Saint Louis Bread Company was a 20 bakery-café chain based in St. Louis when Ron Shaich and Au Bon Pain bought the company in 1993. They saw great potential in the company, and hired Heckler Associates to re-name and reposition the brand for national prominence.
With its strong associtation to a single city, the name Saint Louis Bread Company would not be effective for a national brand. It might establish the bakery-café as an outsider chain and risk being perceived as inferior to a local baker.
A long name also invites shortened nicknames that can be generic or confusing. Ultimately Saint Louis Bread Company was not unique enough, and it could not be legally protected. By contrast, the name Panera was unique, legally protectable, and representative of a brand destined for everyone's neighborhood.
Strategic Frameworking completed an in-depth study to learn more about Panera's potential audiences and their priorities. The client's hunches were confirmed. They asked Heckler Associates to help redefine the brand, articulate its mission and values, and identify core attributes and differentials. This fundamental recipe for brand positioning and brand design would guide the efforts of all involved in the rest of the re-branding initiative—the company itself, its suppliers and its service providers, including architects, designers and Heckler Associates.
Acting upon our recommendation, Panera established a brand board made up of senior management, Strategic Frameworking and Heckler Associates that would meet biannually to discuss any emerging, strategic brand development issues. These focused discussions with key marketing operations managers on issues of channel distribution, market development strategy, the role of advertising and neighborhood marketing, and dissemination of brand culture throughout the company proved to be instrumental in the company’s rapid development of a strong consumer brand.
In the overall approach to brand re-design, Heckler Associates created a new name and brand, design all in-store communication pieces and work closely with the architects designing the store interior. These elements were all immediate brand touch-points for the consumer. A new, fully realized brand positioning was going to be a critical asset for the management team to use to recruit strong franchisees that would fuel strategic national expansion.
The central image of the logo was a painterly line illustration of a woman with flowing hair caressing a loaf of bread. She came to be known as "Mother Bread" and symbolized the core essence of the brand's differential. Interestingly, the process of making sourdough bread requires a small piece of the dough used to make the previous batch of bread dough. This starter piece is often called the "mother." Whenever Panera opens stores in a new region, a piece of the original starter that was created in the 1980s is lovingly carried to the new bakery to ensure that original Panera quality and character will rise again and again.
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