Set It and Forget It
Posted by Jaci Russo
Tsunami Logo
Marketing used to be about ’set it and forget it’. Not just in the Ron Popeil ‘but wait, there’s more’ kind of way.
A company would create a newspaper or tv ad and run it for two or three or in some cases even ten years and their sales go up every year. There was no advertising clutter and very little competition to get in the way. Consumers wanted to hear about your product and were interested in its features.
Times have changed.
Now consumers have the power.
Now consumers only want to know about what benefit you can provide to them.
Now consumers will seek out the information they want and ignore everything else.
Now consumers are so overwhelmed by the clutter of advertising that they have to block it all out just to protect themselves.
It is no longer “if you build it, they will come”. Now, the consumer doesn’t need you or want what you have to offer because there are a dozen more just like you. Or at least that’s how it seems to them.
What choice do you have?
Don’t stop. No coasting. Keep your eye on the prize. If you are not a company that continues to evolve, then you will become extinct.
A great example of this is Tsunami, a sushi restaurant with locations in Lafayette and Baton Rouge (and in the interest of full disclosure - a client). Although one of the first sushi restaurants in Lafayette over a decade ago, they quickly became the hot spot. They truly changed the conversation. At a time when every restaurant was cajun or tex-mex they introduced a whole new concept. And quickly became the place to see and be seen. It is common to wait upwards of an hour for a table and patrons do so without complaint. Why? Because the experience exceeds their expectation. Always fresh. Always good. And it’s fun. The food is incredible. The service is impeccable.
That doesn’t come easy to them. They aren’t coasting. From the top down there is a team of attentive, caring, believers who go out of their way to keep improving. Not change for change’s sake but true improvement and adjustment and evolution.
There are 26 sushi restaurants now, yet Tsunami shows no signs of slowing down. Why not? Well, even with a competing sushi restaurant opening up right next door they have continued to do what they do best and their consumers keep coming back for more. That other restaurant? Can’t even get the people waiting for a table to come in. Tsunami has brand advocates - people who have an emotional connection to the restaurant and chose it above all others.
And they are always marketing. Not in a ‘bought a full page in the phone book’ kind of way. Every one of their touchpoints is in harmony. And most importantly, they are engaged in conversations with their consumers - not just broadcasting messages. They know the psychographics of their consumers. Tsunami gets inside their heads and their habits and knows how to stay appealing. They use this consumer insight to continue to provide the experience that their consumers are wanting.
Are you still tending to your garden? Do you market as hard as the day you started? Is your competition?
