The Story

It’s a Pinkberry, or is it?

On a recent trip to Southern California, I got my first taste of Pinkberry, the fast-growing frozen yogurt chain taking over LA and NY. Each one had the store concept I had heard so much about - the hanging lamps, pebble floors, ghost chairs, etc. The stores are cool, and the frozen yogurt is good…but what really got my attention was the large number of nearly identical shops springing up.

They couldn’t have been more obvious about their attempt to copy Pinkberry - with names like Kiwiberri, Snowberry, Blue Mango and cool, modern furniture in zen-like interiors.

But it’s so much more than Pinkberry’s furnishings and surroundings that has made it so popular - it’s the multisensory experience of going there; taste and smell (it is frozen yogurt after all!), sight (the hanging lamps, artistic placement of toppings), and touch (pebble floors). Even their website states, “The shops are designed to kindle the senses“. The only sense I didn’t really think matched was the sound - the one I was in had an easy listening radio station blaring, not really the sound I would have associated with their brand.

These imitation shops are the anti-role models for bank marketers and credit union marketers…never just copy your competition because what they’re doing is successful. Every one of your bank or credit union’s touchpoints should prove your story, not just be an effort to keep up with the shop down the street.

So Kiwiberri, Snowberry, Blue Mango - just having cool, modern lamps and chairs along with your frozen yogurt doesn’t make you a Pinkberry - go out and find your own story to tell.