Transparency in Engagement Marketing, Part 1

“Why does your food look different in the advertising than what is in the store”?  This question was recently asked by a consumer and was answered by Hope Bagozzi, Director of Marketing, McDonald’s Canada.  Rather than brushing this question under the rug, McDonald’s seized upon the opportunity and used it to show how food photography  is produced and followed it up with an expose on how secret sauce is made. With a combined 5 million views on their You Tube videos it is easy to see that McDonald’s achieved marketing nirvana by practicing transparency in their marketing efforts.

What does it mean to be transparent in your marketing efforts?   Simply put, it is one of the best ways to practice engagement marketing.  While it is hard to find a concise definition of engagement marketing, it is best defined as:

Engagement Marketing: a marketing strategy that directly engages consumers and employees. It invites and encourages both to participate in the evolution of a brand.

In short, engagement marketing helps customers and store employees develop a relationship with the brand.

Here are some examples that have been used in the quick service restaurant and convenience store industry and why they work:

CBS’s hit series, Undercover Boss, has profiled many industries and has touched the Quick Service Restaurant and C-store industries.  In February, Undercover Boss profiled Checkers restaurants as they went behind the scenes with CEO Rick Silva. 

In one situation, Silva had a tense situation when he encountered a restaurant manager who was verbally abusing his employees.  Silva kept his cool, yet took action when he temporarily closed down the restaurant and rather than fire the manager, chose to have him retrained.  Throughout the piece, Silva showed his poise and humility when he admitted that he had a lot to learn as he had several “Lucille Ball” moments. This is exactly what consumer’s and employees like to see, a boss that freely admits he doesn’t know everything and one that takes decisive actions but treats others fairly.

In another episode of Undercover Boss, 7-Eleven seized on the opportunity to put their CEO, Joe DePinto on the front line.  He was first put on an orange 7-Eleven smock to handle rush hour at a busy store on Long Island. (See this link when DePinto, aka: “Danny” teams up with 18 year store veteran Delores.) DePinto then got to try his hand at making doughnuts in the corporate bakery in Baltimore and thirdly, distribute fresh food and sandwiches on the night shift in North Texas.  Since its premiere, DePinto's Undercover Boss segment has rerun twice on CBS and been picked up all over the world. Like other CEO’s featured on the show, DePinto gained a new appreciation for store-level employees:  "Our franchisees and our store managers are the ones who get it done every day with our customers.  

So what does a leading national franchise do when their focus group tells them that their product is “the worst they’ve ever had? We’ll look at this next week.  We’ll also further define engagement marketing in very practical terms.

Menu Adjectivity

Restaurant Marketers, when was the last time you optimized your menu descriptions? 

Roger Dooley, in his book, Brainfluence, makes this a point when he states, “Compelling, emotion-rich adjectives can give bland (menu) copy a major boost in effectiveness.” Notice how this “after” example invokes mouth-watering images that excite the palette? 

Before:   “Ham, egg & cheese on wheat bread sandwich”

After:  “Our Breakfast Power Sandwich starts with lean, hardwood-smoked ham and a freshly-cracked egg. Then we add Vermont white cheddar for its tangy sharpness.  Finally, we grill everything on our freshly baked whole grain bread to bring out the grains’ nutty, smooth flavors.”

Dooley states that adjectives “turn an average sandwich into a mouth-watering, tantalizing sales magnet:

Our Breakfast Power Sandwich starts with lean, hardwood-smoked ham and a freshly-cracked egg.  Then we add Vermont white cheddar [cheese] for its tangy sharpness. Finally we grill everything on our freshly-baked whole grain bread to bring out the grains’ nutty, smooth flavors. 

Further, Dooley points to this study where descriptive food labels “increased food sales by 27% and improved the attitude towards the food and restaurant.”

While this may be no surprise to experienced restaurant marketers, it does serve as a reminder to review your menu descriptions and change them on occasion to invite additional interest and increase sales.  Before blindly deciding to change menu descriptions, however, there are factors to consider, such as:

·         Do your menu descriptions fit your overall brand strategy?

·         What are the costs and benefits of making changes?  Restaurant  menu design, how it will be posted on the web and how it will be promoted in-store via point of purchase marketing must be considered. This underscores the need for proper brand strategy .

·         Once menu descriptions are changed, do they accurately  reflect the taste of the menu items or are they just fluff to make them sound better?

·         Are your menu changes reflected in your in-store marketing? For ideas on how to wow the customer in-store, click here.

·         Don’t go it alone: get advice on your descriptions from a cross-functional team, such as the culinary team, restaurant servers, brand marketers and focus groups.

When was the last time you reviewed and updated your menu descriptions? What effect did it have on your restaurant sales? 

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Shifting Gears in Retail

When you hear the words consumer engagement in terms of a retail store environment, what ideas come to mind? Actively listening to the customer? Guiding the sale? Having genuine sales personnel?

I once went on a scenic drive through the beautiful Rocky Mountain foothills, near Estes Park, Colorado. I hopped in my old beater of a car, rolled the windows down, and took in every scenic pass, snow-capped mountain, and breath of cool, crisp air that I could. Then, as I was cruising up and down hills at 8,000 feet above sea level, the automatic transmission suddenly wouldn’t shift out of second gear. My heart sank and my wallet felt lighter as I realized that my transmission was toast. I limped the car back into town and took it to my mechanic. He told me that if it had been better maintained, this probably wouldn’t have happened.

Better maintained? I had changed the oil, I washed and waxed it. (Come to think of it I hadn’t ever checked or changed the transmission fluid.)

Car transmissions and retail stores may seem like two entirely different worlds but they both need routine maintenance and, occasionally, a complete overhaul. Maybe you are reaching your customer through most marketing channels; web, social media, print, TV/Radio, etc. The in-store experience touch the customer too – brick and mortar locations are bright, clean and attractive with marketing messages that impact the customers buying decision. But then the customer walks in and is greeted by an employee who doesn’t even bother to make eye contact, and says, curtly; “next in line!” Your customer’s in-store experience just failed-the same way that car transmission did on the mountain.

So what do you do? How do you make sure you capture the customer’s attention and keep them excited about coming into your store time and again? To excite the customer, the store personnel first needs to be invigorated. I recommend having regular store meetings. A 15 minute pre-shift meeting should do the trick. Be prepared to spend part of this time for Q & A. Here are some ideas for what to discuss:

· Value. Are your store personnel truly educated on your brand and the value it brings to the customer? Do they know specifically how your product or service compares and is better than the competition?

· Input. Do you seek the input of all employees? During these meetings ask the staff if there are customer concerns which they have encountered. Then have a brief brainstorming time where you and other store employees to formulate ideas to deal with these concerns.

· Evaluate. On your next meeting, see if the solution you and your team came up with worked. If not, reevaluate and try again until you achieve improvement.

· Reward. Public recognition for outstanding achievement at these meetings goes a long way in keeping personnel excited.

· You. Do you consistently demonstrate vision, passion, and direction for your organization? Are you willing to support your team in the decisions they make? 

All of the above ideas are just some that could be implemented.  Emphasis on the word could here is important.  I could have maintained my car better and avoided costly mistakes.  Are you willing to make the effort to keep your store in tip-top shape with routine maintenance? This takes leadership.  In  your experience in retail, have you been inspired by visionary leadership? Or have you been the one who provided direction and motivated staff? I’d be interested in hearing about what has worked well for you.

Pointman Hits The Road

This week I had the pleasure of writing on our company blog. Read about my in-store experience with the big three auto parts retailers