Apologies for not writing last Saturday as I was traveling abroad to the beautiful country of France and I really did not have the chance to sit down and write. But I am back now, and I promise to plan this better for my future travels.
Back to Egypt, but with a little bit of France lingering on my mind. As I walked down the streets of Paris on a hot afternoon with my wife, I was pretty hungry, but I just wanted a good snack to not spoil my appetite for dinner. I looked around the block and saw the famous PAUL. They are very hard to miss as they have quite a unique iconic black branding.
Just a little bit of quick history on PAUL:
Paul is a French chain of bakery/café restaurants established in 1889 in the town of Croix, in Nord, by Charlemagne Mayot.[2][3] It specializes in serving French products, including bread, crêpes, sandwiches, macarons, soups, cakes, pastries, coffee, wine, and beer.
As I entered Paul on that beautiful street in Paris, I looked around, and the level of consistency that exists in every single detail between this store and the one right next to my house in Egypt is phenomenal. You see, many companies just focus on the product, the recipe, and the taste, while what's as important and in some brands even more important is really the look and feel, aka the lifestyle of the brand.
From the outside, it's always the same iconic striking black branding with their famous white typography. When you enter PAUL, it's like you have entered the small world of PAUL. Your first encounter is that delicious smell of bread, which by the way, is intentionally baked or placed in the front of the house so that you can absorb that smell while you are walking in. Then you check everything, and the level of similarities is beyond phenomenal. The staff uniform, the way the chef's hat is always on, the black and wood subtle architecture, the black rounded light fixtures eagle eyeing all the delicious desserts. Even the POS machine you make the orders from will always be MACROS, a very well-known restaurant POS software.
Now, why is this important, you ask me? Well, it's frankly speaking one of the most important aspects of truly having an iconic global brand. You see, Paul's consistency is a simple mechanism of trust. Yes, trust between the consumer and the company. And what happens when that trust is established? Well, you feel extremely relaxed, you're in familiar territories, you feel like you are in your 2nd home, and an enjoyable consumer experience starts to materialize.
Now how do you achieve that trust? You remain extremely consistent across your entire 29 operating countries and promise the same-store level experience every time you walk into a Paul since 1889.
Now that's pretty consistent :)
In the meantime, wherever you are, head down to PAUL and treat yourself with one vanilla millefeuille and a black Americano. You won't regret it :)
Until next week, lets #BrandMup
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