Page 70 - The New Gold Standard

PRINCIPLE 1: DEFINE AND REFINE
investment banking firm Mann, Armistead & Epperson, articu-
lates, “The problem with something like Levitz isn’t so much the
consumer perception of the name or even the merchandise mix.
The problem is that over many, many years, the demographics
have moved and their stores haven’t.”

STRIKING GOLD

D What changes are you noticing between the customer you
served five years ago and the customer you are serving to-
day?

D What do you expect your customers will need from you
three to five years from today?
D What aspects of your business can you “make relevant” to
your evolving customer base without disenfranchising loyal,
established customer segments?

C Culling the Uniqueness of D
the Physical Environment

Robert E. Watson, managing director of Protravel International,
Inc., sums up the efforts of the visionaries at Ritz-Carlton to en-
ergize their physical environment by saying, “It’s no longer your
grandma’s Ritz-Carlton. I’ll never forget my first exposure to
Ritz-Carlton in Hawaii. I had a client who went to the hotel
in Maui over 20 years ago; he came back and said, ‘It was great,
but the décor was of out of place for a tropical resort.’ When I
visited the hotel, I thought, ‘I bet the president has a brother-in-
law who’s in the dark wood furniture business because every-
where you go, it’s the same Ritz-Carlton.’ But you won’t find
that anymore. Now each and every hotel is different, depending
on the atmosphere and location. I think that’s important. The
management team at Ritz-Carlton has recognized that there is a

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