America’s diner is always open the tagline reads, but who is America’s diner? Denny’s, with its 58 year history and iconic Grand Slam breakfast, is stepping up to claim the title. Embracing a term that was once anathema among foodies, Denny’s is changing its brand positioning.
It’s Not About The Food
Denny’s may be taking a page from other dominant brands, such as Netflix and Apple, who realize that they’re purveying more than a product. They’re selling an experience.
“There’s a soul to a diner that is very authentic, very warm, very accepting,” said Frances Allen, CMO of Denny’s, in a recent NY Times article.
Identifying and emphasizing those aspects of the customer experience that Denny’s Brand Lovers—the considerable and profitable contingent of loyal customers who eat at Denny’s regularly, bring their family and friends to the restaurant, and pass along news of the latest meal deal—value most is a smart, strategic decision. Denny’s may fill the plate with pancakes, sausage and eggs, but they’re banking on the fact it’s the homey, everyone’s-got-a-place-at-the-table atmosphere that keeps customers coming back.
Is this appeal strong enough to save Denny’s, which has seen market share evaporate with the advent of family restaurants Applebee’s and Olive Garden?
Brand Vision: Characteristics and Values
One of the key concepts in Brand Modeling is that our brands are not what we, as an organization, think they are. Instead, our brands are what our best, most loyal customers think they are.
In the case of Denny’s, customers weren’t thinking of the eatery as a family restaurant. Focus groups weren’t using that phrase to describe Denny’s. Not using a phrase is a pretty clear indicator that that’s not how your customers see you.
We need to know how our customers see us. Their perception of what role we fill—in the marketplace, in their lives—constitutes an essential part of a brand’s vision. A Brand Vision is a synthesis of many components. Chief among these are, what we call, Brand Lover Characteristics, a collection of adjectives you use to describe your best customers, and Brand Values, an articulation of how the most loyal customers perceive the organization.
Ultimate profitability lies in bringing an organization’s offerings, operation, and especially messaging into alignment with what the brand’s loyal customers value most. For an organization like Denny’s, which has struggled to remain competitive in an increasingly competitive and fragmented marketplace, that means identifying with a high degree of specificity and certainty what their customers value about the Denny’s experience.
“We’re talking about a diner not in the physical sense per se but in a much larger sense, more as a symbol and metaphor,” Peter McGuiness, CEO of Gotham, the ad agency working with Denny’s on the reposition, said in the same NY Times interview.
Symbols and metaphor can serve as powerful connection points, giving a brand’s best customers a way to strengthen their attachment to the brand. Understanding where those connections already exist in the customer’s mind, and taking steps to reinforce the bond, is a route to success dominant organizations know well. If Denny’s can capitalize on the positive associations their base already has with the diner experience, they’ll be serving up bacon, eggs, and coffee for another fifty years.