Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/62201
consequences of ethical awareness, and the vision essential to leading an American tradition. by Tricia Bisoux Sweet Taste You've referred to the "Krispy Kreme experience," in which customers can view the making of the dough- nuts, as the "defining element of the brand." How dif- ficult is it to sell an experience, not just a product? One of our critical strategic goals is to continually elevate cus- tomers' experiences in the store, to make their experiences the fullest and most authentic expression of the brand that we possibly can. Customers have been able to view the making of the doughnuts for a decade, but in the '90s we made it much more prominent. Now, customers don't just see the end of the process or obliquely know that doughnuts are being made in the back corner. We put it right in the middle of the store. That's a great example of trying to listen to the customers and saying, "This is what they like. How can we do it better?" Krispy Kreme's example makes an excellent case study for business educators to teach students about the The of nature of branding. What lessons have you learned in your rebranding efforts over the last few years? It has been a very organic process. In fact, we even changed our vernacular. Instead of using the terms "wholesale" and "retail" to describe our operations, for example, we now say "off-premises" and "on-premises." It changes the way we think about the company. Sometimes you just have to change your vocabulary. Instead of viewing ourselves as a wholesale business that Success did some retail business inside our stores, we found we had to change the lens through which we viewed our business. We began to see ourselves as a specialty retail business set up for off-premises sales opportunities. By looking at it through that lens, we knew the brand experience was the most critical aspect. It opened the door to thinking about the business in a new way. Can such a simple change in vocabulary have such a profound effect? A simple change in vocabulary certainly doesn't change how people think. However, we've made a fundamental shift in the way we look at the execution of our wholesale and retail operations. Using the terms "on-premises" and "off-premis- es" reinforces that fundamental shift. The way I look at it, everything we do is retail. Using these new terms further val- idates the fact that it's all retail. You're now expanding Krispy Kreme's brand identity to include its own line of gourmet coffees. You've com- pared your company to Starbucks—do you now see Starbucks as a competitor? We don't offer products just because we see other businesses being successful with them. But we are looking at ways to elevate the cus- tomer experience by providing what is within our dominion to offer. Coffee with doughnuts is a natural expression of the customer experience, something we've done as long as Krispy Kreme has been in the retail business. However, preferences and tastes have grown, and the demand for coffee has increased. We felt that any coffee we offer in our stores should be something proprietary. We see it as another way to fulfill our responsibil- ities to our customers. What if Starbucks decides to sell doughnuts? They might! But if that's what their customers want, then that's what they ought to do. You've opened your first locations in Australia and you're planning to go into markets such as the U.K., BizEd MAY/JUNE 2003 17