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On Sunday morning I treated my kids to a funny face pancake at IHOP (the International House of Pancakes, for those of you who are actually "international" and therefore wouldn't know)....
While there, I was struck by the fact that every one of the waitresses -- a much more apt descriptor than "servers" in this case -- was a matronly woman in her 50s or 60s, quite comfortable calling her customers "hon," and looked like she would fit in anywhere in middle America. This is not to put them down in the least -- they all seemed to be friendly, knowledgeable and efficient.
More importantly, they also were the personification of the IHOP brand. As the primary face of the company to its customers, these women engage in the main interaction that IHOP diners experience and remember. The waitresses represent an old-fashioned family meal with reliable comfort food. The pancakes and coffee may not be fancy, but you'll always get a scoop of whipped butter and 4 different kinds of syrup to choose from. The uniform blue A-frame buildings just add to the familiarity and comfort.
I don't know if IHOP hired the waitstaff with this in mind, or if this is just who happened to apply for the jobs at my local restaurant. But the experience would have been much different if the server had been a 20-something with multiple piercings and an attitude.
Think about what the face of your organization or business looks like to your audience. Does your frontline staff embody the image that you want to project to the world? This is not just physical characteristics (which are not necessarily important), but personality and attitude as well. And while your campaign may have a spokesperson who also needs to project the right persona, the real people whom your customers come in contact with are the most critical for the impression people will take away.
The necessary characteristics of your staff will vary depending upon the nature of your business. IHOP's matronly waitresses might not fit into the image of Starbuck's young hip baristas or Google's elite technorati or the impeccably dressed clerks at a Rodeo Drive boutique. I'm not saying they could not perform those jobs, assuming they had the skills, but they would probably not have the attitude nor appearance to fit the brand expectations of the customers of those businesses.
For someone providing frontline services through a government-funded program, the challenge comes in flouting the expected image of an uninterested bureaucrat. In this case, the staff can put a new, more attractive face on a service that may have looked pretty ugly before. Social marketing programs may hire outreach staff who are similar to the target audiences they are trying to reach to show that the staff understands them, even if the managers higher up in the project do not come from the same group.
Marketers often compile a composite picture and description of one person who represents the target audience so that they have a more concrete image in their minds of who they need to reach. So, too, you need to think about what kind of person best represents your company or organization to your audience, and make sure that the face of your company matches its heart.
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Comments
Hiring the right people is probably the most critical business function related to success. Even the best hiring managers only get it right half the time.
Now, please pass the syrup would ya?
Posted by: Paul Barsch | 02.14.07
Hi, Nedra. Love your post and I agree with most of what you say. I do believe the brand is reinforced by front-line staff.
I do want to caution those, however, who, in their attempts to match the staff with the brand, hire based on age, gender, race, etc. In our zeal to have staff "look" the part, we can't discriminate overweight, middle-aged, body-pierced individuals or people with disabilities. I'm afraid that Corporate America's efforts to tie in the brand experience may "unofficially" eliminate many of these workers from access to good jobs.
Posted by: Elaine Fogel | 02.14.07
I always like it when I find branding in the details -- like the creature comforts of the blue a-frame of the IHOP buildings but also in the "face" of the employees. There's nothing better than a consistently good experience from beginning to end -- and employees are key in making that happen, that's for sure!
Want to experience IHOP first-hand? You may want to join them on National Pancake Day (Feb. 20th) for a free short stack. More information is available here: http://www.ihop.com/tellafriend.php
Posted by: Kermitfan | 02.14.07
You're all right about the importance of the hiring process in finding the people who represent your brand well. For many service-related businesses, the people ARE the company.
Elaine, you make a very good point. If someone has all the right skills, attitude and personality, they should absolutely not be excluded from being hired because of how they look. But I think that often those things come in packages. A person with a certain set of attributes will probably "dress the part" and look like they fit in with a particular community. I'm definitely not advocating hiring someone based on their physical attributes.
And free pancakes? Hooray!
Posted by: Nedra Weinreich | 02.14.07
Nedra,
I have to believe this is intentional move by IHOP, since the two in my area both have a similar type of waitress.
Your point of making sure who you hire actually represents your brand more than most people realize. Too often you do see the kids with the piercing and tatoos, and that is not the image they want to project, but figure they are cheaper. Too bad for them
Posted by: Jeff Herz | 02.14.07
I think you are on to something there, Jeff... now that I think of it, I don't think I've ever had a waitress there under 50. At the same time, I've never had a Starbucks barista over 30, either. Coincidence? By design? Or by association?
Posted by: Ann Handley | 02.14.07
It's funny, I specifically recall having an IHOP waitress in her 20s, even with some piercings, at one of the restaurants in Fayetteville, NC. Then again, it's Fayetteville...
And regardless, the pancakes and sausage were still amazingly good. Goes to show that even the "image" of a brand can't tarnish the underlying product if it's as great as it should be!
Posted by: Daniel Monday | 02.15.07
Very good observations here.
Employees are any company's number one asset. If your company does not believe this,
time for you to find a new place to hang your hat.
My previous company had an engineering manager (early 30's) who wore earrings and a pierced tongue. I had to swallow all that "diversity" crap (he is married with kids, btw...) knowing that this "manager" was interacting with our customer base. Engineers are some of the most conservative folks you could ever meet, not to mention the C-level folks he would interact with. I always thought that the company's lack of critical success, was due in part because of the "face" he projected to our clients.
Thank you all for the affirmation
Posted by: Jon Foster | 02.16.07
Jon,
Your story about the manager with all the piercings brings me to another point that I think is relevant here, which is that employee dress codes for those who interact with customers can be very important. The company certainly would have been justified in having a policy that piercings must be taken out and tattoos covered while on the job. Employees have the right to "express themselves" on their own time, but when they are representing the company they need to dress the part.
When the employee's appearance is something they do not necessarily have control over (e.g., race, body type, age), that should not be a cause for exclusion, but the employer should have the right to dictate the company "uniform" (excluding items worn because of religious obligation).
Posted by: Nedra Weinreich | 02.16.07
This post and comments has my head virtually spinning with the examples of appropriate and non-appropriate "faces" I've encountered over the years. A recent encounter was with local promoter who was trying to position his daughter as a leader in his personal and business development company - everything about her appearance undermined the image: nose piercing, toe rings, hair just a bit too "hip", and so on. No one ever took her seriously. This contributed to the company's eventual failure.
I am working with a company now that just hired a new front desk person for their operation. After a series of disastrous hirings I convinced them to formally assess the JOB first instead of the the candidates, i.e., what would the position tell them about what was needed to be good at it. I was not surprised by the confused input we got from various people throughout the company about what the job required. Because of this input and the ensuring frank conversations we were able to create a profile of what was really needed and rather quickly found the right person for the position.
Posted by: Michael Stammer | 02.19.07