Sometimes It’s About the Tiniest Details

Cosi gives us flatbread samples. Starbucks calls their employees “baristas.” And Spice Market requires their female wait staff wear gold earrings.

Indian-inspired earrings. In yellow gold. Nothing else will do.

Spice Market is a restaurant in the heart of New York City’s Meatpacking District that focuses on Southeast Asian cuisine. But it’s not just the cuisine that makes it Southeast Asian. In addition to menu items like curried duck and chicken wings drizzled in sticky-sweet chile sauce, the restaurant decor is straight out of an Indian bazaar. And from a brand experience perspective, yellow gold earrings are the icing on the cake.

According to owner and founder Lois Freedman, “I’m very visual,” she says. “I’m involved in the look of a restaurant, down to the staff’s jewelry. At 66, I don’t allow it. At Spice Market, I want the women to wear Indian earrings, yellow gold. I have to be specific. Otherwise they could come in with turquoise ones from New Mexico!” (New York Magazine, “Spice Marketer” by Beth Landman)

And she’s right. The tiniest detail – down to the color and style of staffs’ earrings – has more of an impact on your customer’s brand experience than you’d think. It’s this type of attention to details and consistent messaging that help create a spot-on, gut says YES brand experience.