October 13, 2025 • 28 mins
What Cracker Barrel’s Rebrand Got Wrong (and What Chick-fil-A Gets Right)
In Part 2 of our branding series, we look at what happens when a company tries to modernize and ends up losing what people loved most. Using Cracker Barrel’s recent rebrand backlash as a case study, we talk about the tension between staying relevant and staying true to your identity.
We compare it to Chick-fil-A’s approach, where brand strength comes from consistent systems, not constant design changes. Then we break down how these lessons apply to service businesses, especially those that serve customers in high-stress moments.
You’ll walk away with practical filters for rebranding without confusion, insights from StoryBrand and Atomic Habits, and ways to build a brand people trust over time.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:14):
All right, well, Benji Brady, welcome in to
episode 35.
We are through Know YourAudience Part 2.
So we're back again talkingabout branding.
SPEAKER_02 (00:23):
I have to admit, man, uh the the previous episode
I liked, Adam.
It's a great topic.
It's a great topic talking aboutbranding and marketing.
And we get to continue it today.
SPEAKER_00 (00:33):
I know.
We get to dive into it.
Because I mean, well, at the endof the day, it's kind of nice.
You and I are the marketingguys, and poor Brady is the he's
ever.
I'm just sitting back here justlistening, you know, like.
SPEAKER_01 (00:44):
Okay.
Yeah, I mean, I get it.
I understand the importance ofit.
Is it my favorite topic?
No, but hey, I'm good.
SPEAKER_00 (00:50):
Deep down, he likes it.
He knows it.
I do.
This is why uh Team Wilson worksso well.
One of you's operations, one ofyou's marketing goes hand in
hand, yin and yang.
Yeah.
So uh well, let's dive back in.
Just kind of recap uh lastepisode.
We um were talking about justcracker barrel and and not
necessarily really them.
We were kind of using them as aquote unquote like a case study.
(01:12):
Um, you know, they made somechanges.
And again, I made a joke thatthere's a small part of me that
wonders if it was just a PRstunt from day one.
You never know.
So you conspiracy theorist?
Uh uh not like Benji is.
SPEAKER_02 (01:24):
He studied, Brady.
He studied hard.
He he wouldn't he went and did abunch of research.
SPEAKER_00 (01:29):
I did.
I was trying to figure this oneout.
I I'd look and then obviously, Imean, as a social media guy, um,
anybody that's listening, youcouldn't I mean you couldn't get
on social media without seeingit.
I mean, you saw it everywhere,and um, especially for us being
here in Alabama, of course, isvery prominent.
There, I mean, there's one onevery corner like Dollar General
down here.
Um, but you see them everywhere,so it was it was a big change.
(01:52):
And I don't think actuallyanything in our like area for
our area of Birmingham, I hadn'tseen any change.
So yeah, I don't I was about tosay, I don't think I've seen
that here either.
I haven't.
I didn't see anything change, Ididn't see anything update.
Um, but I mean I just saw whatthe what it was gonna be.
I knew they had some that weremaking those changes, but what
(02:13):
we're really trying to talk intois is how to be careful with
that, and and not necessarilylike the topic of the episode is
not for you listeners if you'relike, well, I want to make a
brand change.
And yeah, you know, what we'retrying to do is really think
marketing is marketing 101.
This is what I when I pitchedthis to Benji and Brady, that's
what I said, hey, it's marketingone-on-one.
Know your audience.
(02:33):
Who are you marketing to?
Who are you trying to do that?
And we talked about that becausebranding is is part of it.
And so branding kind of tellsthose things where uh branding
is your identity, marketingtells your story.
Yeah, and so that's what wereally dove into and kind of
looked at those.
So, what we want to pick up isexactly that knowing your
(02:57):
audience, knowing who you marketto.
Um, just to kind of give uh ourlisteners an example for us um
as SurfPro, especially from thedigital marketing realm and and
really marketing boots on theground, um, the team that you
help work with a lot, Benji, ourbusiness development team.
Yeah, you know, our ourimportance, knowing our
audience, is also being in frontof them when it matters most.
(03:21):
Um, and that's something that wetalked about.
I think brand recognition isimportant.
I think nobody can go anywherewithout saying they haven't seen
one of our green bands, right?
They haven't seen the the orangerooftop.
But we've talked about for us,like for instance, we we've
never done any branding oradvertising like on the
interstate, right?
Like on any signs you see,because we looked at that as
(03:44):
knowing your audience.
To us, that's not who ouraudience is, even from a
branding and marketingstandpoint.
Yeah, when you're driving downthe road and you see, hey, you
can get$10,000 off on a brandnew truck, you're probably
driving and you're driving inthat truck that you're on,
you're like, man, I really couldtrade this in.
SPEAKER_03 (04:00):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (04:01):
I I could get a new truck.
But if you're driving down theroad and you see something like
a service, uh to me and mymarketing brain, I just feel
like it doesn't resonate withpeople because in that moment,
like this morning, we had awater damage.
I will not be calling anybodybecause I Wait, how many, how
many is that for you, Adam?
This is like number seven.
SPEAKER_02 (04:21):
I was gonna say it's gotta be six, six, seven.
Six seven, Brady.
Six seven.
Made it again.
SPEAKER_00 (04:27):
Golly.
Oh, wow.
I walked into that one.
What have we and look not tosound bad, we're not calling
anyone this morning.
We're not calling because we'retired of paying someone to do
it.
So I'm I'm turning.
Look, I haven't even finishedWRT and I feel like I know what
I need to know.
All right, you should be anexpert by now.
I should.
So, but knowing knowing thataudience and knowing when that
(04:50):
you see those things that we'vegot to do, we've got to
understand who are we sellingto, right?
Um, we've talked a lot aboutthis at uh, you know, Atomic
Habits from James Clear is abook that you uh should read.
He talked about things as wellas that, as that habits are also
tied to identity, right?
So the things that you do istied to your brand.
One of the quotes that he wrotedown, he said, I'm trying, I'm
(05:12):
not smokers typically don't sayum, I'm trying to quit smoking.
They say, I'm not a smoker.
Okay.
And so what they're trying to dois they're trying to brand
themselves as like, I'm not asmoker, but I'm trying to quit.
So we need to align those brandswith our identity.
So um, Benji Brady, I want topitch it to you just from a
(05:33):
Serve Pro standpoint.
How do you guys feel like ourbranding, especially some of the
new stuff that that we've reallyseen over the past, you know,
three to five years as corporatereally has done a great job with
marketing?
How do you guys feel when youhear know your audience with the
brand that y'all own andrepresent?
How do we, how do you feel likewe need to identify with
(05:54):
customers?
SPEAKER_02 (05:54):
Yeah, I I think it's a fantastic question.
Um, most of the time we tell welike to tell people, you know,
we we are going to take care ofyou, but we hope that you never
have to see us.
We're one of those companies,you know.
Yep.
Um, because we're if if you'recalling our company, something's
happened, right?
Something happens to your home.
It's your as an individual, as afamily, it is your most valuable
(06:16):
asset that you own.
Um, you you have this and you'vepoured all of your money into
this home and or or businessthat you work at, whatever the
case may be for a businessowner.
You've you've poured your lifesavings into this company, and
you have to call us because youyou need our help.
So we're an emergency-drivenbusiness, and I think that our
(06:39):
headquarters has done afantastic job, as you mentioned.
Just kind of we we talked aboutthe storybook, you know, you
mentioned last week, and youflip through the storybook and
you we start out as aresidential company, and now
we're a residential andcommercial company and
government company.
When I mean government, we dogovernment service work.
And it it it really it's it'sreally been interesting to see
(07:00):
that morph into not just ahousetop that you mentioned,
Adam, last last episode, butreally more of a building, a
structure, a concept of hey,we're more than just your home.
We're wherever you are if youneed us.
So that that's that's what Itake away from it.
And I think they've done afantastic job of of branding us
(07:20):
that way.
SPEAKER_01 (07:21):
Yeah, I mean, for me, it's really it's really two
things.
One is any type of brand that'sout there, you know, with a
customer, with your audience,you know, with your customer
base, you establish trust.
So people people do businesswith people they like.
People do business with peoplethey trust.
So when they see the, in ourcase, when they see the orange
(07:43):
housetop, then hopefully what acustomer will say is they
they're probably like like yousaid, Adam, not driving down the
road in their truck and going,I'm not they're not gonna have a
water damage in their truck.
Right.
I mean, I guess they could, butwe've gotten you know calls like
that before.
We have, we have, you know, butwhen they think of water, fire,
(08:03):
mold, any of those types of coreservices, then they equate to
oh, I need to call ServeProbecause I trust them.
Yeah, why do you why do you pickiPhone over Android or Android
over iPhone?
It's because you trust thatcompany, you trust that brand.
So sec and secondly, I think itgo there's a concept out there
(08:26):
called uh DBM, so dominantbuying motive.
What is the dominant buyingmotive that somebody has to buy
a service, buy a product, uh,believe in a brand?
And so we have to, when you sayknow your audience, then it's a
question of are we making if ifthere's a change that's going to
(08:47):
be made, are we making thechange because it seems good to
us?
Does it feel good to us?
Or have we really asked ourcustomers, or not even ask, but
have have our customers comeback to us and say, hey, we we
see that there needs to be anupdate.
We see that there needs to be achange, we see that there needs
to be a a tweak in how it'sdone.
(09:09):
Otherwise, if it's not broke,don't fix it.
You know?
And I think you kind of talkedabout that last time, Adam, is
is a difference between liketweaking and and updating versus
completely changing.
You know, if your customers arenot asking for the change and
they trust you, then then whychange?
SPEAKER_02 (09:30):
Yeah.
Could you imagine Adam, you youI don't know if you mentioned
this last week.
You were talking about theCracker Barrel specifically.
Could you imagine the amount ofmoney they would have had to
invest to update every singlestore?
SPEAKER_00 (09:42):
That would have cost a lot of money.
That's a lot.
I mean, think about it even fromyour own your standpoint as
owners.
I mean, like when Corp when wechanged to the new branding,
look again, looks great, loveit.
But that's a lot of stuff ifthey if they had to, if, if, you
know, if corporate had come andsaid, hey guys, you gotta change
(10:02):
everything.
That would be vehicle rewraps,building signs, cards, you know,
and and luckily that's notsomething that they did because
it's different, right?
Like people aren't coming to ouroffices.
It's not the same as um as aslike is is what you would go to
a store.
But I mean, that would be that'sa lot.
And so, and so luckily for them,they they caught this, or I say
(10:25):
they caught it.
I don't feel like they caughtit, like the general public
caught it.
Yeah, uh the customer caught it.
The customer caught it beforethey saw and yes, they've made
some changes.
And what was really funny isthat I I saw that they turned
some of their you know, theirmistakes into like social media.
They uh the when they announcedthat it was coming back, they
posted one of those big likeinterstate signs that you see
(10:47):
when you drive, and it's uh andit was one of the old signs, and
it was like we heard what yousaid, you know, and and we're
doing this.
It was bad, and it was just thaton a blue sky, like that's it.
And then they actually posted areel of the company coming in
and taking the old sign down andputting a new sign back and
putting I'm well I say old,taking the old, new look the new
old, yeah, yeah, yeah.
(11:08):
And putting the originalcracklebarrel logo back up.
So um, but and here's and here'sthe thing, and this is where for
our listeners, you've got tofigure out for you how do you
identify it to your business.
Yeah.
But I mean, here's the thing uhwhen people came and ate at
Crackle Barrel, right?
I don't think they just atethere.
(11:28):
I feel like they identifiedthemselves as like, hey, we're a
crackle barrel person.
Yeah.
This is this is what we this iswhat we enjoy.
We enjoy uh comfort, we enjoyrelaxing, we enjoy sitting, you
know, it was one of those placesI think we joked about in last
episode where you're kind ofokay if they're busy.
Like, hey, it's a 30-minutewait.
All right, it's you know, 75degrees outside.
(11:50):
We're just gonna sit on theporch in a rocking chair and and
wait.
SPEAKER_02 (11:54):
Well, to your point, you know, you talk about that.
If if you know the waitress andwaiters, you know, obviously you
may not know their names, butthey had the they had the aprons
they wear.
I mean, were they gonna changethat?
Who knows?
Um, it kind of reminded me backagain when we were young kids
that you'd go to yourgrandparents' house or whatever,
and you'd see your grandma inthe kitchen and they've got the
apron on, right?
(12:14):
They're making the flour and thefor the biscuits or whatever.
And it just kind of brought youback to that um old-time feel.
And if you know your audienceand you know this, what they're
coming to get or coming toexperience, I think not just
knowing your audience, I thinkthey get to know the people at
the location, at the business,because those people are what
(12:37):
help make that brand come tolife.
That's not a marketing strategy,that's being a part of the
brand.
And if you have a good brand andif you have a good system, you
have good people, then thosepeople really want to help make
that brand come to life becauseguess what?
It it creates repeat businessfor that for those people, you
know, to come back to andwhatever else.
And um, I just think that youknow, you're you you've you've
(13:00):
made the statement that you'renot just selling to the people
who see themselves in yourbrand.
You're actually selling the factthat we want you to come back to
see our brand again, use ourbrand again.
And it's repeat, it's repeatopportunity.
SPEAKER_00 (13:11):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I I think the customers forthat, they kind of know what
they're getting into.
And and similar with with ourindustry, people know what
they're getting into.
And we've we've we've spenthours really dialing that in.
Like, you know, from when uh youknow a party responder shows up
to how they deal with acustomer, to letting them know,
hey, this is what's going on, tothem saying, like, hey, I don't
(13:33):
know what to do.
I haven't talked to my agent.
Hey, I can handle that.
I yeah, I understand whatthey're gonna do.
And I think that's for us in ourindustry is knowing our audience
is that we, you know, I mean,yes, I think there's plenty of
people that do talk to theiragents, but there's a lot of
people that don't.
Like, I've never spoken to ouragent at all, but they've been
great when we've had anything.
(13:55):
But it I wouldn't know if Ihadn't been in the industry,
I've never really thought aboutwell, what's my first plan of
action when I have somethinghappen in my home, you know?
And so our our audience, ourbrand is saying, hey, we're here
to make it like it never evenhappened, and our job is to help
you with that.
So I think knowing those things,because here's here's what it
says, Patrick Lancioni, he talksabout how clarity is your single
(14:19):
biggest competitive advantageover your comp over your
competition.
Um, if you're confused, and youknow, I think we kind of touched
on this in the last episode, butif you're confused, your
customers are confused.
Gotta be confused.
So if we're if we're not clearon on what our brand is or what
your brand is, listeners,whatever industry you either own
(14:41):
or work in, if you're not clearon what your job is, and when I
say that, like what is yourprocess?
So for me, working throughvideo, like I my first thing is
when somebody tries to call andthey say, Hey, I want to do a
project, great.
We need to have what I call adream session.
Okay.
I need to sit, I'm gonna throw aspaghetti on the wall.
I need to know what you want todo, and I need to tell you what
(15:02):
we can do and what we probablydon't need to do or that.
And then once from that process,then we go from there, you know,
we define what we're doing, wedefine the contract, we have the
day shoot.
So there's a whole process thatI've put into play before I even
step foot on a client's officeor their job site.
We need to go through all thesethings first.
(15:23):
But if I was confused as someonewho does that, like, well, you
know, maybe we could do this,then I'm gonna put that
confusion into my client.
They're gonna like, yeah, isthis really who I want filming
my brand?
Yeah, for sure.
I want to do it.
So I think having those thingsare are doing that.
I mean, think about it, knowingyour purpose.
I mean, Benji, Chick-fil-A, Imean, hey, consistent service.
(15:45):
I how often, and it's so funnybecause we went to a Chick-fil-A
uh on the way back, we had a jobshootout in Missouri and we
stopped at one, and it did havea little bit of inconsistency.
And I with the guy I was with, Iwas like, they're just off their
game today because this isn'tnormal.
Yeah, and you but you noticedit.
Noticed it because I normallydon't and it wasn't anything
(16:05):
wrong, they were just busy, andI think they were a little
shorthanded, um, which typicallyis not the case at all when you
do Chick-fil-A's.
And so, I mean, you know,especially when you do the like
say you order through the app,you know, you know, drive up,
hey, my name's Adam.
All right, great, got yourorder, you need to add anything?
Nope.
Hey, my pleasure.
They'll be waiting for you atthe window, and you know that's
(16:25):
how it's gonna be.
SPEAKER_02 (16:26):
I have a I have a really unique Chick-fil-a story,
no joke.
Just happened to me last week,and it wasn't it wasn't the the
it wasn't the service at thelocation.
The food was fantastic and all.
I actually got frustrated atChick-fil-A because when I went
on my app, I used the scan, thepoints, you know, or whatever,
(16:47):
and I also pay with the QR codeon the app.
It just it's easier for me.
The reason I got frustrated is Iwas trying to reload money to
give them and it wouldn't takemy payment on my card.
If for some reason, it just keptkicking it out, kicking it out,
kicking it out.
Finally, I had to delete theapp, reinstall it, and guess
what?
It worked.
So I had that was the first timeI've had a I wouldn't say I was
(17:09):
upset at Chick-fil-A.
Something happened with theapplication, but I was trying to
pay them, you know.
And normally people are like,well, their food doesn't taste
good, or their people didn'ttreat me right, or they didn't
do the same, like you said,consistent service.
No, this happened to be theactual app this time, and so it
was kind of just a differentspin on uh a frustration point.
But again, it wasn't theirfault.
SPEAKER_00 (17:29):
Well, and to to touch on that before we jump on
to our next point, uh, it'sfunny because people do can see
see consistency and they knowit.
Yeah.
So when we when we had stoppedin Missouri, um, I can't
remember where we were, westopped somewhere like halfway
here, back home from Birmingham,and we pulled into a
Chick-fil-A.
You again, you could tell thatthey were just having, I mean,
(17:50):
nothing horribly wrong, youknow, but you could tell it's
just not normal.
Like there's a flow to them,right?
Like, I can't explain it.
You just know they're like awell-oiled machine.
And um, you could tell thecustomers that are used to
Chick-fil-A and the ones thatweren't, because there was a
gentleman there, he was veryplot, he wasn't really he didn't
know anything about like whenthey give you that little uh
like when you go order and theygive you that little like TP
(18:12):
thing, or what I forgot whatthey call it, but it's got it's
got like different food items onit.
That's how they know, hey, thisis Jim, this is whoever.
And it was just funny becausehe, I think he you could tell he
was getting a little frustratedbecause he was like, What's
going on?
Why is it taking so long?
But he was asking questionslike, What am I supposed to do
with this?
Is this is this how you guysknow where my food is?
Like, you know, it's me.
(18:33):
And she was like, Yes, sir, wematched the it we match the icon
to that we have on ours toyours, and we know this is your
food.
And so you could tell he wasfrustrated, but then the other
people that you could tell theydo it all the time, they were
just like they're like, Yeah,this is normal.
This is normal, and so they'rethey're consistent and they
expect it, but the good thing inthat is even the moments when
(18:55):
you could tell they'restruggling, customers were okay
with it.
Yeah, they were like, hey, thisis not the if this was every
time, that'd be different.
Like, this is not the norm.
Like, everybody has bad days,everybody makes mistakes, and
you could tell that, and to me,I was thinking that while we
were standing there, likethey're in bed, and I was too.
Like, I'm like, she was like,I'm so sorry that it's been like
this.
And I was like, No, you guys arefine.
(19:16):
Like, hey, we've waited fiveminutes.
That's not a big deal.
SPEAKER_02 (19:19):
Like, you know, you know, you you mentioned
Chick-fil-A, and you think aboutthis.
They really haven't changedtheir brand over the last
however many years they've beenin business.
But what they have done isthey've taken customer feedback.
I'm I'm sure it's been inperson.
Yeah, they've probably had somesurveys or whatever, but they've
actually wrapped their parkinglot.
I mean, you'll see it again,sometimes three single lines
(19:41):
deep, and and they have the samestrategy.
We're only gonna carve out thismuch, quote, square footage of a
piece of land to put ourbuilding and people to be on.
I mean, you could double thesize of the parking lot, and it
would probably be double thesize of the line, you know.
So to your point, they haven'treally changed their brand.
They haven't really they've usedthe marketing piece of the
(20:02):
chicken sandwich and everythingelse to their advantage, but
they really haven't rebrandedanything, they've just gotten
their service better.
SPEAKER_01 (20:09):
Well, hey, listen, since everybody's telling a
Chick-fil-A story, I'll go, I'llgo with the Chick-fil-A store.
SPEAKER_02 (20:14):
Uh oh.
SPEAKER_01 (20:15):
If you're if you're in the uh uh the Birmingham
market, I don't know if theyhave these in other markets, but
in Inverness, there's a uniquestore that's a parking lot.
And I went there the other day.
I'd I had dropped my wife off atI think Cole's or something like
that, and she was doing doingsome shopping in there.
And so I pulled in, I was justgonna get a drink, and I was
(20:35):
like, where in the world is thedrive-thru?
There's no drive-thru.
I know what he's talking about.
I know what you're talkingabout.
Like, where where in the world?
So I there was no there was nosign.
I mean, there were some signs,but you know, you're you're used
to a certain thing, and I waslike, I I don't really know what
to do.
So after after a few minutes, Ikind of figured it out because
(20:56):
there were some um parking spotswith numbers in them.
And I was like, okay, well,maybe I just need to go park in
the parking spot, pull out myapp, do the order, and then
they'll bring the food out to melike Sonic.
And that's what I ended updoing.
But it was different because I'mused to one way like drive-thru,
wrap around, like you guys weresaying, and it there it was just
(21:18):
different.
So it kind of threw me off alittle bit.
SPEAKER_00 (21:21):
But yeah, that one, that one was actually because
that's right down from thechurch, uh, yeah, right down the
road.
And uh we we eat out a lot withthe girls, but it was actually
created to help with thecatering um surplus that they
get.
That's but they were like, hey,let's not just make a building
just specifically for this,let's offer a little bit.
(21:42):
Because they have they have justthat, they have they have no
drive-thru, but it's you orderfrom the app, you go in, and
then you can go in, but insideis very small.
Like there's not a lot.
Like we've gone in and sat andate before church on a
Wednesday.
So, but it's just funny thatthey they've done that.
But no, um, but you're talkingabout change and things because
he ultimately this as we kind ofwrap up this topic, uh, and I sh
(22:05):
I I think I've told you guysthis before.
Look, to me, like you have toevolve.
I think it's yeah, it'snecessary in business, whether
that's your operations, whetherthat's your marketing strategy,
your social media strategy, yourbrand, you have to evolve
because things change quick.
And it just to continue to useChick-fil-A, because apparently
they have done it right, theyhave evolved.
(22:25):
And I think you're right, Benji.
They they've said, all right,you know, it's kind of like the
data we look at.
All right, where are ourcustomers coming from?
Where do we see the pressurepoints?
Well, hey, it looks like like 60or 70 percent of people eating
here, they're going through adrive-thru, a pin-up, and
leafing.
Like it's no, you know, it's notas busy inside like it used to
be.
People are in a hurry.
We live in a hurried culture.
(22:46):
So they said, hey, we can stillmaintain our brand, but let's
dial this in and involve andlet's let's change the the
pickup system to the point thatthey've invested money in
covering where their employeesare.
Like you drive into adrive-thru, it's not just a
drive-thru little bitty window.
I mean, it's literally like thismassive overhang.
(23:07):
And then what's even cooler isthey built doors into where the
drive-thru is.
SPEAKER_02 (23:12):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (23:13):
Like you notice that.
Like, so now when on their andwhat's great is it's
multifunctional.
During their slow times, youprobably drive up to the same
window, get your food, and go.
Yeah, but on times when they'reslammed, that sucker is opened
up.
SPEAKER_02 (23:24):
They got two or three people out there cart.
SPEAKER_00 (23:28):
And they evolved because ultimately this
listeners, and this is justchange is going to be necessary.
Okay.
Yeah.
Customers' preferences, theyshift, right?
Like we saw that in our industryduring COVID.
Like, all right, hold on.
We are a service industry.
COVID is not going to stoppeople from having issues in
their home.
We had to figure out, all right,how do we stay multi-functional
(23:51):
and still do these things?
We had to evolve, not just froma branding standpoint, from an
operation standpoint.
We changed the methods, right?
Like, Brady, you went throughwith your team and you shifted
stag like staggering peoplecoming in.
Hey, let's limit the amount ofpeople in the building.
We have to be here.
But then we also limited theamount of people in people's
homes and how they were inpeople's homes.
Um, you know, we had to evolveand do those because platforms,
(24:14):
you know, they change and thosethose are the things.
But in the end, whether you'rechanging processes, changing
branding, changing marketing,change has to I has to reinforce
your identity.
Yeah, it can't replace it.
If it replaces it, and again,just to go back to our case
study, they made a change thatdid not reinforce their identity
(24:36):
at all.
Crackleberrel went through andthey said, you know what, we
feel like, and I I say that,they said, we not the people who
purchase our product, that'sright.
We feel like we want to changethese things.
And and I I mean, it could havebeen a single, you know, uh CMO
that said that, you know, thewhoever, you know, I know the
(24:56):
lady that was running it, butthey chose to replace their
identity and they didn'treinforce it, and that's where
the backlash comes in.
I mean, that's where they gothit hard.
SPEAKER_02 (25:07):
Yeah, and I I tell you, and and I'm I would be
willing to bet that theiremployees probably were not
pushing for change either.
They were they were probablyquestioning in their mind, why
are we doing this?
Um, and sometimes you gottalisten to your employees as
well, they'll tell you.
SPEAKER_00 (25:21):
Yep.
Well, well, and think aboutthink about the past couple
years, just with what we've beenthrough at SurPro.
I feel like the identity haschanged a lot.
Like I feel like it's changed alot, but it's reinforced who we
are, right?
We've had to look at thecustomer and say, all right,
we've always said we're aone-stop shop.
All right.
So hey, we're gonna come here,we're gonna do the mitigation.
(25:43):
Hey, our team can also handlethe recon.
That way we're working with oneend.
Well, not just that, but we canhelp with your roofing.
Yeah, you know, we we can do wecan do roofing.
Like, hey, this is part of yourprocess.
You have a water damage, a lotof times it can come from having
issues with a roof from above.
So we have that.
So we've added those things in.
You know, we've added things inon how to how to really help
(26:05):
businesses, you know, from a ayou know, a large standpoint.
So we've had to find ways to dothat.
And so that's where I feel likewhen you're looking at your
branding, that's where thatchange it has to reinforce like
who you are.
SPEAKER_02 (26:19):
Yeah, good stuff, man.
SPEAKER_00 (26:20):
Good stuff, yeah.
So leave it to the marketingbranding guy.
Come on, Adam.
Well, I can tell y'all being thebranding person is the most
stressful thing I've ever done.
SPEAKER_02 (26:33):
Well, look, and this as as we wrap this episode up,
just a couple key questions.
Um, Adam's mentioned this, butas a leader, who are we?
Who are we trying to serve?
What are we trying to expect?
What do they expect from us asthe company?
And try to stay within thatbrand.
Uh, maybe use your marketingadvantage, marketing system to
(26:53):
your advantage.
Um, don't, again, don't startwith anything that's trendy.
Start with who you are and whoyour people are.
Because your people matter.
They're the ones that representthe brand behind what you've
built and established.
And if you're gonna refresh it,do it slowly, but got to keep
your audience in mind.
As he said, you know, crackerbarrels, they're they're their
(27:14):
mistake, let's just call it amistake.
Remind us of the power and thefragile, you know, the um the
fragility of their branding.
And um just make sure that youryour brand is is yeah, sorry,
fragility, my bad.
Just make sure your brand isclear and consistent and it's
aligned with your audience'sidentity.
We've given you some key uhbooks you can you can take
(27:36):
advantage of.
Uh we've talked about building astory brand, Atomic Habits and
Advantage by Patrick Lincioni aswell.
So look, without there withclosing, I should say trends are
going to come and go, butclarity, consistency, and
alignment are what keeps strongbrands for the long haul.
We appreciate you tuning intoday.
As always, you can find us onany social platform out there at
(27:57):
Higher Up Podcast.
You can like and subscribe onYouTube.
Uh, you can also find us andsubscribe at
higheruppodcast.com.
Appreciate you listening in.
As always, choose to go out andlive a higher up life.
See you next time.
All right, well, Benji Brady, welcome in to
episode 35.
We are through Know YourAudience Part 2.
So we're back again talkingabout branding.
SPEAKER_02 (00:23):
I have to admit, man, uh the the previous episode
I liked, Adam.
It's a great topic.
It's a great topic talking aboutbranding and marketing.
And we get to continue it today.
SPEAKER_00 (00:33):
I know.
We get to dive into it.
Because I mean, well, at the endof the day, it's kind of nice.
You and I are the marketingguys, and poor Brady is the he's
ever.
I'm just sitting back here justlistening, you know, like.
SPEAKER_01 (00:44):
Okay.
Yeah, I mean, I get it.
I understand the importance ofit.
Is it my favorite topic?
No, but hey, I'm good.
SPEAKER_00 (00:50):
Deep down, he likes it.
He knows it.
I do.
This is why uh Team Wilson worksso well.
One of you's operations, one ofyou's marketing goes hand in
hand, yin and yang.
Yeah.
So uh well, let's dive back in.
Just kind of recap uh lastepisode.
We um were talking about justcracker barrel and and not
necessarily really them.
We were kind of using them as aquote unquote like a case study.
(01:12):
Um, you know, they made somechanges.
And again, I made a joke thatthere's a small part of me that
wonders if it was just a PRstunt from day one.
You never know.
So you conspiracy theorist?
Uh uh not like Benji is.
SPEAKER_02 (01:24):
He studied, Brady.
He studied hard.
He he wouldn't he went and did abunch of research.
SPEAKER_00 (01:29):
I did.
I was trying to figure this oneout.
I I'd look and then obviously, Imean, as a social media guy, um,
anybody that's listening, youcouldn't I mean you couldn't get
on social media without seeingit.
I mean, you saw it everywhere,and um, especially for us being
here in Alabama, of course, isvery prominent.
There, I mean, there's one onevery corner like Dollar General
down here.
Um, but you see them everywhere,so it was it was a big change.
(01:52):
And I don't think actuallyanything in our like area for
our area of Birmingham, I hadn'tseen any change.
So yeah, I don't I was about tosay, I don't think I've seen
that here either.
I haven't.
I didn't see anything change, Ididn't see anything update.
Um, but I mean I just saw whatthe what it was gonna be.
I knew they had some that weremaking those changes, but what
(02:13):
we're really trying to talk intois is how to be careful with
that, and and not necessarilylike the topic of the episode is
not for you listeners if you'relike, well, I want to make a
brand change.
And yeah, you know, what we'retrying to do is really think
marketing is marketing 101.
This is what I when I pitchedthis to Benji and Brady, that's
what I said, hey, it's marketingone-on-one.
Know your audience.
(02:33):
Who are you marketing to?
Who are you trying to do that?
And we talked about that becausebranding is is part of it.
And so branding kind of tellsthose things where uh branding
is your identity, marketingtells your story.
Yeah, and so that's what wereally dove into and kind of
looked at those.
So, what we want to pick up isexactly that knowing your
(02:57):
audience, knowing who you marketto.
Um, just to kind of give uh ourlisteners an example for us um
as SurfPro, especially from thedigital marketing realm and and
really marketing boots on theground, um, the team that you
help work with a lot, Benji, ourbusiness development team.
Yeah, you know, our ourimportance, knowing our
audience, is also being in frontof them when it matters most.
(03:21):
Um, and that's something that wetalked about.
I think brand recognition isimportant.
I think nobody can go anywherewithout saying they haven't seen
one of our green bands, right?
They haven't seen the the orangerooftop.
But we've talked about for us,like for instance, we we've
never done any branding oradvertising like on the
interstate, right?
Like on any signs you see,because we looked at that as
(03:44):
knowing your audience.
To us, that's not who ouraudience is, even from a
branding and marketingstandpoint.
Yeah, when you're driving downthe road and you see, hey, you
can get$10,000 off on a brandnew truck, you're probably
driving and you're driving inthat truck that you're on,
you're like, man, I really couldtrade this in.
SPEAKER_03 (04:00):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (04:01):
I I could get a new truck.
But if you're driving down theroad and you see something like
a service, uh to me and mymarketing brain, I just feel
like it doesn't resonate withpeople because in that moment,
like this morning, we had awater damage.
I will not be calling anybodybecause I Wait, how many, how
many is that for you, Adam?
This is like number seven.
SPEAKER_02 (04:21):
I was gonna say it's gotta be six, six, seven.
Six seven, Brady.
Six seven.
Made it again.
SPEAKER_00 (04:27):
Golly.
Oh, wow.
I walked into that one.
What have we and look not tosound bad, we're not calling
anyone this morning.
We're not calling because we'retired of paying someone to do
it.
So I'm I'm turning.
Look, I haven't even finishedWRT and I feel like I know what
I need to know.
All right, you should be anexpert by now.
I should.
So, but knowing knowing thataudience and knowing when that
(04:50):
you see those things that we'vegot to do, we've got to
understand who are we sellingto, right?
Um, we've talked a lot aboutthis at uh, you know, Atomic
Habits from James Clear is abook that you uh should read.
He talked about things as wellas that, as that habits are also
tied to identity, right?
So the things that you do istied to your brand.
One of the quotes that he wrotedown, he said, I'm trying, I'm
(05:12):
not smokers typically don't sayum, I'm trying to quit smoking.
They say, I'm not a smoker.
Okay.
And so what they're trying to dois they're trying to brand
themselves as like, I'm not asmoker, but I'm trying to quit.
So we need to align those brandswith our identity.
So um, Benji Brady, I want topitch it to you just from a
(05:33):
Serve Pro standpoint.
How do you guys feel like ourbranding, especially some of the
new stuff that that we've reallyseen over the past, you know,
three to five years as corporatereally has done a great job with
marketing?
How do you guys feel when youhear know your audience with the
brand that y'all own andrepresent?
How do we, how do you feel likewe need to identify with
(05:54):
customers?
SPEAKER_02 (05:54):
Yeah, I I think it's a fantastic question.
Um, most of the time we tell welike to tell people, you know,
we we are going to take care ofyou, but we hope that you never
have to see us.
We're one of those companies,you know.
Yep.
Um, because we're if if you'recalling our company, something's
happened, right?
Something happens to your home.
It's your as an individual, as afamily, it is your most valuable
(06:16):
asset that you own.
Um, you you have this and you'vepoured all of your money into
this home and or or businessthat you work at, whatever the
case may be for a businessowner.
You've you've poured your lifesavings into this company, and
you have to call us because youyou need our help.
So we're an emergency-drivenbusiness, and I think that our
(06:39):
headquarters has done afantastic job, as you mentioned.
Just kind of we we talked aboutthe storybook, you know, you
mentioned last week, and youflip through the storybook and
you we start out as aresidential company, and now
we're a residential andcommercial company and
government company.
When I mean government, we dogovernment service work.
And it it it really it's it'sreally been interesting to see
(07:00):
that morph into not just ahousetop that you mentioned,
Adam, last last episode, butreally more of a building, a
structure, a concept of hey,we're more than just your home.
We're wherever you are if youneed us.
So that that's that's what Itake away from it.
And I think they've done afantastic job of of branding us
(07:20):
that way.
SPEAKER_01 (07:21):
Yeah, I mean, for me, it's really it's really two
things.
One is any type of brand that'sout there, you know, with a
customer, with your audience,you know, with your customer
base, you establish trust.
So people people do businesswith people they like.
People do business with peoplethey trust.
So when they see the, in ourcase, when they see the orange
(07:43):
housetop, then hopefully what acustomer will say is they
they're probably like like yousaid, Adam, not driving down the
road in their truck and going,I'm not they're not gonna have a
water damage in their truck.
Right.
I mean, I guess they could, butwe've gotten you know calls like
that before.
We have, we have, you know, butwhen they think of water, fire,
(08:03):
mold, any of those types of coreservices, then they equate to
oh, I need to call ServeProbecause I trust them.
Yeah, why do you why do you pickiPhone over Android or Android
over iPhone?
It's because you trust thatcompany, you trust that brand.
So sec and secondly, I think itgo there's a concept out there
(08:26):
called uh DBM, so dominantbuying motive.
What is the dominant buyingmotive that somebody has to buy
a service, buy a product, uh,believe in a brand?
And so we have to, when you sayknow your audience, then it's a
question of are we making if ifthere's a change that's going to
(08:47):
be made, are we making thechange because it seems good to
us?
Does it feel good to us?
Or have we really asked ourcustomers, or not even ask, but
have have our customers comeback to us and say, hey, we we
see that there needs to be anupdate.
We see that there needs to be achange, we see that there needs
to be a a tweak in how it'sdone.
(09:09):
Otherwise, if it's not broke,don't fix it.
You know?
And I think you kind of talkedabout that last time, Adam, is
is a difference between liketweaking and and updating versus
completely changing.
You know, if your customers arenot asking for the change and
they trust you, then then whychange?
SPEAKER_02 (09:30):
Yeah.
Could you imagine Adam, you youI don't know if you mentioned
this last week.
You were talking about theCracker Barrel specifically.
Could you imagine the amount ofmoney they would have had to
invest to update every singlestore?
SPEAKER_00 (09:42):
That would have cost a lot of money.
That's a lot.
I mean, think about it even fromyour own your standpoint as
owners.
I mean, like when Corp when wechanged to the new branding,
look again, looks great, loveit.
But that's a lot of stuff ifthey if they had to, if, if, you
know, if corporate had come andsaid, hey guys, you gotta change
(10:02):
everything.
That would be vehicle rewraps,building signs, cards, you know,
and and luckily that's notsomething that they did because
it's different, right?
Like people aren't coming to ouroffices.
It's not the same as um as aslike is is what you would go to
a store.
But I mean, that would be that'sa lot.
And so, and so luckily for them,they they caught this, or I say
(10:25):
they caught it.
I don't feel like they caughtit, like the general public
caught it.
Yeah, uh the customer caught it.
The customer caught it beforethey saw and yes, they've made
some changes.
And what was really funny isthat I I saw that they turned
some of their you know, theirmistakes into like social media.
They uh the when they announcedthat it was coming back, they
posted one of those big likeinterstate signs that you see
(10:47):
when you drive, and it's uh andit was one of the old signs, and
it was like we heard what yousaid, you know, and and we're
doing this.
It was bad, and it was just thaton a blue sky, like that's it.
And then they actually posted areel of the company coming in
and taking the old sign down andputting a new sign back and
putting I'm well I say old,taking the old, new look the new
old, yeah, yeah, yeah.
(11:08):
And putting the originalcracklebarrel logo back up.
So um, but and here's and here'sthe thing, and this is where for
our listeners, you've got tofigure out for you how do you
identify it to your business.
Yeah.
But I mean, here's the thing uhwhen people came and ate at
Crackle Barrel, right?
I don't think they just atethere.
(11:28):
I feel like they identifiedthemselves as like, hey, we're a
crackle barrel person.
Yeah.
This is this is what we this iswhat we enjoy.
We enjoy uh comfort, we enjoyrelaxing, we enjoy sitting, you
know, it was one of those placesI think we joked about in last
episode where you're kind ofokay if they're busy.
Like, hey, it's a 30-minutewait.
All right, it's you know, 75degrees outside.
(11:50):
We're just gonna sit on theporch in a rocking chair and and
wait.
SPEAKER_02 (11:54):
Well, to your point, you know, you talk about that.
If if you know the waitress andwaiters, you know, obviously you
may not know their names, butthey had the they had the aprons
they wear.
I mean, were they gonna changethat?
Who knows?
Um, it kind of reminded me backagain when we were young kids
that you'd go to yourgrandparents' house or whatever,
and you'd see your grandma inthe kitchen and they've got the
apron on, right?
(12:14):
They're making the flour and thefor the biscuits or whatever.
And it just kind of brought youback to that um old-time feel.
And if you know your audienceand you know this, what they're
coming to get or coming toexperience, I think not just
knowing your audience, I thinkthey get to know the people at
the location, at the business,because those people are what
(12:37):
help make that brand come tolife.
That's not a marketing strategy,that's being a part of the
brand.
And if you have a good brand andif you have a good system, you
have good people, then thosepeople really want to help make
that brand come to life becauseguess what?
It it creates repeat businessfor that for those people, you
know, to come back to andwhatever else.
And um, I just think that youknow, you're you you've you've
(13:00):
made the statement that you'renot just selling to the people
who see themselves in yourbrand.
You're actually selling the factthat we want you to come back to
see our brand again, use ourbrand again.
And it's repeat, it's repeatopportunity.
SPEAKER_00 (13:11):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I I think the customers forthat, they kind of know what
they're getting into.
And and similar with with ourindustry, people know what
they're getting into.
And we've we've we've spenthours really dialing that in.
Like, you know, from when uh youknow a party responder shows up
to how they deal with acustomer, to letting them know,
hey, this is what's going on, tothem saying, like, hey, I don't
(13:33):
know what to do.
I haven't talked to my agent.
Hey, I can handle that.
I yeah, I understand whatthey're gonna do.
And I think that's for us in ourindustry is knowing our audience
is that we, you know, I mean,yes, I think there's plenty of
people that do talk to theiragents, but there's a lot of
people that don't.
Like, I've never spoken to ouragent at all, but they've been
great when we've had anything.
(13:55):
But it I wouldn't know if Ihadn't been in the industry,
I've never really thought aboutwell, what's my first plan of
action when I have somethinghappen in my home, you know?
And so our our audience, ourbrand is saying, hey, we're here
to make it like it never evenhappened, and our job is to help
you with that.
So I think knowing those things,because here's here's what it
says, Patrick Lancioni, he talksabout how clarity is your single
(14:19):
biggest competitive advantageover your comp over your
competition.
Um, if you're confused, and youknow, I think we kind of touched
on this in the last episode, butif you're confused, your
customers are confused.
Gotta be confused.
So if we're if we're not clearon on what our brand is or what
your brand is, listeners,whatever industry you either own
(14:41):
or work in, if you're not clearon what your job is, and when I
say that, like what is yourprocess?
So for me, working throughvideo, like I my first thing is
when somebody tries to call andthey say, Hey, I want to do a
project, great.
We need to have what I call adream session.
Okay.
I need to sit, I'm gonna throw aspaghetti on the wall.
I need to know what you want todo, and I need to tell you what
(15:02):
we can do and what we probablydon't need to do or that.
And then once from that process,then we go from there, you know,
we define what we're doing, wedefine the contract, we have the
day shoot.
So there's a whole process thatI've put into play before I even
step foot on a client's officeor their job site.
We need to go through all thesethings first.
(15:23):
But if I was confused as someonewho does that, like, well, you
know, maybe we could do this,then I'm gonna put that
confusion into my client.
They're gonna like, yeah, isthis really who I want filming
my brand?
Yeah, for sure.
I want to do it.
So I think having those thingsare are doing that.
I mean, think about it, knowingyour purpose.
I mean, Benji, Chick-fil-A, Imean, hey, consistent service.
(15:45):
I how often, and it's so funnybecause we went to a Chick-fil-A
uh on the way back, we had a jobshootout in Missouri and we
stopped at one, and it did havea little bit of inconsistency.
And I with the guy I was with, Iwas like, they're just off their
game today because this isn'tnormal.
Yeah, and you but you noticedit.
Noticed it because I normallydon't and it wasn't anything
(16:05):
wrong, they were just busy, andI think they were a little
shorthanded, um, which typicallyis not the case at all when you
do Chick-fil-A's.
And so, I mean, you know,especially when you do the like
say you order through the app,you know, you know, drive up,
hey, my name's Adam.
All right, great, got yourorder, you need to add anything?
Nope.
Hey, my pleasure.
They'll be waiting for you atthe window, and you know that's
(16:25):
how it's gonna be.
SPEAKER_02 (16:26):
I have a I have a really unique Chick-fil-a story,
no joke.
Just happened to me last week,and it wasn't it wasn't the the
it wasn't the service at thelocation.
The food was fantastic and all.
I actually got frustrated atChick-fil-A because when I went
on my app, I used the scan, thepoints, you know, or whatever,
(16:47):
and I also pay with the QR codeon the app.
It just it's easier for me.
The reason I got frustrated is Iwas trying to reload money to
give them and it wouldn't takemy payment on my card.
If for some reason, it just keptkicking it out, kicking it out,
kicking it out.
Finally, I had to delete theapp, reinstall it, and guess
what?
It worked.
So I had that was the first timeI've had a I wouldn't say I was
(17:09):
upset at Chick-fil-A.
Something happened with theapplication, but I was trying to
pay them, you know.
And normally people are like,well, their food doesn't taste
good, or their people didn'ttreat me right, or they didn't
do the same, like you said,consistent service.
No, this happened to be theactual app this time, and so it
was kind of just a differentspin on uh a frustration point.
But again, it wasn't theirfault.
SPEAKER_00 (17:29):
Well, and to to touch on that before we jump on
to our next point, uh, it'sfunny because people do can see
see consistency and they knowit.
Yeah.
So when we when we had stoppedin Missouri, um, I can't
remember where we were, westopped somewhere like halfway
here, back home from Birmingham,and we pulled into a
Chick-fil-A.
You again, you could tell thatthey were just having, I mean,
(17:50):
nothing horribly wrong, youknow, but you could tell it's
just not normal.
Like there's a flow to them,right?
Like, I can't explain it.
You just know they're like awell-oiled machine.
And um, you could tell thecustomers that are used to
Chick-fil-A and the ones thatweren't, because there was a
gentleman there, he was veryplot, he wasn't really he didn't
know anything about like whenthey give you that little uh
like when you go order and theygive you that little like TP
(18:12):
thing, or what I forgot whatthey call it, but it's got it's
got like different food items onit.
That's how they know, hey, thisis Jim, this is whoever.
And it was just funny becausehe, I think he you could tell he
was getting a little frustratedbecause he was like, What's
going on?
Why is it taking so long?
But he was asking questionslike, What am I supposed to do
with this?
Is this is this how you guysknow where my food is?
Like, you know, it's me.
(18:33):
And she was like, Yes, sir, wematched the it we match the icon
to that we have on ours toyours, and we know this is your
food.
And so you could tell he wasfrustrated, but then the other
people that you could tell theydo it all the time, they were
just like they're like, Yeah,this is normal.
This is normal, and so they'rethey're consistent and they
expect it, but the good thing inthat is even the moments when
(18:55):
you could tell they'restruggling, customers were okay
with it.
Yeah, they were like, hey, thisis not the if this was every
time, that'd be different.
Like, this is not the norm.
Like, everybody has bad days,everybody makes mistakes, and
you could tell that, and to me,I was thinking that while we
were standing there, likethey're in bed, and I was too.
Like, I'm like, she was like,I'm so sorry that it's been like
this.
And I was like, No, you guys arefine.
(19:16):
Like, hey, we've waited fiveminutes.
That's not a big deal.
SPEAKER_02 (19:19):
Like, you know, you know, you you mentioned
Chick-fil-A, and you think aboutthis.
They really haven't changedtheir brand over the last
however many years they've beenin business.
But what they have done isthey've taken customer feedback.
I'm I'm sure it's been inperson.
Yeah, they've probably had somesurveys or whatever, but they've
actually wrapped their parkinglot.
I mean, you'll see it again,sometimes three single lines
(19:41):
deep, and and they have the samestrategy.
We're only gonna carve out thismuch, quote, square footage of a
piece of land to put ourbuilding and people to be on.
I mean, you could double thesize of the parking lot, and it
would probably be double thesize of the line, you know.
So to your point, they haven'treally changed their brand.
They haven't really they've usedthe marketing piece of the
(20:02):
chicken sandwich and everythingelse to their advantage, but
they really haven't rebrandedanything, they've just gotten
their service better.
SPEAKER_01 (20:09):
Well, hey, listen, since everybody's telling a
Chick-fil-A story, I'll go, I'llgo with the Chick-fil-A store.
SPEAKER_02 (20:14):
Uh oh.
SPEAKER_01 (20:15):
If you're if you're in the uh uh the Birmingham
market, I don't know if theyhave these in other markets, but
in Inverness, there's a uniquestore that's a parking lot.
And I went there the other day.
I'd I had dropped my wife off atI think Cole's or something like
that, and she was doing doingsome shopping in there.
And so I pulled in, I was justgonna get a drink, and I was
(20:35):
like, where in the world is thedrive-thru?
There's no drive-thru.
I know what he's talking about.
I know what you're talkingabout.
Like, where where in the world?
So I there was no there was nosign.
I mean, there were some signs,but you know, you're you're used
to a certain thing, and I waslike, I I don't really know what
to do.
So after after a few minutes, Ikind of figured it out because
(20:56):
there were some um parking spotswith numbers in them.
And I was like, okay, well,maybe I just need to go park in
the parking spot, pull out myapp, do the order, and then
they'll bring the food out to melike Sonic.
And that's what I ended updoing.
But it was different because I'mused to one way like drive-thru,
wrap around, like you guys weresaying, and it there it was just
(21:18):
different.
So it kind of threw me off alittle bit.
SPEAKER_00 (21:21):
But yeah, that one, that one was actually because
that's right down from thechurch, uh, yeah, right down the
road.
And uh we we eat out a lot withthe girls, but it was actually
created to help with thecatering um surplus that they
get.
That's but they were like, hey,let's not just make a building
just specifically for this,let's offer a little bit.
(21:42):
Because they have they have justthat, they have they have no
drive-thru, but it's you orderfrom the app, you go in, and
then you can go in, but insideis very small.
Like there's not a lot.
Like we've gone in and sat andate before church on a
Wednesday.
So, but it's just funny thatthey they've done that.
But no, um, but you're talkingabout change and things because
he ultimately this as we kind ofwrap up this topic, uh, and I sh
(22:05):
I I think I've told you guysthis before.
Look, to me, like you have toevolve.
I think it's yeah, it'snecessary in business, whether
that's your operations, whetherthat's your marketing strategy,
your social media strategy, yourbrand, you have to evolve
because things change quick.
And it just to continue to useChick-fil-A, because apparently
they have done it right, theyhave evolved.
(22:25):
And I think you're right, Benji.
They they've said, all right,you know, it's kind of like the
data we look at.
All right, where are ourcustomers coming from?
Where do we see the pressurepoints?
Well, hey, it looks like like 60or 70 percent of people eating
here, they're going through adrive-thru, a pin-up, and
leafing.
Like it's no, you know, it's notas busy inside like it used to
be.
People are in a hurry.
We live in a hurried culture.
(22:46):
So they said, hey, we can stillmaintain our brand, but let's
dial this in and involve andlet's let's change the the
pickup system to the point thatthey've invested money in
covering where their employeesare.
Like you drive into adrive-thru, it's not just a
drive-thru little bitty window.
I mean, it's literally like thismassive overhang.
(23:07):
And then what's even cooler isthey built doors into where the
drive-thru is.
SPEAKER_02 (23:12):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (23:13):
Like you notice that.
Like, so now when on their andwhat's great is it's
multifunctional.
During their slow times, youprobably drive up to the same
window, get your food, and go.
Yeah, but on times when they'reslammed, that sucker is opened
up.
SPEAKER_02 (23:24):
They got two or three people out there cart.
SPEAKER_00 (23:28):
And they evolved because ultimately this
listeners, and this is justchange is going to be necessary.
Okay.
Yeah.
Customers' preferences, theyshift, right?
Like we saw that in our industryduring COVID.
Like, all right, hold on.
We are a service industry.
COVID is not going to stoppeople from having issues in
their home.
We had to figure out, all right,how do we stay multi-functional
(23:51):
and still do these things?
We had to evolve, not just froma branding standpoint, from an
operation standpoint.
We changed the methods, right?
Like, Brady, you went throughwith your team and you shifted
stag like staggering peoplecoming in.
Hey, let's limit the amount ofpeople in the building.
We have to be here.
But then we also limited theamount of people in people's
homes and how they were inpeople's homes.
Um, you know, we had to evolveand do those because platforms,
(24:14):
you know, they change and thosethose are the things.
But in the end, whether you'rechanging processes, changing
branding, changing marketing,change has to I has to reinforce
your identity.
Yeah, it can't replace it.
If it replaces it, and again,just to go back to our case
study, they made a change thatdid not reinforce their identity
(24:36):
at all.
Crackleberrel went through andthey said, you know what, we
feel like, and I I say that,they said, we not the people who
purchase our product, that'sright.
We feel like we want to changethese things.
And and I I mean, it could havebeen a single, you know, uh CMO
that said that, you know, thewhoever, you know, I know the
(24:56):
lady that was running it, butthey chose to replace their
identity and they didn'treinforce it, and that's where
the backlash comes in.
I mean, that's where they gothit hard.
SPEAKER_02 (25:07):
Yeah, and I I tell you, and and I'm I would be
willing to bet that theiremployees probably were not
pushing for change either.
They were they were probablyquestioning in their mind, why
are we doing this?
Um, and sometimes you gottalisten to your employees as
well, they'll tell you.
SPEAKER_00 (25:21):
Yep.
Well, well, and think aboutthink about the past couple
years, just with what we've beenthrough at SurPro.
I feel like the identity haschanged a lot.
Like I feel like it's changed alot, but it's reinforced who we
are, right?
We've had to look at thecustomer and say, all right,
we've always said we're aone-stop shop.
All right.
So hey, we're gonna come here,we're gonna do the mitigation.
(25:43):
Hey, our team can also handlethe recon.
That way we're working with oneend.
Well, not just that, but we canhelp with your roofing.
Yeah, you know, we we can do wecan do roofing.
Like, hey, this is part of yourprocess.
You have a water damage, a lotof times it can come from having
issues with a roof from above.
So we have that.
So we've added those things in.
You know, we've added things inon how to how to really help
(26:05):
businesses, you know, from a ayou know, a large standpoint.
So we've had to find ways to dothat.
And so that's where I feel likewhen you're looking at your
branding, that's where thatchange it has to reinforce like
who you are.
SPEAKER_02 (26:19):
Yeah, good stuff, man.
SPEAKER_00 (26:20):
Good stuff, yeah.
So leave it to the marketingbranding guy.
Come on, Adam.
Well, I can tell y'all being thebranding person is the most
stressful thing I've ever done.
SPEAKER_02 (26:33):
Well, look, and this as as we wrap this episode up,
just a couple key questions.
Um, Adam's mentioned this, butas a leader, who are we?
Who are we trying to serve?
What are we trying to expect?
What do they expect from us asthe company?
And try to stay within thatbrand.
Uh, maybe use your marketingadvantage, marketing system to
(26:53):
your advantage.
Um, don't, again, don't startwith anything that's trendy.
Start with who you are and whoyour people are.
Because your people matter.
They're the ones that representthe brand behind what you've
built and established.
And if you're gonna refresh it,do it slowly, but got to keep
your audience in mind.
As he said, you know, crackerbarrels, they're they're their
(27:14):
mistake, let's just call it amistake.
Remind us of the power and thefragile, you know, the um the
fragility of their branding.
And um just make sure that youryour brand is is yeah, sorry,
fragility, my bad.
Just make sure your brand isclear and consistent and it's
aligned with your audience'sidentity.
We've given you some key uhbooks you can you can take
(27:36):
advantage of.
Uh we've talked about building astory brand, Atomic Habits and
Advantage by Patrick Lincioni aswell.
So look, without there withclosing, I should say trends are
going to come and go, butclarity, consistency, and
alignment are what keeps strongbrands for the long haul.
We appreciate you tuning intoday.
As always, you can find us onany social platform out there at
(27:57):
Higher Up Podcast.
You can like and subscribe onYouTube.
Uh, you can also find us andsubscribe at
higheruppodcast.com.
Appreciate you listening in.
As always, choose to go out andlive a higher up life.
See you next time.
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