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A Peek Inside a Troubled Chain
November 19, 2007

I can’t mention any names. I’m sworn to secrecy. Sorry. But I can describe an unusual focus group that took place in the unit of a casual-dining chain, in a Midwestern city, three weeks ago. An event that convinced me branding is a tough task.

This particular company had hit some serious sales and traffic bumps. “Our comps are negative, and we’re not comfortable with that,” announced the CEO, who was at the meeting.

So he had ordered his minions to invite the chain’s ad agency people and a consultant or two. I managed a seat in the room simply by asking if I could attend--for edification purposes. Like the others, I got a long list of questions ahead of time, asking about the chain’s competitive advantages, guest experience, price-value relationship, weaknesses and strengths. It was pretty obvious the operators wanted ideas about how to stand out and, ultimately, regain positive traction.

They explained the chain had never gotten around to repositioning itself as it expanded outside its home base. Lacking a strong brand, it was unable to weather a sagging economy. So here we were.

“What we want to do is talk about our brand,” the CEO declared.

Which we did. In spades. For three hours. It was during that time I began to understand how difficult it is to talk about branding a restaurant. There are just too many moving parts to consider and perspectives to digest.

The CEO, who is a good listener, kept insisting on coming up with a slogan. He wanted to find words that immediately suggested what the brand stood for. Every marketing effort would therefore stem from it. He threw out “affordable luxury,” but no one else appeared to like it. It sounded too vague to me.

When we learned much of the menu was prepared from scratch, people suggested leveraging that. My favorite suggestion came from someone who said a chef should walk around the dining room greeting people. Trouble was, the restaurants don’t employ chefs.

So, instead, how about a separate menu card listing “chef specials,” someone offered. Someone else took the idea further: a three-course meal that changed weekly. If T.G.I. Friday’s could do it, why not the chain in question, another person asked.

Ideas poured forth: change signage, increase server knowledge, trim the menu, add seasonal items, adjust prices. Plenty of competitors were mentioned, too. The chain’s marketers wanted to know what we liked about them and did we have specific examples to share.

I have to hand it to these executives. They absorbed it all with out grimacing. In fact, they laughed frequently at themselves. One person, for example, described how he had asked a waitress to recommend a wine with fish. She suggested Chardonnay. But when he wondered if that wine’s big flavor was appropriate, the waitress declared she just liked drinking Chardonnay.

Still, no one came with a slogan.

Posted by David Farkas on November 19, 2007 | Comments (0)