Another weekend, another story to tickle your branding senses. This story was narrated by one Mr. Vinu Londhe, a wonderful graphic designer and even better human being, who I worked with about 30 years back.

As narrated by him, this story is set in New York in the US of A. Since I have never been to the US, it is difficult to check the authenticity, but it nevertheless makes for a delightful story on branding strategy. Here’s the story.

Like now, back in those days as well, Madison Avenue used to be the adda of all Ad Agencies. Agencies big and small, all had their offices in the avenue. About 5-6 decades ago, in this Madison Avenue there used to be an old lady, Ms. Brown, who had a tiny Fried Chicken joint. She got the joint from her late husband who had carefully curated all the recipes and perfected the tastes to suit the wide variety of their customers.

Typically, this locality had a wide variety of eateries, some fancy restaurants, and some joints that served inexpensive food.

There were enough customers who were starting their careers and looked for deals and discounts on everything including food. This group was naturally quite large. They flocked to Ms. Brown’s tiny Fried Chicken joint for an inexpensive lunch.

Ms. Brown kept her customers happy. She made it a point to buy the best chicken available and knowing her customers spending capacity, kept the prices fairly affordable. Her chicken leg recipe was special, and she almost always finished her stock in a matter of hours after her joint opened every day. She had not changed anything in the recipe for the fried chicken legs but only made it better with some added spices that she got from a trip to India. Her fried chicken legs were the most aromatic, most succulent, and most economical.

The joint could accommodate about 10- 15 customers at a time, and it offered a cozy, homely atmosphere where Ms. Brown would chat with them and hear their stories.

With time her regular customers progressed in life and moved out of her joint to restaurants with wider food variety, larger space, and costlier menus. Ms. Brown was happy to see them progress and grow up in life, for she knew that they would be replaced by another batch of newbies. And it did for several years.

All was well. Till the large eatery brands walked in serving fried chicken with a wider menu, larger seating space, and discounts on virtually everything that they served.

Ms. Brown, now in her seventies, was no match for such giants. Slowly, her customers deserted her. Even her steadfast customers gave excuses and stopped coming. Ms. Brown was left staring at a bleak future.

A newbie called Sam, who had arrived in New York and was staying without his family in the city, was particularly fond of Ms. Brown. More for her motherly affections than the food that she served. He had also been observing the draining of customers from Ms. Brown’s joint and he wanted to help. He spoke about it with Ms. Brown and offered to help her.

Ms. Brown knew that any help would require a lot of money that she did not have. She thanked Sam but she also told him, her concern. Sam went away after finishing the meal. Before he left, he asked Ms. Brown, what she felt were the strongest points of her food joint, and why she felt customers had been flocking to her joint all these years.

That was easy for Ms. Brown. Top on the list was her chicken quality and her age-old chicken leg recipe about which she had always been complimented. To this, she added her affordable pricing and ‘pay-later’ facility that she used to give to her customers who were short of money.

Sam returned the next morning. He had a sheet of paper with a hand-drawn image of a billboard design. It read:

‘Madam Brown, Has Got the Best Legs in Town’. With it, there was a picture of Ms. Brown holding a plate with two luscious chicken legs.

‘That’s very cheeky, Sam!’ And Sam began to explain to her the nuances of such a ‘cheeky’ branding, none of which made any sense to Ms. Brown. But looking at the enthusiasm of the young boy, she agreed. Sam got down to work.

Both Sam and Ms. Brown knew well that money was in short supply and hence any idea that Sam was working on, had to be inexpensive.

The first to get replaced was the hoarding at the entrance of the joint. Now there was a nicely printed and brightly lit signage that read, ‘Madam Brown, Chicken Legs’. It also had the same image of Ms. Brown holding a plate with two chicken legs

Next, Sam and Ms. Brown printed pamphlets. Back in those days, without social media, pamphlets were the most common. The pamphlets carried the same message and Ms. Brown’s image, ‘Madam Brown, Has Got the Best Legs in Town’. There was no mention of discounts, deals or price cuts.In fact, Sam persuaded Ms. Brown to increase the prices by 20% knowing that at that price also, she would still be lower priced than her competitors.

Then he got hold of a few of his friends and liberally distributed these pamphlets at the train and bus stations 3 times a day, one before the offices opened in the morning, at lunchtime, and when the offices closed.

There was something about the message and image that hit home with the young crowds and old ones alike. While the young were curious and were tickled by the message, to the older generation, many of whom were regulars at Ms. Brown’s joint while they were growing up, it kicked off a nostalgia.

Overnight, customers returned to Ms. Brown’s joint. Now, customers arrived, just not for lunch, they came for snacks as well and some carried the chicken legs in brown paper bags (with the same image and message) to beat the hunger pangs on their way home.

Sam and Ms. Brown not only saved the business but got it off again to a wonderful start.

Well, nice story but with deep lessons on Branding. Let’s quickly check them out.

1. Without communication, even the best-quality brands will fail. Ms. Brown felt all along that her brand quality would keep her customers intact.
2. Know about your brand’s core strengths and keep making noise about them. If you have missed doing it in the past, start now. Ms. Brown knew about her brand’s core strength but never went to town about it.
3. Brand Communication – Make it startling if you can, in order to gain attention. However, be sure to communicate the most important things most crisply. The brand message, Madam Brown, Has Got the Best Legs in Town, though ‘cheeky’ also talked about the best quality chicken legs and brought back memories of Ms. Brown through her picture
4. Make execution, the most important part of your branding strategy. A well thought out branding strategy will go nowhere till it is followed up with precise execution. Sam did not stop with the brand communication, he went ahead and spread the message through the pamphlets distributed at the right places and at the right times.

Statutory Warning: Branding does not guarantee sales success. But it surely helps.