Keep things fresh
While it’s crucial to understand what has kept your customers coming back, you shouldn’t limit your brand to what has been successful in the past. After all, you want customers to keep coming back in the future, too.
“What’s important to be relevant to your customer is the tried and true but also that you’re out there being interesting and new, as well,” Taiclet says. “It’s a fine line. But it’s important that you’re giving people a reason to come in: ‘Oh, what’s new?’”
You need to marry the tradition of your brand with a few fresh touches. The challenge is determining whether any changes or additions will influence the overall brand perception.
“Look, not everything you do is going to work,” Taiclet says. “We’re not afraid to try some things. But I can tell you we’re not going to change the things that we know work.”
So don’t mess with the staples of your brand — like the customer experience — that you identify as important through feedback. You can take small steps to improve those things, but you shouldn’t change the game completely.
Many of the new Fannie May products, for example, partner the famous chocolates with other well-loved snacks, like ice cream and Eli’s Cheesecake — and these don’t replace traditional favorites like Pixies, Trinidads and Mint Meltaways.
But most of the changes came simply as an effort to “freshen up” the stores through signage, displays and uniforms.
“Clearly, when we came back, people were quickly pointing out differences,” Taiclet says. “But any differences, we tried to make sure they had nothing to do with customer satisfaction. I mean, the uniforms were a brighter color because we wanted to freshen the look. So the changes that we did make were with the understanding that this would be seen as a positive.”
To help lessen any shock when customers walked in and saw the differences, Taiclet communicated changes they could expect and what those meant.
“At the end, I think they came to appreciate why it was different — it just presented the product better,” he says. “[We] told the customer what it was: ‘Here’s a small little change to tell you that, hey, we’re a new Fannie May, but at the same time, we didn’t mess with the quality of the product.’”
Grow smart
Maintaining your brand’s legacy while keeping it relevant really translates into sustainable growth. It’s a balance that Taiclet thinks will differentiate his brands.
“Companies get themselves in trouble trying to grow at all costs and to grow anywhere and everywhere,” he says. “What we’re trying to do is grow in a smart, sustainable way.”
Along with keeping an ear to customers to confirm that his blend of tradition and freshness is keeping them satisfied, Taiclet also uses financial analysis to temper growth. Before opening a store, for example, he evaluates economics to predict returns. Even though he could have opened eight stores last year, he only opened the five where analysis signaled the best chance for success. At the end of the year, there were a total of 85 company-owned stores, and he also recently launched a franchising program.
“We could grow aggressively on the wholesale side through some of our third-party retailers,” he says. “But it is incredibly competitive in certain areas and we’re going to make darn sure that we don’t get too aggressive. We could go out in that wholesale market and sell a lot of product and grow the top line, but it might not necessarily grow the bottom line. When we talk about ‘grow smartly,’ that’s what I’m talking about is that you’re constantly finessing between top-line growth and bottom-line growth.”
Taiclet has found that balance by focusing on the customer experience.
“We’re fortunate that we have growth opportunities, [and it’s] because we have focused on those things,” Taiclet says. “We just need to be thoughtful and prudent about the different directions we could grow and make sure it’s profitable, sustainable growth and not just one-off. There’s a lot of one-off places to grow for a lot of companies.”
The long-term test for Taiclet is that any changes or growth ventures won’t lead the company astray from the customer experience that has made Fannie May the No. 1 chocolate brand in the Midwest. That focus has helped him grow the entire gourmet food and gift basket business to about a third of the revenue generated by 1-800-Flowers.com — about $250 million.
“(It’s about) the relationship of your product with the customer and the customer experience,” Taiclet says. “Across all of our food brands, what we’re trying to focus on is the positive relationship that a consumer has with you and your product. It is that experience that embodies your brand — and that is your brand, really.”
How to reach: 1-800-Flowers.com Inc., (800) 356-9377 or www.1800flowers.com
