For years, I’ve found it amusing to see a handful of all-over-the-map restaurants selling everything from pizza, donuts, espresso and chop suey…all offered on cluttered signs as part of the same menu!
Although I find it funny, even absurd, someone within these businesses must assume a strategy like this: “If I have everything anyone could possibly want under one roof, customers will have no choice but to give me their business.”
Not surprisingly, this is a flawed strategy. I never see many customers around these places. Why would anyone go out of their way to get their pizza and morning coffee from a business that specializes in neither? These businesses lack a Brand Umbrella: a central, unifying theme that holds their business identity together. Unfortunately, many businesses present themselves to the world in the same unfocused way as these all-over-the-map restaurants.