A few years ago I decided that Edible Arrangements® needed a new mission statement. The mission statement had to be simple, easy to remember and more importantly, had to reflect the culture of Edible Arrangements and what I thought our products and our brand meant to our guests, franchisees and staff.
Why the change? Well, one day I asked a simple question during our weekly companywide staff meeting. I asked if anyone can recite our mission statement. All I got back were blank faces and silence. Never mind that we had large copies of our mission statement printed and displayed all over the corporate building. Nobody could remember it, and embarrassingly enough, I hate to admit it but neither could I. That is when I knew we had a problem.
So many companies just write a mission statement, or assign the task to the marketing department, because they feel they have to, without really thinking it through. Also, I believe it is also very difficult for young companies to really define their mission statement because young companies are still finding their way, still growing, still forming their culture and defining who they are and what they want to be. We created our first mission statement only a few years into our formation as a franchise company. It was too soon –we didn’t have the maturity yet to truly write a mission statement we could all believe in, a statement that really represented the DNA of the company and what it stood for.
Believe it or not, our new mission statement was simple and easy to come up with. It should be if you really understand your business and culture. If you have a lot of difficulty deriving your mission statement then I believe you just aren’t ready yet. What is our mission statement at Edible Arrangements now? ‘To Wow You’ –that’s it! Those few words say it all about Edible Arrangements. Our mission as a company, as a brand, is to ‘Wow’ our guests with our amazing products and exceptional experience every single day, ‘Wow’ our franchisees with impeccable, first-rate guidance and service, and ‘Wow’ our staff and create a culture that makes them proud. The ‘Wow’ effect was there from the very beginning when I first started the business in a corner of one of my flower shops. Many naysayers told me this idea I had would never work, but I had confidence because every time someone saw or received one of our arrangements the response was always the same –Wow!
At Edible Arrangements, ‘To Wow You’ is not just a mission statement. It’s not just a few words written on a piece of paper to be forgotten. Instead, we really believe in it, really feel it, live it and breathe it every day. With over 1,000 stores across the world, the people that really matter, the people that must believe in Edible Arrangements mission is our franchisees. Our franchisees are who you interact with, talk to and see every day. If they don’t believe in their mission, well, then we simply could not ‘Wow’ you. They are Edible Arrangements. But ‘Wow’ you they do. I’m blown away by our amazing franchisees and their dedication and commitment to ‘Wowing’ their guests all the time. Their belief in our mission –in their mission –is what makes us so successful.
Last year was the first time we presented the ‘Wow Award’ to a franchisee at our annual Edible Arrangements convention. It was awarded to an amazing franchisee, Leslie Robinson of Troy, Michigan. This year, our ‘Wow’ award was given to another amazing franchisee who exemplifies everything Edible Arrangements is and stands for. Jim Echols, owner of the Charlotte, NC store ‘wows’ not only his guests, but really ‘Wows’ us at the corporate office and all our franchisees. He carries out the Edible Arrangements mission to perfection every single day. Nothing gets past him –and I mean nothing. His desire to please, to go above and beyond, to really ‘wow’ his guests, staff and community reverberates across the system. We all follow his lead and feed off of his passion. Thank you, Jim! Thank you for helping to bring the Edible Arrangements mission to life, and on top of it, for being a really nice, caring person. Congratulations and keep on ‘wowing’ us all.
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