As a challenger brand, retail-focused agency, we are constantly looking for better, smarter, more efficient ways for our clients to succeed against bigger companies, bigger budgets and bigger odds. We frame everything we do with one simple question: “how can we make our clients more competitive?” Even our vernacular is filled with competitive metrics like comp over comp, increased transactions, door counts and higher unit volume. Everything is about heightening awareness and increasing market share.
But every now and then, we’re reminded that competing for the hearts and minds of consumers isn’t just about discounts and sales and loss leaders. But rather what a company does and who they are at their core. A company that is less about being self-made, and more about being self-less. If you had been in the Brookshire’s Grocery Store parking lot in Tyler last Tuesday at 5 a.m., you would have seen for yourself that they are one of those companies.
For the second time in the past eight months, Brookshire’s gathered a group of more than 40 World War II veterans and sent them on an all-expenses paid, “Heroes Flight” to Washington, DC. Over two days, they visited the World War II Memorial, the Iwo Jima Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery, and the Tomb of the Unknowns. Texas Senator John Cornyn met them at the Capitol building. School children wrote hundreds of tribute letters that were given to the men during “mail call.” But nothing moved them more than the ovation they received at the Washington airport from hundreds of people they’ve never met and will never know.
Brookshire’s will tell you it was their honor to send these men to Washington. It’s ours to have a client who so genuinely lives their brand. Below is the news story from KLTY in Tyler about their trip.