The following profiles of national brands in the United States show that it's possible to become household names through alternative means.

"If you take a Costco cake to a bridal shower and there are 15 women there, 14 of them will tell their friends about this great cake for $15 that serves 40 people," says Cathy Wanklin, Midwest regional marketing manager for Costco, who is based in Oak Brook, Illinois. "That's why one in ten Americans now has a Costco card in their wallet."

That's exactly the way Costco was drawn up. "It was intentional from the beginning that we wanted to create this kind of effect with our marketing and, really, with how we ran and grew the whole company," says Paul Latham, vice president of marketing for the Issaquah, Washington-based retailer.

Costco figures that it saves a good two percent a year in costs because it rarely shells out money for mass-media advertising. What it does do is effectively target small-business owners as its primary target audience. Operating largely under the radar of the general public, Costco has cadres of marketing representatives who are attached to each store and whose continual task it is to network with business owners.

"Usually it means that one to two people are working the phones all day calling prospective members and setting up appointments, and others are out calling on businesses," says Wanklin. "They work leads that they get from business lists and networking. They go through unions, credit unions, church affiliations and more."

At the same time, while competitor Wal-Mart is being attacked more and more for its low-compensation policies, Costco is emerging as an exemplar of how to treat employees right. In turn, this highly motivated staff of internal marketers is a powerful force for building Costco's sales.

Ritz-Carlton
"Puttin' on the Ritz" is a bit of American cultural vernacular that is right up there in terms of recognition with "Uncle Sam Wants You" and Nike's "Just Do It." But where there's smoke, there's usually fire, and in the case of the Ritz-Carlton Hotels, everyone from top executives through to the housekeeping staff take seriously their rarefied status as one of the nation's best-known and most respected luxury brands.

Until very recently, the only way that Americans knew what the Ritz-Carlton aura was all about was to experience it themselves, in the hotels, or perhaps very abstractly through the company's reputation. They certainly weren't learning about it through mass-media advertising. Ritz-Carlton's reputation represents "brand equity that has built up over the years, obviously, and a lot of it is defined by the service element that we offer," says Bruce Himelstein, the company's vice president of marketing.

"We mandate to our employees that they provide the finest personal service," he continues. "Each person is responsible for finding and recording the preferences of individual guests, for example, so that they can get things before the guest even knows they need it. And each employee is empowered to break away from whatever they're doing if a guest needs something. When you've built up that kind of culture over the years, it all starts to stick.

"We teach them to think of themselves not only as attendants to our guests but also as actors in spreading our brand; the feeling they get after they go through our orientation and are involved in our ongoing training is that they are the brand," says Himelstein.

Ritz-Carlton even has formulized its approach to service in basic rules that employees are to use in their dealings with a guest. The Three Steps of Service, for example, are: Proffer a warm and sincere greeting, using the guest's name; anticipate and comply with all of the guest's needs; and offer a fond farewell, again using the guest's name, "so that they feel they've left your home, not just the lobby of a hotel," Himelstein explains.

In fact, Ritz-Carlton has come up with a list of 20 sine qua nons that it calls "The Ritz-Carlton Basics," which everyone from the top of the chain to the last outpost is expected not only to read, not only to know, not only to memorize but actually to internalize. The Three Steps of Service comprise just one of these 20 basics.

The other basics include a reminder that the corporate motto is "We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen." Employees must successfully complete annual training certification for their positions. All employees have a right to be involved in the planning of work that affects them, "to create pride and joy in the workplace." All employees are to continuously identify defects throughout the hotel as well as to take personal responsibility for the utmost levels of cleanliness throughout.

"Never lose a guest," warns Basic No. 13. "Instant guest pacification is the responsibility of each employee. Whoever receives a complaint will own it, resolve it to the guest's satisfaction and record it."

Employees also are urged to "Smile. We are on stage," and always to maintain positive eye contact with guests. They must use proper vocabulary with guests and with one another, including "Good morning," and, "Certainly, I'll be happy to" and "My pleasure"—and not use terms such as "Okay," or "Sure," or "No problem."     

[24-Oct-2005]