Tasting PR | Branding Consistency: A Tale of 2 Dairy Queens

“I don’t mean to offend them. It’s just so obvious how much cooler and better the other Dairy Queen is.” 13 year old field marketing researcher

How can two stores in the same franchise be so different? An innocuous trip for ice cream turned into a lesson in branding consistency. 

Driving home from a late night trip to the bookstore, we stopped at the Dairy Queen A in the next town over. One person’s order reached us after we left, so we agreed to stop at another Dairy Queen B, our hometown favorite, to pick it up.

What happens when you compare and contrast two five to ten minute customer interchanges at two different branches of the same place?

Here’s a non-scientific look at how our experience compared . . . 

 DQ ADQ B
signageneonneon + hand-drawn window lettering and designs
staffno eye contactfriendly greeting
insectsyes, mosquitoes on babiesnone
decordatedcustomer art gallery
decorationsnoneparty theme with streamers
uniformsice cream smears on street clothesmatching Girl Scouts Thin Mints t-shirts
nametagsnonestainless with names and titles
waterolder fountainfountain + Dasani cooler
restroomsnonetwo
customersfamilieslittle league teams
wait10 minutesnone, with four people on duty
presentationcups shoved over counterBlizzards turned upside down to show thickness
brochuresnonecalendar of specials
charityno receptaclebox stuffed to over flowing

What if both columns matched exactly? Which store has better word of mouth?

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