Chick-Fil-A Lives Its Brand … Again!

With a captive, hungry audience, Chick-Fil-A CLOSED their registers and gave away food.

With a captive, hungry audience, Chick-Fil-A CLOSED their registers and gave away food.

Matthew 25:35 
“For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in…”

During Snowmageddon a few weeks ago … when Mother Nature closed the South … a Birmingham, Alabama Chick-Fil-A took the opportunity to live their brand.

With snow piling up faster than it could be removed and car spinning tires and going no where, people were forced to sleep in their cars or trudge through the snow, on foot, looking for help.

Chick-Fil A, who initially sent employees home to be safe, found themselves with staff who could not make it home and returned to the store. With a store manager, a dedicated staff, a warm building and LOTS of food … they set work.  The crew hand-delivered hundreds of FREE chicken sandwiches to whoever they could reach.  They also opened their doors to allow stranded motorists to sleep under cover.  Then, provided free breakfast the next morning as everyone tried to restart their life.

Why? Audrey Pit, the store manager explained, “This company is based on taking care of people and loving people before you’re worried about money or profit.  We were just trying to follow the model that we’ve all worked under for so long and the model that we’ve come to love. There was really nothing else we could have done but try to help people any way we could.”

Read more about it here.

That is bringing your brand to life!
Your brand is the feeling that people have when they walk in your front door. More importantly, it’s also the feeling they have when they walk out. 

Many firms can create an appealing logo and meaningful tag line. But to live your brand, you have to go the last mile.

In addition to artwork and copy, your brand is the overall experience. That said, it’s vital to get the staff excited and keep them excited. This happens when they clearly understand the brand and the role that they play in making it come to life. Delivery of the brand to your staff is the first and last mile of a successful brand transition. It’s how the Chick-Fil-A staff knew they could and should fire up the grill and hand out free chicken to people in need.

When you step back and look at your brand, don’t focus on your logo, your tag line or your ad campaign … focus on your people. Have you hired the right folks? Have you trained them to act as the company acts? Do they know HOW the company acts? Do they have the tools and autonomy to do the right thing – every time?