Espresso: Why Soho House Founder HATES the word "Brand"

0:00Yes, yes, people. So, The Hungry Reading List is here. right if you listen to the podcast regularly you know i love reading i think books are the most beautiful thing in the world as stephen king said they're teleportable magic or something like that these books i whittled down my gargantuan bookshelf into 46 absolute 30 bangers the link is in the show notes to get the list whatever and it'll also make you a subscriber to our weekly newsletter which i think is sick so yeah get your fucking books buddy i suppose when i was building so our house I never thought of it as a brand you can make it like feel very as you say sort of next part of the city but the other side of it is you still feel no matter where you are that you're in a sewer house how do you get the soul to feel consistent across every house but equally be different to that unique city well I think that a lot comes through the culture and the people who work there right so and it's it's a good point you you bring up and I'm glad you noticed it because it was a very thoughtful process that we went through which was I want even though the lobby in so house Nashville which was an old sock factory it used to be a factory which made socks but how can I make that reception lobby feel like the lobby that you'd find in so house Berlin yeah but even though they're totally different designs and totally different buildings but you sort of know if you walked in with a blindfold on and not saw a sign outside yeah they took the blindfold off you would say well guess where you are and people would guess that they would be in a sewer house even though the design was totally different and i think that that's down to the sort of people working behind reception it's a friendliness that they they they give a can-do attitude and so I think you can create that that feel that you're in the same place in in other ways apart from choosing the same lobby furniture and you know but then you go into a cellar house room and even though the designs are different, the sense of generosity is the same.

2:24The generosity in Koushev products, generosity in amenities, the extensive mini bar, etc. So I think people feel that they're in a sewer house, even though they might feel different buildings and different cities. One thing I wanted to ask you is you don't like the word brand, which I think is interesting. Why?

2:49I just never really liked the word I suppose when I was building Sour House I never thought of it as a brand and I thought it was a collection of individual houses yeah yeah yeah where where with a lot of members of that individual houses becoming together as a as a global membership. But I just never thought it as a brand. I just have made us feel like, you know, personal automatic. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's so interesting. It's interesting because a lot of people outside looking at, from the consumer perspective, even people I've spoken to, it's like, is it a cultural brand? Is it a status brand?

3:33And actually when speaking to you, you don't even think about that. It's just... I never thought about things like that when I ran Zoha House. I generally woke up every morning thinking, how can I make it better for a member every day? That was my thing I woke up with. And that wasn't necessarily sort of thinking brand and overthinking things like that. It was literally, how can we just keep trying to make this better? And when we build a new house, how do we make it slightly different? How can we improve on the mistakes we made in the last house? And that was always my mindset to every day. Yes, yes, people.

4:17We're trying to make Hungary into the most valuable food and drink business podcast on planet Earth. But I really need your help. I want to make this podcast so valuable for you to help you grow your business faster, stronger, better, have way more fun. We've got a super short customer feedback. Sorry, consumer survey, audience survey thing on Google Forms. There's a link at the top of the show notes. If you could fill that out, it would be so helpful. We make this podcast way better for you.