Storyboard: Don of a New Day

A turnaround ushers in a new era of advertising at chain restaurant Don Pablo's.

By Margaret Littman, Contributing Editor -- Chain Leader, 8/1/2006

It’s been five years since Don Pablo’s, the Lubbock, Texas-based Mexican chain, courted new customers on television. In that period the company “crashed and burned,” says new Senior Vice President of Marketing and Strategic Planning Robert L. Hogan.

The last time the company’s ads graced the airwaves, sales were in a freefall and the future of the brand was uncertain. During the TV interim, the chain was producing what Hogan calls “very literal” advertising in print media, with four-color inserts in newspapers and other outlets.

What a difference five years makes. Don Pablo’s systemwide sales were flat in 2005 as compared with 2004, which, of course, isn’t ideal. But given that previous years had logged drops as dramatic as 8 percent, flat was progress. The company had emerged from Chapter 11 protection in May 2005. Later that year, Rick Barbrick, who helmed a successful turnaround at Bertucci’s, joined Madison, Ga.-based Avado Brands, Don Pablo’s parent, as CEO and president. All of those signs suggested that it was time for Don Pablo’s to return to the small screen.

Among its retrenching work in 2005, the company conducted extensive focus group surveys to understand when diners turned to Don Pablo’s and how they perceived the brand.

“The heritage of this brand was that it was discounted to death,” Hogan explains. “We needed to grow our share of visits, and we needed to understand that we are perceived with other casual-dining chains, not other Mexican chains.” Hogan was also grappling with Don Pablo’s “significant loss in brand awareness,” he says, in the period it was off the air.

In 2000 the chain spent $4 million on a TV ad campaign that emphasized its authentic Mexican positioning, a tactic it now eschews. Because terms such as “real” and “authentic” raise different expectations for different diners, Hogan says they tend to be “polarizing.”

Chain Leader estimates Don Pablo’s is spending double its 2000 ad budget, about $8 million. In 2000, the chain had 139 units, as compared with 96 today. But with restaurants still in 19 states, it has the kind of geographic distribution that makes television advertising cost-effective. The ads began airing in May in 10 markets: Baltimore; Cincinnati; Columbus, Ohio; Cleveland; Dallas; Indianapolis; Minneapolis; Washington, D.C.; and Orlando and Tampa, Fla.

The chain is holding off on expanding into new markets in 2006, focusing instead on strengthening its brand awareness, improving in-store service and beefing up sales at current locations.

A Look Inside
To reach diners in those markets, Don Pablo’s collaborated with Greenville, S.C.-based Brains on Fire, the ad agency that has worked with the chain off and on since the chain was founded in 1985.

“We felt they had real understanding of how their customers felt and how they used Don Pablo’s,” says Brains on Fire partner Greg Cordell. “We learned that food is important, but it is the total experience of Don Pablo’s that sets them apart. You can get fajitas just about anywhere these days.”

Over a 60-day period, Cordell’s team created three spots for Don Pablo’s: a generic branding spot, one for specific events and a third, “Viva la Margarita,” which features some of the new margarita products Don Pablo’s added to its menu this year. While alcohol accounts for about 16 percent of sales, these dishes have margarita flavors as part of the food; they are not simply margaritas served with the standard Mexican fare. “What we wanted to do is capture the spirit of a margarita and put that into the food, make it celebratory,” Hogan says.

Along with the margarita dishes, the company also introduced Mexican carnitas, which now brings in more than 5 percent of sales.

Party Time
While the “Viva la Margarita” ad emphasizes the significance of the new dishes, for the first time in Don Pablo’s history, the new campaign shows the restaurant as well as the food. Don Pablo’s restaurants are designed to make the diner feel like he is eating at an outdoor Mexican plaza, modeled after one in Puerto Vallarta, even while he’s eating indoors in Cleveland.

“We wanted to reacquaint customers with the restaurants. We wanted to show guests having fun the way they do at Don Pablo’s. It is often larger parties in the restaurant, and we think we captured the sense of what it would be like, with lots of activities going on,” Cordell says.

In the new commercials, those activities include enjoying the new dishes and singing and dancing to music from Mariachi Campanas de America, one of the top mariachi bands in the United States (they’ve even played to audiences at the White House).

Adds Cordell: “They embody the spirit of the brand: They’re fun, yet classic.”

“Viva la Margarita!” Length: 30 seconds
1. Voice-over of mariachi band leader: At a lot of restaurants, this is a margarita. Woman: Olé.	2. Band leader: But at Don Pablo’s, viva la margarita!
3. Group of women: Olé!	4. Band leader: The zest of Don Pablo’s famous margaritas, now fresh-squeezed into six new menu sensations.
5. Margarita salads, fajitas, margarita enchiladas, burritos, wings and more. It’s the new flavor celebration of the summer.	6. Band leader: Viva la margarita!
7. Crowd: Olé!	8. Band leader: Only at Don Pablo’s.