Posts Tagged ‘marketing’
By: Glenn Haertel
May 6, 2010 | 2 Comments
I attended the Restaurant Leadership Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona last month and was inspired by the topics raised. Much of the discussion went back to the unique issues that QSR and fast casual restaurants are dealing with in this economic environment. For example, while today’s customer seeks value, that doesn’t translate to “cheapest.” Customers have plenty of options and want the best quality for the price. Consumers also expect restaurants to connect with them in a way they will remember, whether it’s greeting them at the door, offering to carry their tray to the table if their arms are full or having an exceptionally clean store. In a nutshell, they want a pleasant experience.
Another theme discussed was the need to increasingly funnel more marketing dollars into local campaigns, but in a way that compliments the national marketing strategy. This ensures brand standards are maintained and messaging is consistent – yet can speak to the uniqueness of the local market.
With social media so prevalent today, the conference spoke about how important it is to stay connected to your customers. It’s not enough to market your company; you have to engage in a dialogue by speaking with your customer, not to them. Whatever the platform is — blogs, social media sites or microsites — the conversation must go both ways. And it’s imperative that we monitor the social media sites to collect valuable insights on what our customers are saying.
One final note is that community remains a strong force. Restaurants must be engaged in their community. There are countless ways to be engaged in and support your community, which could include supporting local schools, participating in charitable events or just volunteering time. When you invest in your community, you will see a return on that involvement.
RLC was well attended this year, and I look forward to another motivating event next year. If you attended this year’s conference, tell me what you thought.
Permalink | Tags: (Local Marketing, marketing, QSR, Restaurant Leadership Conference, restaurant marketing, RLC, social media)Add Comments | View Comments (2)
By: Doug Fergusson
April 14, 2010 | No Comments
It’s easy to forget that much of what’s practiced in today’s retail business is based upon a foundation that was set over the last 100 years. While there has been an introduction of technology, such as bar scanning and sophisticated inventory management systems that have improved operations and service, basic marketing techniques have remained relatively unchanged.
Mass media (TV, radio) is still a large portion of marketing spend, and direct-to-consumer communications are primarily non-personalized Free Standing Inserts (FSI’s) and mailers. On-premise marketing also continues to be centered on POP signage that directly supports national campaigns with little or no localization.
All of these practices ignore changing consumer behaviors. The New Consumer expects retailers to speak to their individual interests and preferences. This is true of direct-to-consumer communications, as well as on-premise signage at a specific store. These New Consumers want to feel a sense of relationship to the places they frequent. Walking into a store and seeing signage that speaks to your interests and lifestyle gives you a sense of ownership in the store. That ownership can mean the difference between a retail location being a convenience or a destination.
Responding to this need requires a rethinking of the retail space and the way you communicate with customers — both within the store and directly. Consider these ideas:
- Customize each store’s menu boards so it features local customer favorites
- Add signage that speaks to local events (high school teams, concerts, etc.)
- Include signage in other languages that appeal to local demographics
- Localize store signage to reflect community tastes and interests (specific products or traffic patterns)
- Frequently rotate the store’s graphic themes with changeable graphic panels (perhaps with graphics that reflect the community)
- Integrate direct-to-consumer communications (mail, e-mail) with store signage
- Build completely personalized direct communications (graphics, messaging and offers) based upon specific consumer preferences and community themes
There are other ways to create a sense of relationship with your customers. Many marketing campaigns may seem difficult or expensive; however, having the right partners to execute them can make this easy. Focus your attention on expanding your creative thinking and the rest will fall into place.
New Consumers aren’t just interested in relationships; they also have a thirst for new things to talk about in order to feed their social media habits. In my next blog post, I will discuss why agility should be a cornerstone of your marketing program.
Permalink | Tags: (best practices, Local Marketing, marketing, New Consumer, Retail)Add Comments | View Comments (0)
By: Randy Naegele
April 14, 2010 | No Comments
Schlotsky's image from Stores Magazine
The April issue of Stores magazine features Synq Solutions in an article describing how we execute marketing initiatives for hundreds of Schlotzsky’s locations. The piece is titled ‘Marketing Synchronicity: Synq Solutions Helps Schlotzsky’s Franchisees Implement Marketing Programs’, and it’s a great, in-depth look at how we manage local marketing and the individual needs of each franchise. You can read the article in its entirety here.
Permalink | Tags: (Local Marketing, marketing, QSR, schlotzsky's)Add Comments | View Comments (0)
By: Mike Snyder
April 7, 2010 | No Comments
image from PRNewser
For the month of April, we’re dedicating our topics of discussion to Restaurant and Retail Industry Trends.
To combat economic challenges, restaurants and retailers have created innovative ways of reaching customers. Some brands are honing in on shopper experience, while others concentrate on price reductions, health conscious consumers, local marketing and eye-catching promotions. We’ll cover these points and discuss the unique challenges of getting great marketing ideas from concept to in-store delivery in the most efficient and cost-effective manner. Last, we’ll touch on sustainability in print to commemorate Earth Day on April 22.
As always, we encourage you to share your thoughts and opinions through commentary.
Permalink | Tags: (Industry Trends, marketing, promotions, QSR, Retail)Add Comments | View Comments (0)
By: Doug Fergusson
March 29, 2010 | No Comments
The execution of large scale POP marketing programs has been a challenge for decades. Most retailers respond to these hurdles by developing extensive processes and procedures that are considered today to be the “proven” approach. While these entrenched methods may be perceived as safe, most oftentimes they are far from ideal as they have not evolved with changes in the retail environment. Are your proven approaches really the lowest risk if they harbor waste and inefficiency?
The execution of POP campaigns can be divided into several overlapping phases:
- Marketing Strategy – The practice of determining which products are of interest to consumers and how they will be sold, communicated and packaged.
- Creative Development – The process that translates the marketing strategy into graphic messages that can be published for printing or online use.
- Profiling – The process of matching specific marketing messages and POP elements to each store.
- Production – The translation of the creative work into actual POP elements.
- Fulfillment – The assembly of a group of specific POP elements that match the exact needs of a retail location into a POP “kit.”
- Shipping – The transportation of each POP kit to each retail location.
- Receipt and Installation – The receipt of the kit followed by the installation of POP elements prior to the start of the promotional campaign.
In practice, these steps tend to be chaotic and very dynamic; it is not unusual for retailers or QSRs to have hundreds of changes throughout the course of a single campaign. Meanwhile, the traditional buying practices of these companies tend to fragment these processes further as they seek to buy at the lowest price. The individual components may be at the lowest cost, but the net result is an inefficient and wasteful workflow.
Consider these opportunities:
- Speed – Based on my experience, more than half of the time consumed to execute a POP campaign is spent waiting for one party or another. What is speed-to-market worth to you?
- Cost – So much focus is placed on the per-piece cost of POP materials, and so little is placed on the total quantity ordered. Does every location require exactly the same items? What is the cost of the “extras” left over after a campaign because you are afraid to run out?
- Time and Focus – How much time does your organization spend trying to coordinate the overall process? Would that time be more valuable spent on your customers?
- Effectiveness – Do your marketing messages speak to local preferences? Are you keeping your campaigns simple just so they are easier to execute?
Consolidating the execution of multiple phases into a single qualified supplier provides the focus that is necessary to attack the inefficiencies inherent in this chaotic process. The cost and time savings that are derived can be sizeable; I have seen some companies save over 20% of the cost of their POP program by rethinking the entire process.
The consequences of something going wrong in a POP campaign can be very ugly, so it’s natural to want to hold on to your tried and true approach. However, the retail environment is changing and the opportunities for cost savings and improved speed, flexibility and effectiveness can make it worthwhile to leverage the synergy of services.
Permalink | Tags: (campaigns, marketing, POP, print fulfillment, production, profiling, QSR, Retail)Add Comments | View Comments (0)
By: Doug Fergusson
February 23, 2010 | No Comments
It occurred to me that my previous posts on the subject of Local Marketing have been directed at the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of local marketing, but really didn’t address the ‘why.’ It is easy to assume that most people appreciate the value of local marketing; however, I think in reality many are far less certain.
Most local marketing activities are initiated by individual store managers or franchisees on trial and error basis to increase revenue during slow periods or increase loyalty with the local consumer. Their methods are often not ideal, and their means to measure results are limited; however, when they find something that works for them, they stick with it.
I see the rationale for local marketing falling into several distinct categories:
- Coverage: Some local marketing approaches provide an added medium for communicating with customers that aren’t covered by national campaigns (i.e. flyers handed out to local businesses or schools)
- Conditions: Local marketing provides a means to speak to specific market conditions (i.e. competitor is offering a special across the street, local high school makes the playoffs, etc.)
- Community: Local marketing enables store managers to customize the store experience to match the interest and tastes of local customers. (i.e. Spanish signage in heavily Hispanic areas, etc.)
While the first two reasons tend to be the primary drivers for campaigns, I am beginning to believe that the third may be the most important. Changing consumer interests, fed by social media trends, are leading buyers to expect a more personalized experience at the retail locations they frequent. These ‘New Consumers’ are favoring locations that have a buzz; how you create and maintain the buzz is the challenge.
In my next post, I will share ideas that I have collected about New Consumers. While much of this information offered by ‘experts’ is speculative, it does raise some interesting possibilities. And now, I’d love to hear from you—what are your thoughts on the ‘whys’ of local marketing?
If you liked this post, you may want to take a look at my commentary on Local Marketing – Setting Goals.
Permalink | Tags: (franchisees, in-store marketing, Local Marketing, marketing, media, social media)Add Comments | View Comments (0)
By: Simon Meachin
February 17, 2010 | No Comments
I’m proud to say that we’ve partnered with CKE brands for more than ten years now as their in-store marketing execution provider. What’s great about this partnership is that it truly illustrates the power of a one-stop shop approach for printing, fulfillment, shipping and technology solutions to reduce costs and increase efficiencies. We’ve published a two-part case study on CKE brands titled “Synq Solutions Provides Series of Innovative Solutions to Hardee’s® and other CKE brands”. The study focuses on Hardees in particular, and reveals how ‘intelligent profiling’ enabled them to reduce their inventory costs by 18%. We hope that our study provides you with some insight as to how your business can execute its marketing campaigns more efficiently.
As always, we invite you to post comments or questions and share your thoughts on the subject.
If you liked this post, you may want to take a look at Doug’s blog post on Local Marketing Profiling.
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Permalink | Tags: (CKE, Hardees, Local Marketing, marketing, marketing campaigns, QSR)Add Comments | View Comments (0)
By: Doug Fergusson
January 26, 2010 | No Comments
I was fortunate to attend the National Retail Federation Expo in New York on January 11-12. I had not attended for a number of years so it was quite fascinating to see what has changed and what has stayed the same.
On the surface, the show continues to be a retail technology showcase; however software, not hardware, has become the centerpiece of the show. I was surprised to see that some of the same business problems that challenged retailers 20 years ago (POS automation, supply-chain management, etc.) are still a focal point of many of the solution providers. There was one clear emerging trend that appeared throughout the conference – retail is changing from being supply-chain driven to consumer focused.
Over the last 20 – 30 years, most retailers’ investment in technology and management attention has been focused on supply-chain optimization. I don’t think anyone was suggesting that this was wrong; after all, getting the right goods, to the right place, and the right time is essential to good retailing. It’s just that a lot of people are now saying the game has changed.
Consumer-centric retailing focuses first on the customer experience and then builds everything from that starting point – product/menu offering, retail environment, marketing, customer service, etc. Some think that changing this focus is necessary to respond to what is believed to be a fundamental shift in consumer motivation. The idea that many consumers, particularly active social media participants, are driven to retail more for the experience and less to buy “stuff” is very significant.
I can’t say that I have fully digested this concept and what it might mean to retail. However, it does raise some interesting ideas, some of which were mentioned at the show:
- Localization – Stores that are merchandised (product, price, signage) uniquely to reflect local consumer tastes and interests
- Pop-up retail – Portable “stores” that can be moved by truck throughout the day
- Temporary stores – Stores set up for short periods (days or weeks) in response to local market events
- Theatric spaces – Stores that have been designed as “must see” destinations with extreme art and architecture
- Dynamic environments – Retail spaces that change frequently (weekly, daily or even throughout the day) through the use of lighting and changeable graphics to create a dynamic customer experience.
- Fast fashion – New fashion delivered to stores within two weeks of concept
These trends point to a need for agility and speed in your marketing processes; I think these topics are worthy of future blogs posts. Let me know if you agree; send me your comments to blog@synqsolutions.com, and I’ll post them.
Permalink | Tags: (dynamic customer experience, dynamic environments, fast fashion, localization, marketing, National Retail Federation Expo, pop-up retail, product offering, retail environment, solutions, supply chain, technology, temporary stores, theatric spaces)Add Comments | View Comments (0)
By: Doug Fergusson
January 7, 2010 | No Comments
Once you’ve determined your goals, messaging and audience, you’ll want to consider how to deliver your Local Marketing to consumers. I use the term Media to broadly describe message delivery tools.
I like to divide media into two groups: (1) Off-premise and (2) On-premise. Off-premise media includes any form of message delivery that is not at the store or restaurant, such as: TV and radio ads; billboards; off-premise signage, such as bus stops; direct mail and email; text messaging; free-standing inserts (FSIs); and door hangers. On-premise media includes: window clings, menu boards, pole signs, roof banners, marquis signs, register toppers, counter mats, table-tents, flyers, brochures, bag stuffers, and any other means of displaying a message in-store.
Any of these media options can be used for national promotions (i.e. the same message everywhere), but not all are effective or practical for Local Marketing. Consider first and foremost your desired level of segmentation. For example, TV and radio ad campaigns developed for a specific market might be feasible for very large cities, but unlikely to be considered for a single store. Any of the on-premise media and some of the off-premise options like direct mail are effective for highly targeted messaging, but be sure you have the right building blocks in place to execute them:
- Location profile data
- A means to manage and leverage the data
- Messaging and graphic strategy designed for Local Marketing
- Print and fulfillment process that is capable of delivering individualized messages in the desired media form quickly and efficiently
If you don’t have all of these in place, you might want to investigate your options.
Matching the right media to the targeted audience and message can have a significant impact on the effectiveness of the campaign. For example, a table-tent might be an effective way of promoting return visits to a QSR, but is unlikely to have much effect on the size of the order of customers walking into a store. The more media options you have that are “local marketing enabled” the more likely you can deploy successful Local Marketing campaigns. Finding partners with the widest range of capabilities in an integrated delivery system can go a long way towards meeting this need.
Permalink | Tags: (localization, location, marketing)Add Comments | View Comments (0)
By: Glenn Haertel
December 31, 2009 | No Comments
I’d like to congratulate our long-standing client, CKE Restaurants, Inc., for its innovative marketing tactics – and for making us laugh. QSR magazine recognized CKE in its Best of 2009 — for executing the most extensive social media strategy. It leveraged Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr – and was among the first to develop iPhone apps. In addition, Hardee’s Biscuit Holes ad, titled “A vs. B,” won the top spot on TBS’ special, “Funniest Commercials of the Year.” You can watch it on YouTube.
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By: Doug Fergusson
November 17, 2009 | No Comments
Consider this: One of our customers changed all of the signage and brochures from English to Spanish-only at selected stores that were located in areas with a large Hispanic population. The change worked as those stores are now among the best performing in the nation. The lesson here is that Local Marketing works if – and only if – the messaging is relevant to the audience.
So how do you make your Local Marketing messaging relevant? I’d begin with Segmentation. In other words, what do you know about the consumers who visit each location? Is there a concentration of one or more ethnic groups? Are there certain age groups that frequent your store or restaurant? Is English a second language to a large number of your customers, and if so, what is their primary language? Are there different groups visiting at different times, such as professionals in the morning or soccer moms at lunch?
Once you collect data about current or potential customers, you can use it to build your Local Marketing campaigns. For example, if you have a large number of Hispanic customers, you may want to have Spanish or bi-lingual signs for a given location. You also may want to promote different products that meet customer preferences, such as ice tea in the south. Alternately, you might want to promote speedy service to busy professionals.
Messaging can be as involved as you would like. It can be one-dimensional, meaning that you speak to just one customer attribute (i.e. customers 18-25) or it can be multi-dimensional (i.e. professionals who are Hispanic). The specific attributes that you target and the level of complexity can change over time; I strongly recommend starting simple and evolving as you gain experience. However, make sure the technology platform that you are building upon is capable of handling more complex messaging.
The process of mapping location and customer attributes to messages can be time consuming. But once the rules are set, the ongoing effort drops significantly. Furthermore, linking data sources, such as POS databases, into the messaging process allows marketing strategies like localized pricing strategies to be implemented without significant management support. Speaking from my direct experience, the technology needed to deliver store-specific signage is surprisingly efficient and effective once it is set up.
Good luck with your Local Marketing efforts. If you’d like to share a success story or ask a question, please email me at dfergusson@synqsolutions.com and I’d be happy to share it on this blog.
Permalink | Tags: (localization, location, marketing)Add Comments | View Comments (0)
In this post, I’ll expand on the topic of menu labeling with a particularly relevant case study of one of our clients, 
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