On April 1, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published proposed rules for nutrition labeling of standard menu items in restaurants with 20 or more locations (as well as bakeries, coffee shops, and certain grocery and convenience stores). The calorie count for each item must be posted in a clear and conspicuous manner on in-store menus and drive thru menu boards. This federal standard will replace any local and state menu labeling legislation.
With consumers eating a third to half of their meals in restaurants, the law is intended to provide the same information that has been available on packaged goods since the 1990s. The hope is that consumers will make healthier choices based on their dietary needs.
The FDA has opened a 60 day window for input on the proposed policies, and final regulations should be determined by end of year. Once the regulations are finalized, all chain restaurants will have 6 months to comply. As many of our clients prepare for their regular menu board updates, some may be inclined to wait on the final regulations before refreshing their menus and menu boards.
While we’ve already seen some of our clients impacted by the patchwork of local nutrition labeling laws enacted over the past few years, these new federal regulations will affect all of our QSR and Fast Casual clients. The process of gathering nutritional information and redesigning menu boards can be complex, especially if ingredients differ by region or location.
To learn more about the updates, click here to see the Labeling and Nutrition section of the FDA’s website. To submit input on the proposed regulations, visit http://www.regulations.gov. Comments must be submitted by June 6, 2011 to be considered.
What are your responses to the new regulations? Do you have any questions concerning Synq’s capabilities regarding the caloric requirements? If so, I’m happy to respond to them in the forum below.
I’m excited to announce that we’re now providing our full spectrum of services to The Krystal Company, the oldest quick service restaurant in the South, and a cultural icon. Krystal is known for its innovative menu, small, square hamburgers, late-night hours and made-to-order breakfasts.
Krystal chose us to handle their marketing execution in order to ensure efficiency and accuracy in the delivery of the appropriate POP to each one of their restaurants. Their primary goals were to streamline their POP execution process, service individual location preferences, and provide a seamless process for their restaurant operators.
We’re looking forward to meeting Krystal’s needs by offering them superior customer support, sharing our innovative practices, and lending our knowledge and experience in the QSR industry.
We’d like to thank Blair Chancey, Editor of QSR Magazine, and her team for coordinating this year’s conference. We enjoyed making new connections with people in the industry and hearing from accomplished, inspirational speakers. What are your concluding thoughts on Dine America 2010?
A year has passed since publishing my first post on the subject of Local Marketing, and I thought it might be interesting to shift the discussion towards the execution of National Marketing Campaigns. National Campaigns are familiar activities for most QSRs and retailers; these promotional activities typically involve a series of marketing tactics including media (TV, radio, and print), direct to consumer marketing, and on-premise point-of-purchase (POP) signage.
Every marketing organization is challenged with coordinating all of these elements into a well-orchestrated campaign that fits each retail location, works for every market, and is executed simultaneously. It is because of these challenges that opportunities exist for improvement; I don’t think this is a big surprise to anyone. However, identifying and implementing improvements has been difficult for most companies.
Some of these issues and the dynamics of POP program execution were covered in the blog titled “Synergy of Services.” I am planning to delve into the details of National Marketing campaign execution in my next few blog posts to show you both the obstacles, as well as the benefits, of making significant changes to your approach towards campaign execution. In the mean time, if you have a particular challenge that you would like me to tackle, send me a note at blog@synqsolutions.com.
The theme of this year’s Dine America executive conference is “Successful Strategies for the New Decade.” I spoke with the magazine’s editor, Blair Chancey, about the event and what attendees can look forward to. Coming out of a recession, she said people want real-life best practices and takeaways that will propel them into the next decade with a positive outlook. Here are some excerpts from our conversation.
Why is this year’s theme so important for the QSR industry?
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What trends will be covered at this year’s conference?
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How are women changing the workplace?
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What is the so-called “silver tsunami”?
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Are you attending this year’s conference? What are you looking forward to discussing?
I recently attended the CFA (Coalition of Franchisee Associations) Forum on Capitol Hill. Several of our client franchisee associations are members of this coalition, and we attended the event to demonstrate our full support. While in Washington, we packed in meetings with congressional members of the Financial Services, Energy and Commerce, and Budget and Ways and Means committees to speak on issues of the new Health Care legislation, the Credit Card Interchange Fee legislation, the Employee Free Choice Act and Climate Policy.
It was a very educational experience to see how things really operate on Capitol Hill. Hopefully the efforts of the CFA will enable our clients and the rest of small businesses to operate without legislative burdens that threaten their livelihood.
So you’re about to jump on board with Local Marketing, but you may still have some concerns. In our June 24 webinar, “How to Execute a Successful Local Marketing Campaign,” CKE’s Brad Haley and Synq’s Doug Fergusson talked about best practices that would help ensure any company’s success.
In the first audio clip from our webinar, Doug touches on planning, technology, funding and education:
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In this second clip, Brad talks about the creative process, analyzing results and having an effective production and distribution partner:
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Tell us what success you’ve had with Local Marketing. We’d like to hear from you.
In our June 24 webinar “How to Execute a Successful Local Marketing Campaign,” we discovered that viewers had several questions concerning campaign development. In my post today, I’m including audio clips from CKE’s Brad Haley that feature his thoughts on how long a Local Marketing campaign should last.
Listen here:
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In this second audio clip from the webinar, Brad answers the question, “What are the top, low-cost LRM tactics that all franchisees should execute?”
Listen here:
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Tell us about your favorite, low-cost LRM initiatives.
As we continue our dialog and recap of key topics covered during our June 24 webinar, “How to Execute a Successful Local Marketing Campaign,” we will be highlighting several viewer questions specific to marketing operations. In this first audio clip, CKE’s Brad Haley answers questions about how to motivate franchisees to do local restaurant marketing and how best to communicate to franchisees.
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In this second audio clip, Brad addresses dealing with the differences of market size and localization. Will an LRM campaign that worked in a large city also work in a small community? And in smaller communities, how do you set yourself apart from the competition?
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Tell us what you think. We’d like to hear from you on these issues.
If you didn’t catch our live webinar on June 24, I hope you’ve had the chance to watch the replay of, “How to Execute a Successful Local Marketing Campaign.” CKE Restaurant’s Brad Haley and Synq’s Doug Fergusson discussed the relevancy of Local Marketing and how it is changing the way the QSR industry interacts with its audiences.
If you don’t have time to watch the webinar in its entirety, be sure to read the Twitter stream transcript of the webinar or read our blog where we’ve been posting audio clips from the event. If you have questions of your own, please comment on our Executing Innovation blog as we continue the conversation.
Local Restaurant Marketing can present challenges. For example, how do you ensure hundreds or even thousands of restaurants will comply with brand identity or legal standards? In this installment of our webinar series, CKE’s Brad Haley discusses how his company has overcome such hurdles. (Listen below.)
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Technology plays a big part in helping companies execute Local Marketing. Here, Synq’s Doug Fergusson talks about how the company’s marketing portal, Promonet, allows companies to seamlessly execute campaigns that are consistent with brand guidelines. (Listen below.)
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You can watch the replay of our June 24 webinar, “How to Execute a Successful Marketing Campaign” here.
We want to hear from you! What challenges have you had with your Local Marketing efforts? How did you overcome them?
In Local Marketing, it’s critical to analyze data to ensure your targeting is appropriate for individual markets. In our June 24 webinar, “How to Execute a Successful Local Marketing Campaign,” CKE’s Brad Haley provided some insight into how his company measures success. You can listen to his audio clip from the webinar here:
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Just as important is having the elements in place to properly execute LRM campaigns. Synq’s Doug Fergusson covered three critical areas:
A data-driven workflow
Integration of production, fulfillment and distribution
A technology platform that serves as primary interface to restaurant managers and franchisees
You can listen to Doug go into more detail on these points in this audio clip:
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For those of you who may have missed our June 24 webinar “How to Execute a Successful Local Marketing Campaign,” we’ve posted two more audio clips from the event.
In the first clip, Doug discusses why many companies who have been slow to adopt Local Marketing should now move forward. (listen below)
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In the next clip, Brad explains how CKE has been able to maintain a unified message across multiple brands. (listen below)
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You can watch the webinar on-demand in it’s entirety here.
Be sure to let us know your thoughts on these clips– also, if you have a question for Brad or Doug, please feel free to post it here in the comments. We’re eager to hear from you.
The Synq Solutions and QSR magazine-sponsored webinar, “How to Execute a Successful Local Marketing Campaign,” on June 24 was a big success, with more than 880 registrants from the QSR, fast casual and retail industries. CKE’s Brad Haley and Synq’s Doug Fergusson touched on all aspects of Local Marketing, including best practices, challenges, technology, strategy and franchisees.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be posting questions from the webinar on our blog. We’re starting this new series with two sound clips from the event:
Doug Fergusson: What is Local Marketing? (listen below)
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Brad Haley: How has CKE successfully integrated local marketing into its overall marketing strategy efforts? (listen below)
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Be sure to check back often as we update this series. If you’d like to submit your own questions, email us at localmarketing@synqsolutions.com.
I’d like to issue a reminder to all of you about the webinar we’re sponsoring tomorrow along with QSR Magazine. As of today, we have over 650 registrants, which is a strong testament to the fact that Local Marketing is a topic quite worthy of attention and conversation.
The webinar begins at 2pm EST tomorrow (6/24/10), and you can still register here. Be sure to submit any questions or topics you’d like to hear our panel cover when you register. Additionally, don’t miss our live Twitter stream coverage of the event by following the hashtag #synqwbnr on our Synq Solutions Twitter page.
After the webinar, we’ll post a summary of the event on our blog along with the live Twitter stream transcript.
Please let me know if you have any questions about the event– we look forward to your participation tomorrow!
On April 1, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published proposed rules for nutrition labeling of standard menu items in restaurants with 20 or more locations (as well as bakeries, coffee shops, and certain grocery and convenience stores). The calorie count for each item must be posted in a clear and conspicuous manner on in-store menus and drive thru menu boards. This federal standard will replace any local and state menu labeling legislation.
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