Dean & DeLuca, Millennials, And Why Smaller Brands Will Succeed In A Global Market

For a moment, I completely forgot where I was. Where I actually was, at that particular moment, was starting out on my morning run in Tokyo while on a recent business trip. Where, just for an instant, I thought I was, was on 85th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The reason for my momentary mistake was the Dean & DeLuca gourmet food store on the Tokyo street corner near my hotel. From the outside it looked exactly like the one in my New York City neighborhood. From the inside, which I checked out while getting my habitual after-run cup of coffee, it also looked exactly the same (but with a few more Japanese businessmen). The motivation for this personal anecdote is not to receive accolades for keeping up on my fitness routine after traveling 13 hours on an airplane. It’s to pass along some thoughts on why I believe smaller, or niche, brands will be able to take on a global market and succeed. I was, after all, in Tokyo on branding business, so the topic was on my mind. It’s well known that big brands have been going global for decades, including big food brands such as McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC, and Starbucks. When a country reaches a certain level of economic development, when it has the class structure big enough to support it, you’ll most likely see the iconic logos of these establishments dotting the cityscapes. (Or, as author and columnist Thomas Friedman said, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, a few years back, “No two countries that both have a McDonald’s have ever fought a war with each other.”)