Founded in the picturesque city of Portland, Oregon, you’ll find one of the most quirky businesses not just in North America—but throughout the world. As far as shock value is concerned, at first listen, hearing someone mention the name Voodoo Doughnut—probably isn’t necessarily something that may astonish you.
Be that as it may, make no mistake, there is absolutely nothing traditional about Voodoo Doughnut at all. Which is why it has become one of the most popular businesses in the United States that most people have never heard of.
Aside from the doughnut shop having some of the most crazy names for their doughnuts like: the Marshall Mathers, the Maple Blunt Blazer, and the Old Dirty Bastard—Voodoo Doughnut also package their doughnuts in custom pink boxes—which have a skeleton and a snake imprinted on the side of them.
Those features alone would separate the Voodoo Doughnut brand from the vast majority of doughnut shops in the market. However, the thing that has really made Voodoo Doughnut so newsworthy and one of the most popular doughnut shops in America is that the shop also serves as a wedding chapel! Performing both legal and non-legal marriages for their customers.
The success of Voodoo Doughnut is a great example of how you could create a niche for your brand, even in an extremely crowded market—while also fulfilling a debt to your target audience.
1. A commitment to its core values
Much like a great person, a great brand must have a set of key principles that it stands for in order for people to both trust and admire it. Take Voodoo Doughnut for example, as strange as they may appear initially, the brand truly is committed to making the world a better place by giving back to their community.
By publicly partnering with organizations like: The Epilepsy Foundation, Make-a-Wish, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and The National Alliance to End Homelessness—Voodoo Doughnut’s customers not only support the brand because they provide tasty doughnuts and a humorous place to get married; they also support the brand because they understand and admire its commitment to its core values.
Furthermore, another one of the many reasons why it is so important for your brand to have a set of core values that it remains committed to is because while other brands may try to compete with yours by duplicating your products or services—they could never succeed by copying its core values.
2. To deliver on your promises
Brand integrity is a term that is often used by marketing execs to describe how customers perceive their respective brands. Although it isn’t necessarily tangible, anyone that has ever managed a successful brand would attest that brand integrity is an extremely valuable asset.
So much so, that it could very well be what ultimately determines the fate of your business.
Brand integrity is established as a result of how well your brand’s actions, messaging, and values are congruent with what it promises consumers. And while any brand could easily make promises to appeal to its audience—great brands become that way by always delivering on the promises that they make to their audience.
Whether it's through promises made through your marketing communications, quality guarantees, or public statements made by your team on behalf of the brand—always deliver on the promises that your brand makes to its audience.
3. Consistency
What makes a good friend someone that you just love to hang out with? Sure, it could be that they’re gregarious, humorous, kind, and outgoing. But none of that stuff would matter if that person did not also exhibit another important personality trait—consistency.
Knowing what to expect from someone on a day-to-day basis plays a huge role in how we’ll decide whether or not that person is someone we’d rather embrace—or avoid.
The same is true for the way consumers evaluate brands. For instance, if you were to ask ten true gamers to describe their experience shopping at a GameStop store, you’d likely get the same answers from all ten of them. That’s because as a brand, GameStop is extremely consistent.
From their store decorations, customer service, and even their vanilla approach towards brand marketing—GameStop has always been a beacon of brand consistency. Which is a big reason why their customers have consistently supported their brand while other gaming retailers have gone out of business.
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