Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Random Cookies of Kindness: Building a Personal Brand


Random Cookies of Kindness: Building a Personal Brand

            The idea of personal branding consists of leaving a consumer with a uniquely distinguishable, and ideally memorable, impression about yourself or your business. Establishing a personal brand is a vital part of any kind of business. It’s not rocket science but it seems like many business are forgetting this step of the selling process. Between the ups and downs in the economy and the rising costs of living businesses are doing everything possible to keep people coming through their doors.
 Many places are throwing coupons at consumers in desperation to lure business into their store, giving away merchandise in hopes it will bring in new customers, and purchasing flashy signs to place in front of their stores. While these advertising tactics have a place in the scheme of things it seems as though a piece of the puzzle is missing. Loyal customers are worth their weight in gold to businesses yet they seem to be forgotten in the rush of bringing in new customers. FL!P SiDE Café, located in Gadsden AL, is trying a new approach to keep the customers loyal to their brand. 
On Tuesday Feb. 12th FL!P SiDE café rolled out the Random Cookies of Kindness campaign. We visited 22 local businesses and surprised them with a hand written thank you card for their loyalty to our products and a box of cookies to brighten up their afternoon. All of the businesses that were visited have either used FL!P SiDE for catering services or have employees that visit the café frequently for their morning coffee or lunch breaks. They are the definition of loyal customers and we thought it was time to reward them for supporting us.
The key to this campaign is not only to reward those who support FL!P SiDE but to also build our brand image in a positive light. The reactions from office to office were incredible resulting in many smiling faces, a woman who actually danced upon receiving a FL!P SiDE goodie box, and a phone call from one of the businesses letting us know that we have made their day with an afternoon pick-me-up. I challenge to you find a coupon that has ever generated that kind of response.
There’s something to be said about showing your customers that you care about them, not just their money. FL!P SiDE Café plans to continue going out into the community to reward our loyal customers and put smiles on people’s faces. People are the most important part of our business and it’s time we showed them how much we appreciate their business.


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