HeldEnMerk

Dear Guillaume, you just wrote “companies & the internet in 2009 & beyond”, basic lesson nr.1! Congrats!

No really, I can not understand why the majority of Belgian SME are so not-interactive on the internet. They keep spending way too many Euros on classic advertising. But their real public is elsewhere! Just like you wrote, all it takes is a long term view, patience, passion & 1 or more persons who will BE the brand/company within conversations with their public. Isn’t it funny? The more communication channels we get, the less we talk (talking in an authentic way, really taking our time to listen).

As for what Le Pain Quotidien concerns, they have one great advantage! Content, content, content! A company/brand who has got a lot to tell is one step ahead in being ‘interesting’ to its crowd. For example, I hear/see Aveve (Tuincentrum) taking its first, modest (shy) steps into Twitter & Facebook. They also have got a lot to tell/share(!). Very curious how they will evolve.

But don’t forget, first of all it’s a matter of listening, not talking.

So tell me, what do you all think?!? I’m all ears! …

What can I add to all the brilliant things that have been said before in this discussion ? I entirely agree with every word Guillaume said – and with Laurens’ comment.
Much like -for some people- blogging is the biggest fun one can have without having to take your clothes off, LPQ to me is something like the closest you can get to a Starbucks experience (in their heighdays) without having to go to one.
So I think there are some interesting lessons to be learnt out of this case. Starbucks ran into problems because they forgot to pay attention to some of the basics of how to nurture great brands.
1.Stay focused : Don’t let growth overtake your attention to delivering value. Value is created through great products and great service. Combined, they both have to result into a unique experience (P+S=E2)
2.Put the customer first : Creating customer/consumer value fuels shareholder value – not the other way around. It sounds easy, but it isn’t. Putting the customer first means that you’re constantly on the outlook to listen & to learn about what the customer feels about your P+S. And that you have the flexibility to change in order to deliver more E2.
3.Put your team first : Your people have to deliver the E2. As simple as it may sound, the consequence is that all the rest (except for your P+S) is of secondary importance. (Customer first or team first ? It really is a catch 22 : the one can’t exist without the other !)
4.We’re not equal : Great brands serve many people. Not all have the same needs nor expectations. Treat your brand as a TV-soap : there’s one story line, but different characters. Different target segments should be able to identify with the different roles.

What does all this have to do with your question ?
1.Focus on the experience : I agree with Guillaume, your site leaves lots of potential to grow into a better and more intense experience.
2.Customer first : online media (whether a website or anything else) are one of the best ways to listen to & learn about your clients. Be sure to build in tools for an open dialogue (feedback), and be sure to put somebody on it that not only can keep the dialogue alive, but -even more so !- can distill and manage the learnings.
3.Team first : Like Guillaume said, make your team the first and foremost ambassadors of your brand. Let them share the E2 - let them create the LPQ-story.
4.The soap series : A website is only one means of connecting with your customers. You‘ll need more, and different ones as well. Online experiences are important, I agree. But make sure that you have more characters in your story, each of which are ‘anchors’ for your different segments.

Nice thoughts. I agree with a lot of them.

Either you really do something useful with your brand website, either you just put your address and contact details on there.

I think LPQ comes close to a societal movement, to a vision on how you want to live your life. You’re not just selling croissants and pains au chocolats.

This means you shouldn’t stick to selling backery and food products. Go beyond. Open up your products and services. Why can’t you sell interior design, offer hollidays or publish books? You’re selling an idea, the food is just one element.

Your website should be packed with vision, inspiration and freuent updates on how you can live your live. Your website should have more daily visitors than your shops.

I think Guillaume can draw you a whole different future for LPQ, than you are considering today.

Brilliant!

Apparently I’m the only one so far not agreeing at all with what is said above.
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To start with, I don’t believe brands are able to control the internet like you say they could. Facebook was built in Zuckerberg’s dorm to exchange pictures with some fellow students, and it grew like a mushroom to what it is today. The need for Facebook could only grow as Facebook already existed. If it would have been a, say, Coca-Cola branded project and built from day one like it is today, it never would have worked.
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You say the internet isn’t a medium. Well, it is, it’s just a medium with very different rules. Where you ‘earn’ attention instead of ‘buying’ it, like you say wisely yourself. You can use it to reach your audience, like a medium, but you can’t manipulate the very texture of it. Because it’s ruled by the people, by the billions of users who form a fertile but unpredictable soil where small seeds can grow out to huge trees like facebook or wikipedia. No one can predict or control that, definitely not brands who will try to make money out of it. Talking of a Nikon-sponsored Flickr would be the same as saying that Apple could have been branded Unilever. It doesn’t work like that.
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Brands trying to build out communities are planting a plastic flower. They can plant a really nice plastic flower, but if they really believe they can grow a tree out of it, which they often do, they fail in seeing the bigger picture and understand/accept the rules of the internet.
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To tie this back to the website of Le Pain Quotidien — most the people in the web industry, of which 99% of the readers of this website (or at least the responders) I think make part of, often are blinded by their own world. There’s a world outside of the web 2.0, social communities and blogs too. And if you ask me, LPQ has as much to do with twitter, facebook and online community as your hamster has to do with Lindsay Lohan. No one is waiting for an online LPQ community, and none of the employees will ever consider the LPQ website as ‘their home’ and be online brand ambassadors. It’s naive to think that would work. And if LPQ would start selling interior design and holidays, like Pietel suggests, I would cry, together with many others.
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Vincent, if you want your website to be just a nice, on-brand digital business card, which it is now, it’s good like it is. I personally would do some fine tuning but nothing big. If you want your website to go beyond that and be an added value to your brand, you will have to rethink it from scratch.
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Le Pain Quotidien is all about healthy food and sustainability. Don’t try to be what you’re not, don’t get involved with what you don’t do. But if you could extend the LPQ experience online by giving people more of what they already get when they bite in a ‘tartine’, that would be great. It could be simple, by making a list of stuff Le Pain Quotidien likes - could be books about food (alla Michael Pollan), other brands (like Ben & Jerry’s), good cause projects (like fair trade stuff), etc. Or it could go much bigger, like an online cooking show with Alain Coumont or a recipe generator that creates ad hoc recipes based on the season, your sex, your personality and the current constellation of the planets.
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Just nothing where you need a big engagement of your audience, but a hub that can be truly useful for your customers and that stays true to the values of Le Pain Quotidien, rather than the values of the web 2.0.

I do agree with most of what Moenen says.
LPQ for me is THE reference of authenticity AND one of the only companies that was able to learn other people how – what we call normal- bread should taste!
On the other hand, we see a trend of more and more home bakery (I don’t know how this trend is worldwide) but I suggest you combine both: become also online the reference of your products.
Become THE place to be if you want to know anything about bread, jam, breakfast, brunch…. If I google today on “homemade jam” or “authentic bread” I don’t see LPQ…
So yes: organize cooking classes, online and offline. It is a “piece of cake” these days to organize streaming kind of seminars where the people can ask live questions during the online show and have an immediate answer.
If you manage e.g. to spread the word that every Sunday at 11AM , you can view a cooking class from LPQ, on 1 topic, you will grow smoothly into THE reference on the web. You have a brand, you have the products, you have the knowledge, you have the trust and you have the lovebrand, which is an excellent vantage point for the engagement of your customers in cyber space.
It is clear that you can start online cooking classes, and go further with in-store cooking classes.
A web-shop with the ingredients and cooking material could be added.
An area where tips and tricks can be shared could also be a great forum.
I’m looking forward to see how grandma’s jam is made, and how I can give the - talk of town- brunch. It is clear that I will do a few things myself, the rest I’ll come and get at LPQ!
And please add a user generated content area where I can contribute my pictures and movies!

I read a rather theoretical but interesting view on that question on following website; http://www.webreference.com/greatsite.html

I believe the conclusion underneath is very correct, complete and certainly helping to create great brand awareness through the internet

“The Web is an interactive, dynamic, and rapidly changing new communications medium that your Web site should reflect. Well-organized, edited, and timely original content set in an attractive, interactive, and consistent format are some traits of great Web sites.

By Andrew B. King

ps;
1. is it a medium?
2. forgot to say… this has been written a while ago

But why a brand website? That’s the main question! To re-inforce your off-line brand? To address your customers? To launch a conversation with your audience. To generate new revenues? The purpose and the usefulness of the brand website will result from the answer to those questions.

The real problem today is that most of us think we should be on the internet if we want to be successfull. We live with web brands like Facebook and Youtube, we experience the “virtual” value of those brands by reading in the news the price big concerns are ready to pay for them… and we hope… We hope we could reach billions of people with our brand, we believe we could earn more money by exploiting the potential of the web!

But let’s be realistic! Today the correlation between strong off-line brands and powerful on-line brands is not obvious. A few weeks, we organized a congress with the BMMA to confront traditional medias that have evolved with the digital technology, with new medias having benefited from the new opportunities created by this digital world. Conclusion: traditional medias were the winners. Indeed it appeared that only traditional brands were profitable. Their online approach w

Dear Vince,

I’m missing a very basic question in this discussion: what is the strategy of Pain Quotidien? What is it that you want to achieve? Having a website is not a strategy. Creating a website might be an anwer to the communication strategy: ‘we need more visibility’. It all has to be part of your entire communication plan. The content of the website is an even more detailed level in this communication plan.

Assuming that EBIT and EBITDA are the basic targets of LPQ, there are 3 ways to increase the revenues:

1. Instore: Increase sales by attracting new customers
2. Instore: Protect existing sales revenues by decreasing churn and creating returning customers (customer loyalty)
3. Out of store (extend portfolio): New sales revenues through a new channel (books, etc)

Inside the overall communication plan, each of these goals might have a repercussion on the content of the website.

1. Attracting new customers can be done through increased brand awareness. The internet is definitely a solution for that, but not your own website. In this case, you have to use the internet as a medium in a creative way to target your potential new customers. This PROCESS is much more important than your website itself. Through Google Media, you can sponsor interesting target portals. Invent a viral marketing tool through emailing or make deals with other companies for cross-marketing actions. Going to the website of LPQ will be the call to action, the very last step in the process. If the rest of the process isn’t there, nobody will find your website. For these purposes, the existing website reflects the needs perfectly: “attract website visitors to your restaurants by letting them experience the great atmosphere”

2. Much more important is generate customer loyalty. Confirm the customer’s choice to continue going to LPQ. For the major part, this is done in the restaurant itself. But if you want to increase this, social networking websites could be an answer. As Guillaume says: create a group on Facebook, show the recipes for healthy food on your website. But don’t forget: the process has to be in place. If you want people to go to the site for the recipes, you have to communicate this inside the restaurants!
In this part, the CONTENT of the website becomes important. Not only the value of the content, but especially the refresh rate of the newsfeed will generate returning visitors. Cross-marketing deals with external companies might again be an interesting choice to enrich your newsfeed (as discussed by Guillaume: recipes, live healthy, etc…) Don’t spend too much money on an LPQ community, stick to the core business of selling meals.

3. If you want to increase revenues by extending the existing portfolio, by selling books as proposed by others earlier, then you have to rethink the website from scratch as mentioned by Moenen. A partnership with Amazon.com could be very interesting for a book-selling sub-section inside the website. Amazon does the logistical handling (not LPQ’s core business), generates visitors to your books, and delivers a white-labeled part of their portal that you can integrate in LPQ.com. Again, it is up to LPQ to decide if this is core-business or not. I completely agree with Moenen on the phrase: “stick with the values of LPQ rather than the values of web 2.0”, especially as these values are in some cases very contradictory. (cfr. The fact that LPQ doesn’t install WiFi in their restaurants)

In my opinion, define which of the targets above is the most important and brainstorm about the process to get the people to your website and define what you want to show them.

To answer directly to your question: “In my opnion, the future of Brand websites is very varied, completely depending on the values of the Brand itself.”

Just my 50 cents,
Best regards,
Pieter

was complementary to their offline approach and they could make it performant.
The new medias were only able to generate audience, not to monetize it. They fail to develop an offline anchorage. Worse they depend on their audience. Remember Second Life, 2 years ago it was the big hit on the net… today it is nothing.

This makes me think that developing a brand website should be the result of an in-depth analysis on what you want your brand to be on the net.

For a strong offline brand like LPQ you don’t need an ambitious and arrogant website. Do not think you are able to loyalize a huge community sharing their passion for your brand. Do not think people love to interact (only a few of them do and often the less valuable!).

As said in the posts, make sure you’ll be the subject of conversation on the web instead of being the medium. And to achieve this there are other approaches than develop a brand website.

Your marketing strategy should focus on how to be the best reference in google search (organic and via adwords) in line with your products and your values. Don’t neglect blogs which are incredibly well referenced. Develop ways for people to test your products and commenting them online. Find partnerships with other massive web brands (info websites are an excellent way as they reach massive audiences everyday) they are able to generate trafic on your actions.

Maybe we can be inspired by ‘band’ sites like this one:
http://www.nin.com

After watching the video and reading the remarks above, I have to say that I think most of the comments are very far off the mark. For me, what’s important right now is TRANSPARENCY.

There is still a fundamental mistrust between the consumer and the corporation, and a strong web presence is a good way to mitigate that. PQ is lucky because it has established a following among people who want to eat healthier and enjoy the comforts of the environment they are sitting in (preferably an environment that is eco-friendly). Although I’m sure you could surpass Starbucks in the coffee department alone if you focused on marketing that side of the business a little more, you’re not a take-out zone, you’re in an eat-in zone where people are happy to take a break from the trials and tribulations of life and sit around a communal table, eat, and reach out to others or just stick to themselves. You give them the option. I love healthy options.
Your website talks about a story, but there’s no take-away message. As some of the comments said— most people who come to your website want to know where you’re located, they don’t want to join a community of other PQ people quite yet.
I thing clarifying your VOICE and MESSAGE are key to who you are and your site needs to articulate that message.
PQ’s philosophy on your site reads:
“Whenever we can, we source organic ingredients. This way, we not only build lasting and meaningful partnerships with organic farmers, but we also ensure our ingredients are of the highest quality. It’s about finding the very best, in a way that is good for all of us.
This philosophy influences every part of the way we do business, from the food we serve to the design of our stores to the materials we use. We use reclaimed wood and recycled Gypsum in construction, energy-efficient lamps, and environmentally friendly cleaning supplies and packaging.
It’s good for our bodies, our communities, and our earth.”

It’s clear you’re trying to do the right things and say the right things, but I think it still lacks SIMPLE clarity and TRANSPARENCY. People want to hear the good, but also maybe a little of the bad. And if there’s bad…it’s ok…as long as you explain how you’re trying to fix it. Your philosophy sounds like you’re pretty perfect, but there’s ALWAYS room for improvement. LISTENING AND ADJUSTING IN THESE TIMES IS A GOOD THING.

How about a simple mandate of saying you will improve/change 10 things every year about your business and share the progress with the community?

Hope this makes a little sense… I was just trying to speak to the fundamentals, not analyze a website really.

A provocative point has been made but I have to disagree with Guillaume on this one. The internet is a medium. There are similarities and differences between media and, for sake of argument, I will compare the internet to print. The Internet delivers in terms like Yahoo! and Google which “reach the world” like a newspaper or magazine. On the other hand, branded websites like LPQ are more like a brochure with no real reach beyond the message you actively spread yourself.

The real question everyone seems to be missing is: when will your book be published in English?

Hello Vincent, how are things in NY?

Your brother Thierry asked me to write a comment…

I had a look on the PQ site, and I would add 2 things to strengthen your brand:

1. Make it a bit more personal, i.e. I would add 3 videos: one about the idea and startup of PQ (by Alain, about the origins of the concept in Dansaert, story behind the communable table, …), one about the concept (inside the kitchen, people behind the machine, interior decoration, …) and one about the company (by you: about the international strategy, company values, culture, …)

2. I agree with others above that you don’t have to try to create another Facebook (I personally believe that social networks over strongly over-hyped by marketeers), but what I would like to see is a virtual wall where people can leave messages, kind of Post-its where they can leave impressions, comments, things they want to share, … to amplify your message of warmth, friendship, care,… Visitors will then be able to visit the wall to have fun, recomfort, … This feature will not ask to much monitoring from your side (often a problem with blogs and other social sites).

I think those two items could further strengthen your (online) brand image.

Cheers,
JL
Bobex.com

For me as a digital native, the main question is: why would you go to a certain (brand)site?
I use brand/company sites in the first place for the most logical reasons: adress(google maps) & opening hours.
If I’m really curious about the product/service I want to see anything but text. I prefer pictures & video that let me expierence what the product/service is all about. That’s it. If I want to know how good it is, I will search for it on blogs, ratingsites etc… Because I trust the opinion of other (expert)consumers more than the copywriters of a brandsite.

I read every single comment here, and I have to say there is a lot of marketing blabla that is making me sleepy. Lucky in the last few there were some interesting suggestions after all.
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@ Alex Drosin: I think your last suggestion is a very good one.
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“How about a simple mandate of saying you will improve/change 10 things every year about your business and share the progress with the community?”
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Guillaume, I don’t know if your answer (that most of his suggestions also work in print media) also referred to this one, but I think this could be an excellent story you can tell online. It could be as simple as a blog, focussing on how LPQ works on these things, a look behind the scenes. A personal report.
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@ Jean-Louis Van Marcke, your idea of a wall could work very well too. Encouraging people to leave a note about their experience. If you read what is written on review websites here and there, the food is never bad. The service sometimes, but if you could spill your gut on the LPQ website, LPQ could actually give a reply. Of course, you have to have the balls to not censor anything, even if they give you a zero.
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I recently visited the Google office in NY. I have so much respect for how they manage their company. There’s free food, a huge play hall and the whole atmosphere is so great that everyone wants to work for them. The result is a super-productive company. It’s all about being open, giving people the freedom, to come late at work or to complain on your own website. At the end you seize the fruits of this.
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I heard of companies in US that block websites like Facebook & Youtube, like they do in China. I wonder what kind of work environment you produce like that.