Mimicking Whole Foods Market looks at competitors that try to replicate another, but the people part of that equation.
Publix, Giant Eagle, Safeway, and Wal-Mart are all trying to replicate the products and experiences Whole Foods delivers, but they can’t replicate the people Whole Foods has delivering the products and experiences to customers. Products and programs do not create brands, people create brands. It’s the people that matter more in creating a brand than do products or programs.
In our Dreamworks/Pixar conversation, we were focusing on the people part of this (perhaps obvious) equation, but still weren’t able to unpack what it was that made the people behavior in a materially different fashion.