Lane Cardwell

Do You Know Where Your Marketers Are?

Every year at this time, one week before the Restaurant Show, restaurant marketers migrate to Chicago for the Marketing Executives Group (MEG) meeting. 200+ restaurant marketers, presidents, CEOs and assorted students of the industry gather to learn the latest in marketing tactics, techniques, strategies and media. If you think that your marketing person was born or hired with their current knowledge you are mistaken. There is a network in place that ensures that every restaurant marketer gets a little bit smarter every six months. The semi-annual MEG meetings combine education with networking to give your Minister of Propaganda a continuing education worthy of a college student, except that the $495 tuition is about what your college-aged kid will spend on beer in three months.

Twice a year a core group of restaurant marketers of some of the nation’s leading chains soak up best practices during the day and a cocktail during the evening to keep their skills current with a rapidly evolving profession. Internet related media accounts for over 20% of restaurant media dollars today and didn’t exist when a lot of senior marketers began their careers. They didn’t just wake up one morning and know how to do it. They learned it at MEG and from their fellow marketers. Well, not every restaurant marketer learned it here. There were several large chains that were not in attendance at this, or most other MEG gatherings. They must have some other better source for improving their skills than from marketing experts in and out of the industry, as well as their competitive counterparts.

The first day has ended with its usual stellar cast of speakers and presenters. Coca-Cola presented its most recent research on consumer empowerment and how it is shifting in the current economy. Over the past decade there has been a dramatic transfer of control away from brand marketers to the consumer. During this time period consumers have acquired skills, powered by the internet, which will help them weather this turbulence. The biggest take-away was the fact that a smarter customer and a more uncertain financial future have changed the value equation to:

            Value = (Price + Quality + Service + Ambiance) + INCENTIVE

An incentive is not always a monetary incentive, such as a discount, free offer, or two-for-one. It can also be a strong brand reputation, uniqueness, or other factor than influences the customer to choose the brand. But it had better be there.

Frances Frei of Harvard University spoke on service excellence in a turbulent economy. Hands-down one of the best speakers MEG has had in a decade. Her specialty is in the strategic design of winning service models. She studies the challenges of change and improvement in service, and the unique role that customers play in producing service excellence (think ATMs and flight check-in kiosks). 90 minutes with this woman is enough to convince you that you really don’t have a clue as how to use service as a strategic weapon.

Next, just returned from his conquering of all things food, was the chief marketing officer for McDonald’s. Their story over the past 6 years is well-worth learning and, for the first time, McDonald’s was willing to teach it. You can learn a lot from someone who has grown their average sales/unit by 50% during that time. Their “Plan to Win” strategy has targeted all aspects of their business with dramatic success. Their key to success came from realizing that they needed to be consumer-centric, not McDonald’s-centric. It has driven all of their decisions.

          

Lastly, a panel of chain marketers discussed their own usage and success with various forms of online marketing. Moderated by Google’s restaurant group director, the panel discussed search engine marketing, marketing through social networking, and leveraging Facebook fanatics.

Feel like you’re falling behind? I’ll see you in October at the next MEG conference.

Posted by Lane Cardwell on May 14, 2009 | Comments (1)