To construct an excellent model, you could personal an excellent idea. It’s that straightforward, clear, fascinating factor shoppers need or crave. McDonald’s owns “quick.” Volvo owns “secure.” FedEx owns “in a single day.”
Insomnia Cookies owns “heat.”
It sounds easy, nevertheless it’s not. Seth Berkowitz, CEO and founding father of the cookie chain, has spent 23 years studying this: To really personal an idea, you could do extra than simply declare it. You will need to decide to it, engineer your total operation round delivering it, and defend it as you scale.
“The founding craving was one thing heat and scrumptious,” Berkowitz explains. “And each determination I’ve made up was in service of that craving. There wasn’t a single compromise.”
That stage of dedication has constructed Insomnia Cookies from a university dorm room operation right into a nationwide chain with 350 shops, 6,000 workers, and a $350 million valuation (established in 2024, when Krispy Kreme sold its majority stake in the business).
However the true lesson isn’t about cookies — it’s about what occurs whenever you decide one differentiator and refuse to compromise on it, irrespective of how sophisticated or costly that turns into.
Right here’s what Berkowitz realized about constructing a model round a single, non-negotiable promise.
Begin With a Actual Shopper Perception
Berkowitz didn’t select “heat” as a result of it examined properly in focus teams. He selected it as a result of he skilled the necessity firsthand — and acknowledged its deeper emotional significance.
The perception got here throughout a late evening in his school home in 2002. He and his pals ordered quite a lot of pizza, which arrived heat and appetizing — however he couldn’t consider a strategy to order one thing candy that delivered that very same emotional payoff.
“I need one thing candy and scrumptious and heat and delivered to me,” he mentioned.
Then he mirrored on why. He was 21 and dwelling with pals, at “a really weak spot” between childhood and maturity. “A heat cookie for that second was somewhat spark of pleasure,” he says — evoking childhood, whereas additionally being a late-night grownup(ish) snack.
That perception — {that a} heat cookie might present consolation in any respect phases of life — turned the inspiration for all the pieces that adopted. “We took that inflection level and we bottled it up,” Berkowitz says.
The lesson: the very best differentiators aren’t invented in convention rooms. They’re found by founders who expertise an actual want and perceive its emotional significance. Berkowitz didn’t simply desire a cookie — he needed the sensation {that a} heat cookie might present.
Your Differentiator Should Be Systemizable
Most entrepreneurs suppose differentiation is about advertising and marketing messages. Berkowitz realized it’s about operations.
“Once I bake cookies, I truly have a look at temperatures,” he says. “We’ll take a look at what temperature the patron will love. No, it’s greater than love — that they may discover unforgettable.”
To do that, Berkowitz works backwards from the shopper expertise, then engineers each step to assist it: “The baking time, the cooling time, the holding time, the packaging, the warming bag that it goes in. How lengthy does it take to get of their automobile? What does the logistics appear to be?”
Take into consideration what this implies for your enterprise. In case your differentiator can’t be systematized and measured, it’s probably not a differentiator — it’s only a advertising and marketing declare.
“Each step that you simply get mistaken in that chain is a chance to fail,” Berkowitz says. “You engineer the enterprise to perfection.”
True Differentiation Is Onerous (And That’s the Level)
Right here’s what separates actual differentiation from advertising and marketing fluff: It prices cash to take care of, and opponents can’t simply copy it as a result of they’d must rebuild their operations.
Most meals companies optimize for value, shelf life, and comfort. Insomnia Cookies optimizes for temperature. Their packaging is designed to retain warmth throughout supply. Their logistics are optimized for pace.
“We engineered the recipe, the manufacturing, the availability chain, the achievement,” Berkowitz explains. “Each component of the model is in service of heat.”
This creates what strategists name a sustainable aggressive benefit. Anybody can declare their cookies are “contemporary” or “scrumptious.” However only a few firms can persistently ship heat cookies, as a result of it requires rebuilding your total provide chain round that purpose.
Your Positioning Should Develop With You
The actual take a look at of differentiation comes throughout development: Are you able to preserve consistency, and ship the identical worth, as you scale throughout markets?
It’s one thing Berkowitz focuses on rather a lot.
“I spend most waking hours occupied with this,” Berkowitz says. “Ensuring that I’ve 5,000-6,000 individuals around the globe making the correct selections to assist” the model promise.
The reply, to begin: Intensive coaching, clear programs, and a tradition the place everybody understands that heat isn’t non-obligatory — it’s the rationale the enterprise exists.
It’s additionally how the corporate evaluates new gross sales channels. For instance, when Insomnia Cookies needed to increase into daytime catering, it confronted an issue: Workplace orders may sit for hours earlier than being served, making cookies chilly.
However as a substitute of abandoning catering or accepting chilly cookies, Berkowitz needed to innovate round this constraint. “How do I innovate my packaging to make it possible for the cookies aren’t chilly?” he requested. Now it’s growing new packaging options to resolve this downside.
Tips on how to Discover Your “Heat”
So how do you establish your individual model of “heat”? Berkowitz’s method began with a private frustration, then grew right into a data-driven system.
The important thing inquiries to ask your self:
- What do prospects persistently say about your services or products?
- What do they inform their pals once they advocate you?
- What would they miss most when you have been gone?
- What’s the one factor you do this opponents battle to duplicate?
The reply must be one thing you’ll be able to measure, systematize, and construct your operations round. It must be troublesome sufficient that opponents can’t simply copy it. And it must be particular sufficient that prospects can instantly perceive and bear in mind it.
“You attempt to engineer the enterprise to be operationally glorious in each step to make it possible for the patron is high of thoughts,” Berkowitz says.
To construct an excellent model, you could personal an excellent idea. It’s that straightforward, clear, fascinating factor shoppers need or crave. McDonald’s owns “quick.” Volvo owns “secure.” FedEx owns “in a single day.”
Insomnia Cookies owns “heat.”
It sounds easy, nevertheless it’s not. Seth Berkowitz, CEO and founding father of the cookie chain, has spent 23 years studying this: To really personal an idea, you could do extra than simply declare it. You will need to decide to it, engineer your total operation round delivering it, and defend it as you scale.
