Our Evolving (Love / Hate) Relationship with Brands

Where do you stand on brands?

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Whether the students on your campus howl about the evils of corporate brands, or flock in herds to their offerings, both behaviors clearly demonstrate the power and influence that brands have with customers. 

Research has shown they can drive traffic (good for community and revenues), but can also work against diversity of choices and limit an operator’s ability to respond to rapidly changing trends in the marketplace.

Also, don’t ignore the fact that this debate goes well beyond food. How many schools embrace Apple departments in their bookstores? How about this question: “are you a Coke or a Pepsi campus?”  Corporations acknowledge their interest in gaining student brand loyalty early on, believing it can make them customers for life.  

Finally, through the power of social networking (especially via another influential brand—Facebook), likes and dislikes can have a ripple effect far outside the confines of campus.  In fact, peer-to-peer marketing of brands has proven to be very effective and is becoming pervasive on college campuses.

So the debate on brands is alive and well. And back to the question we asked in the beginning, do you think national restaurant brands are a key strategy or a necessary evil that needs to be controlled on your campus? We’d like your opinion.

You can publicly comment on this topic in the comment section below this article and give us your thinking relative to the most important role restaurant brands play on your campus by clicking here and taking this very short poll.

Rob White, FCSI, is President of Envision Strategies, a consultancy specializing in strategic planning and operations consulting for food service, hospitality and retail enterprises.