Chain Restaurant Marketing: Fresh Attitude

Saladworks unveils a new diva-style personality to help sell its premium, customized salads.

By Margaret Littman, Contributing Editor -- Chain Leader, 5/1/2007

The sassy Salad Diva campaign features fictional personas talking about how they know what they want and aren’t afraid to ask for it.

It was a tough year for those who make their living off of produce. Last September and October, more than 200 people in the United States were infected with E. coli, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The outbreak was traced to spinach from 10 different states.

"That spinach knocked the wind out of our sails," says Paul Steck, senior vice president and chief operating officer of Saladworks, the Conshohocken, Pa.-based fast-casual concept that is all about salad.

But smart branding and marketing helped the 11-year-old chain weather the contamination storm. Despite the E. coli scare, Saladworks’ sales were up 5.5 percent in November and December over those months the previous year. Overall sales increased 3.3 percent over 2005. Steck is estimating 2007 sales at $68 million, up from $54 million in 2006. That estimate includes sales from 18 franchised locations scheduled to open this year.

Steck credits Saladworks’ new branding campaign, created by Cherry Hill, N.J.-based The Star Group, as one of the elements that allowed the chain to grow when other concepts would have withered like uneaten spinach. The "Salad Diva" campaign, launched in early 2006, features a fictional persona on outdoor billboards and in radio ads, talking about how she knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to ask for it.

Give the Lady What She Wants

"Retailers sometimes hate that kind of persona, but our shtick is that we make the salads to order right in front of you, so customization is no problem," Steck says.

This modified "have it your way" approach was a departure from the Saladworks promotions of the past five years. "We wanted to be viewed as upscale," Steck says. "In the past we made some mistakes by getting involved in discounting. It just did not make sense, as we’re a premium product."

The Salad Diva campaign was designed to build a brand, not just a product line, and help spread awareness of the brand as it expands into new markets.

"There was a bit of push back from the franchisee community," Steck concedes. "Prior to [Salad Divas], they had been seeing promotional coupons. They would say, ‘great freestanding insert,’ and they had a hard measurement in their hands. They were questioning, ‘Did it make sense to do a campaign where I do not know what I am getting?’ Now I think they see that there are new faces in their restaurants."

To find those faces, The Star Group camped out in several Saladworks units. "We wanted to get into the mentality of the Saladworks customer," says Creative Director Tracy Donofry. "We found that healthy eating and picking lower-calorie diets was an empowerment method for them."

The sense of empowerment afforded by Saladworks applied to both men and women. At 55 percent women and 45 percent men, Saladworks’ demographic is less female-centric than people might guess. So the Salad Diva campaign had to resonate with both genders in a broad age group: 24 to 55 years old. As the campaign expanded, The Star Group added male Salad Divas to the media mix.

Around Town

Saladworks chose outdoor and radio because they could reach the most consumers with the chain’s $1.1 million ad budget (that figure will increase to $1.4 million in 2007). The company had six billboard contracts at one time, all on major expressways or other high-traffic areas in Philadelphia and South Florida. It had a two-month contract for each billboard. However, often billboards were left up after the contract period ended when another contract with another advertiser had not been signed. So the company had staggered coverage around town, supported by radio. The effect was a more concentrated media blitz than originally foreseen.

Television is financially out of reach for Saladworks, but the chain is considering an e-mail-based ad effort in the future. The Star Group helped design an online game on the chain’s Web site, which helped Saladworks compile a database of 45,000 names for future promotions.

"E-mail isn’t bad, it makes some sense," Steck explains. "But for now we wanted to get to the general public. That led us tomass media."

The branding emphasis so far has been on lunch, which is the concept’s largest daypart, with 65 percent of sales.

Adds Steck: "When people are thinking of a great place to get a salad from work, we want them to think of us. When they do, I guess that means our name kind of works."