What if we have it all wrong?

I’ve been building and managing brands for as long as I remember. Promoting offers, scrambling to knock out a social post like a chicken with its head cut off, and always trying to increase sales, visibility, and advertise. This way of “marketing” is a rat race that so many people and myself included, have been doing for so long. Clients pay a price, we churn out work, and the cycle repeats. It is what is required in that relationship, to get paid — produce “a thing” that performs a result. A+B=?

But what if we have it all wrong? What if the goal isn’t to scream to the world how great you are, but to create a world that guests long for? I’ve recently started working for Hogsalt, a hospitality company based in Chicago with more than 18 brands and 20+ locations in Chi-town, New York, Las Vegas, and Paris, France. It has been a complete mental shift in what I consider Marketing. Our north star is the guest, if the effort, attention, and energy aren’t towards the guest experience we are not doing it. But what does that truly mean? It means our brand is so successful we don’t even blast to the world it when we open a new restaurant. We literally unlock the doors and the line forms around the block. If you’ve ever opened a new restaurant you know the amount of collateral, promotion, and marketing that needs to be done. At Hogsalt, having all creative done in-house is key. Having an internal creative department is the way to go. It allows all of us to be intimately connected to the brands, and overall vision of the company while also having immediate access to key players all the time. It’s more efficient and cuts the cost of outside vendors who overcharge and do mediocre work. This shift of creating great work for boutique brands is refreshing and I can’t wait to share how my team evolves and formalize each one of our stores.