In 2010, we were at a poolside event and met an MBA student from a Kansas City college. Since Johnny Lightning Strikes Again is in the business of growing businesses, the conversation naturally turned to a concept for a bar & restaurant that he and a few of his fellow students were considering pursuing. Philosophies were shared, business cards were exchanged, and plans to discuss it over coffee were made. These conversations are always exciting, but they also highlight that there are a lot of hurdles to jump over to go from a concept to opening day.
In this case, there was one thing that made us believe that they had the right stuff to do it, however. They wanted to start with the brand.
Their concept was to start a bar & restaurant that was centered around a rotating selection of premium frozen cocktails, with the working name Snow Co. They didn’t have a location. They hadn’t even made their first frozen drink. But they saw an opportunity and understood that branding was going to be a critical part of the equation — so much so that they wanted to start working on the brand before anything else. We often wonder why this is so uncommon, because it should be one of the first considerations of every new business. Eventually, a business will be defined by a lot of things — their history, customer reviews, and the quality of their product or service. On day one, however, a business is defined solely by their brand. If it is ill-considered, it only makes the already tough task of starting a business even more difficult.
Snow & Company has arrived with a lot of hype; if you follow us on Facebook and Twitter, you’ve no doubt heard us talking about them. You can see our work on the front of their building, on the shirts of their employees, and on the glasses that their delicious frozen cocktails are poured into. We’re excited to watch the brand grow, and we bet it will be a part of Kansas City’s bar & restaurant scene for a long time to come.
