u00a0 Essentially, they were asked if there is any hope for department stores in the retail marketplace.\u00a0 They cited the many names of stores like Wanamakers, Marshall Field and Dayton\u2019s that have disappeared.\u00a0 I have to give credit to Johnson for sticking to his guns about the changes at JCP despite declining revenue, profits, and stock prices.\u00a0 I have to admit that their circular still is the most appealing of all in the paper and their store changes really do make sense.\u00a0 As both of the CEO\u2019s said, the department stores have to give people a reason to come to their stores by way of experience rather than just price.\u00a0 Nordstrom has been doing that for years and now has the technology in the hands of its associates to enhance the experience even more.\u00a0 Johnson says there is not alternative but to succeed.\u00a0 It\u2019s all risky, but as Randy Gage points out in his new book\u2014Risky is the New Safe<\/em>\u2014taking the easy road of emulation and following the competition is not the way to build a successful business today.<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_video admin_label=”Video” src=”https:\/\/youtu.be\/QnZ6ESeoF60″ \/][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] As I sit here facing the Atlantic from a balcony of my condo at the Palmetto Dunes resort at Hilton Head Island, SC, it\u2019s very apparent that the developers of this island and the resorts that occupy it had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=386"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":388,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions\/388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenbanks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}