From Cabo: Authenticity in Action at the Salad Bar

The Thanksgiving Salad Bar at the Hilton Cabo San Lucas

One of the best books that I read this year was Authenticity.

It's filled with excellent examples and useful models.

What was perhaps most striking to me, however, is the 'rightness' of their observation that we all desire authenticity. The opening of the book, a trip through a grocery store, is dead-on.

I find myself noticing this 'authenticity-jones' when it occurs in me, and boy did it occur last night.

We had a Thanksgiving buffet at the Hilton Cabo San Lucas (I should get a free room, considering how many times I've mentioned the hotel). The buffet was outstanding, but one feature really stood out - the salad bar.

I'm not a really big salad eater, but this salad bar stopped me in my tracks.

"Holy crap", I think were my exact words. I grabbed Angie and said, "You've got to see this. It's the most incredible salad bar I've ever seen!".

The interesting point is that it wasn't the largest I've ever seen, or the biggest variety I've ever seen. It didn't necessarily have my favorite salad makings.

Instead, it was the most authentic salad bar I've ever seen.

Look at the photo above. Click on it to see it in full size. You'll notice:

• The servers are dressed like farmer/grocers
• The greens are all in 'original' form - full leaves, full vegetables
• The farmer/grocers hand-cut your salad to order with scissors, in real-time

This was as close as you can get to an 'off-the-vine' salad without entering a garden.

If you cannot take your customers to the source, how can you (like the Hilton) bring the source (or the illusion of the source) to your customers?
Pick one of your offerings and ask these questions:

1. What does my offering look like at its source?
2. What does my offering look like when I serve it?
3. What is the (authenticity) gap?
4. Is the gap good? Some things - perhaps sausage - shouldn't be seen in 'authentic' state.
5. How can you close the authenticity gap?