Finding the Jobs

How do we become lovable, or at least customer-friendly?

In the case of the company Sweetgreen, it might just have to do with telling your story in a really vivid way.

Sweetgreen’s story even sometimes includes parking tickets.

The impact of receiving a parking ticket, along with experiencing other inconveniences both have alot to do with the way the DC-based company thinks.

Sweetgreen, which sells frozen yogurt and salads to its customers has increased its revenue more than 300 percent since its creation three years ago, according to the New York Times. In a city full of competitors offering similar fare, Sweetgreen has managed to figure out ways to clarify and spread its fully-formed philosophy — “random acts of sweetness” — in a way that’s designed to get its customers talking about–and buying its products.  Here’s a sample of how it thinks:

“If you biked to work on a rainy day or received a parking ticket, you may have experienced our random acts of sweetness. It’s a mini movement that we created to make your rainy day brighter, or your mood a little lighter. Usually in form of a green envelope containing a gift card, our goal is to share the sweetgreen happiness to our community – no matter how big or small.”

In the often crowded, parking space-challenged Georgetown area of Washington, DC, the idea of returning to your vehicle and finding a parking ticket may be frustrating, but probably not entirely unexpected. On the other hand, returning to your car and finding a gift card from Sweetgreen attached to your windshield, positioned beside that nasty ticket–well now there’s something that can at least take the sting out of the fine.  And maybe give you a reason to patronize Sweetgreen.

At least until you have to write the check for the parking ticket.

(For more about Sweetgreen and ways businesses use stories to market our products and services, check out M P Mueller’s fascinating blogpost in the New York Times. (ttp://tinyurl.com/2eb8gyl)

What do you think of Sweetgreen’s approach to increasing its customer base?  What would it take to get you to try a new product or think more favorably about a new company?  Leave a comment below, or email me at heathertaylormedia@gmail.com.