{Focus on the "real people" of your brand}

Pizza Hut goes for slices of real life with employees in ads

 By KAREN ROBINSON-JACOBS / The Dallas Morning News 

In an era when ordering a pizza doesn't necessarily involve human contact, using workers in ads reinforces the message that "these are genuine human beings who are making these pizzas," said Arjun Sen, president of the Colorado-based Restaurant Marketing Group. "For Pizza Hut it's a great strategy to say, 'Our employees: That's the difference.' It ... is celebrating the employee. It's team building."  click here to continue reading

{The Price-Value Equation and Golf}

Arjun Sen was featured in the November issue of PGA Magazine as the expert source on price and value in Don Jozwiak's cover story article. The article keenly applies to industries outside the golfing realm and is well worth the read. Click here to jump to the article.

"Given the current economy, pricing is a hot topic across the golf economy. Knowing what value a golfer expects a given offering - from a round of golf to a lesson or a golf vacation - is an important step in determining how to set prices. That's the firm belief of Arjun Sen, a marketing expert with more than two decades of experience in consumer research and strategic planning..." continue reading

{Does Sports Marketing Really Work?}

 It was a pleasure and honor to moderate a Sports Marketing panel at Dine America hosted by QSR Magazine. We had a great team of panelists that included Tracy White, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, and Chief Sales Officer for the Atlanta Hawks, Atlanta Thrashers and Philips Arena; John Kittredge, Fabri-Kal; and Bruce Skala, VP, Taco Mac. 

Based on the lively discussion among panelists, I arrived at the following five take-away's:

Right fit for the brand
It was very clear that finding sports that are the right fit for the brand is the first step.  Brands should not just go for what is available as this is an area where effectiveness is more important than the efficiency.  To identify fit, there are three areas a brand must look at:

• Fits the brand’s target audience
• Fits the brand’s personality
• Connects with the brand’s target audience

Size of opportunity does not matter

A common thought is that only the big players can play in this field since it is important to play at the highest level.  Based on the panelist discussion, that assumption is not true.  Instead, brands need to find the team that fits best, both the brand and the brand’s budget.  It may mean a less known national sports or a local event or team that could be the perfect fit for a brand.

“Internal Activation” is the key

Getting rights to the coolest sports property is not good enough.  Instead, a brand must make plans to activate the property to market it within the store. When planning a partnership, a brand must allocate key resources for the activation phase, as even a partnership with the coolest property on the planet needs successful in-store activation to bear fruit.  Activation includes using the property (logo and signage) within the store, communicating to customers, and getting team members excited about the partnership.

While measuring ROI, having a clear call to action and patience is the key

Just like any marketing effort, there is no clear answer to the question “does sports marketing really work?”  Instead a brand must compare the sports marketing opportunity to traditional opportunities to identify which has a better chance of sticking with customers.  In many industries where short term performance alone is the key, it is important to develop realistic time lines for the partnership, as it will take continuity to build a partnership.

Maximize your brand’s efforts by continuing to differentiate
Just like in any marketing communication, a brand must continue to strongly brand its sports marketing partnership. This is an opportunity to create something memorable and not just place a brand’s logo next to a sports team’s logo.  Creating memorable association both in communication and events will make this a big success.

A big thanks to Blair Chancey, Editor of QSR Magazine for giving me the opportunity to moderate this panel and for putting together such a great conference.  Should you have any comments or questions, please contact me at arjun@zenmango.com.

{Arjun Sen Published in AdvertisingAge: Keep an Eye on the Back Door}

Understanding Why Customers Leave May Be More Important Than Understanding Why They Come

by Arjun Sen
Published: September 01, 2010

CMO Strategy Column, AdvertisingAge 

The cost of acquiring new customers can easily add up to five times that of retaining current customers. In the new world of marketing, where CMOs are more cost conscious than ever, a focus on customer retention is a necessarily logical pursuit.

This isn't just my opinion; we've done the research to back it up. Our company recently completed our fourth annual study of the restaurant industry, the Leaky Bucket 2010. The study analyzes the return intent of customers to a restaurant brand. Conducted in March, the study included 2,483 respondents and analyzed more than 146 brands. Our methodology analyzes a brand's leak score. The higher a leak score, the more customers that brand is losing; lower leak scores indicate a higher level of customer retention. For the fourth year in a row, the study results overwhelmingly indicate that brands that invest in guest experience retain more of their customer base and can thereby reduce marketing expenses and increase profitability...

click here to continue reading

{Airline Industry: Moving from Hospitality to Utilitarian Retail}

As I sit in a USAir flight from Charlotte to Denver, it dawned on me that the airlines are going through a transition from a hospitality industry to that of retail.

Earlier it was all about hospitality.  Hospitality included a greeting at the door, assisting the elderly to their seat, getting the customer a pillow and blanket, and of course offering refreshments that included food or snacks and beverages.

Somehow in the process of cost cutting, I see a classic case of death by pin-prick evolving.  First the free food disappeared to cut down expenses.  Then some financial genius measured the aggregate payload carried by an airline as a result of all the magazine weight, resulting in the higher fuel cost, and there went the extra magazines. Then went the peanuts and pretzels and the airlines started using captive hungry customers as a revenue generating opportunity by selling food. If that was not the first step to retail, I do not know what retail is!

As airlines move in this format, the big question is the evolving role of flight attendants.  Why do we need them to still greet us as we exit the airplane?  Why the farcical service of walking down the aisle with water once in a three hour flight?  Why not be consistent and completely be a retail service.  In that case the role of the flight attendant becomes more of an enforcer, similar to the ticket collector on a train. We do not expect the ticket collector to get us a pillow, do we?

To be consistent, put some vending machines on the plane, change the flight attendant clothing from hospitality aprons to service jumpsuits and simply offer great service, but don’t try to be in the hospitality industry.  Customers might appreciate the honesty.

Then, if some airlines want to stand out and offer hospitality the old fashioned way THAT would be a true brand differentiator!

{What do You Need to Provide Wow Customer Service?}

After I boarded the flight and sat down in my seat, the flight attendant brought me a glass of cold water.  The water hit the spot.  She saw me with my Taco Bell bag and came to me and asked, “Can I have it?” 

My immediate reaction was, “No it is mine.” 

She smiled at me and said that since I was in the first row I could not have stuff on my lap or in front of me.  She then took my salad and very carefully placed it in one of the stainless steel bins for takeoff.  I watched her closely and was not sure if I should approve of her actions.

As the flight reached cruising altitude and the seat belt lights turned off, she came over and opened my table for me and put a linen table cloth on it. Then she very carefully brought my Taco Bell salad to me with another glass of water. The white linen, the silverware, and the fact that I was the only person enjoying this salad made this a memorable dinner. Thank you, Taco Bell, for making it happen.

But the magic in the air was just beginning.  Mrs. Adams, the flight attendant, tied her apron tightly around her.  She took out a wicker basket and started arranging chips, nuts, and Biscoff cookies.  She arranged them in the basket with ultimate care then with a white cloth over one arm, she came to serve us snacks. I would have never looked twice at pre-packaged snacks on a flight, but her care and pride in the way she served them made me sample some nuts.  After she was finished with the basket of snacks she walked up and down the aisle making sure no glass of water, wine, or soda was empty. Her level of service and desire to make our flight a wow experience was no less than that of a renowned Nordstorm employee or a waiter in a high end restaurant.

I kept thinking about what the airlines provided for her to provide wow service.  Some chips, some nuts, some cookies, a basket, some linens, and a limited beverage selection that includes coffee, tea, water, soda and two kinds of wine. Instead of complaining about the airline not giving her the opportunity to provide wow guest service, she took it upon herself to make the best out of the situation and put customers first.

Wow Mrs. Adams. You were a simply amazing flight attendant. United Airlines should be proud of you and I am so glad that I got to experience your wow service.

{Store Closing Time: For Customers or Employees?}

In today’s tough economy, every store is trying to find ways to increase its guest count.  Sometimes, the smallest of gestures or actions makes a customer walk away.  What is worse is there are times we set an expectation to the customer and then disappoint the customer.  A disappointed customer of course is very unlikely to return.

Think about the store hours that are posted outside any store.  In today’s world customers can access store location and store hours from the web or their smart phones before making plans to visit the store.  How much of a customer base could be saved by simply swapping out a couple numbers on the front door of the store and on the website? I don’t suggest increasing labor costs by extending store hours. All I suggest is setting the right expectations to help brands retain more customers. The ZenMango Leaky Bucket study has consistently reported that an average of 20% of customers who leave a brand and don’t come back do so because of service.  When a store advertises a closing time then regularly cuts off customer transactions 15 minutes, even an hour prior to that time it disrupts the guest experience and frustrates the customer into choosing another brand. The store is effectively pushing its customers to try its competitors by closing early.

Let me put things in perspective with a series of events I recently went through at the DFW airport.

MY SEARCH FOR FOOD: At the end of my three day business trip to Dallas, the anxious-to-be-home, the road warrior in me got to the airport at 5:30 PM although my flight didn’t leave until 7:26. I headed straight for the airline lounge until the announcement came that the lounge would close at 7:00 and last drink orders at the bar would be served at 6:45.  It was nearly 6:30 and I was sure they wouldn’t feed me on the plane so I headed out to search for a grilled chicken salad before my flight.
 

Right in front of the lounge was a Taco Bell, but that evening I was on the hunt for something slightly more gourmet. I walked past the Taco Bell and came to a Mexican restaurant with a Grilled Chicken and Mango Salad on the menu. Perfect. I found an employee near a computer and before I could finish my request she told me they were closed.  Hmm, the sign in front said they close at 7:00 PM and my phone said it was currently 6:35 PM. I tried to reason with the person but to no avail.

My reaction: You baited me, you teased me, and then you turned me away.

MY SEARCH FOR FOOD (CONTD.): I quickly left the restaurant so I could find food somewhere else to eat before my flight left. I found a barbeque restaurant and this time I asked the right question.  “Are you open?”  

The lady behind the counter smiled and said, “Yes we are.”  I looked at the menu, spotted a chicken salad, and placed my order.

As I reached back for my wallet she interrupted me and said, “Sorry, we don’t have salads now. You can only get what we have here in the display.” I looked in dismay at the display. After some conversation with the employee I discovered that the restaurant stopped making food at 6:00 PM, an hour before closing.  In the last hour they try to sell out everything they have made.

My reaction:  Is there some unwritten rule I missed?  Am I doing something wrong?

MY SEARCH FOR FOOD (CONTD.): In sheer frustration I walked to my gate. It was nearly 7:00 PM, there was no chance for any food in my life that day.  As I passed Taco Bell, I decided to go and give it a try. The lady behind the counter was full of energy when I hesitantly asked if I could have a chicken salad, she smiled and nodded.  I was amazed as she took me through the ingredients and made sure I only had what I wanted in the salad. Then I asked her if I could add some extra chicken. She said of course, but it would add $1.25 to the order and asked if that was alright.  I gladly paid, and was very happy to receive my Taco Bell salad as I dashed to my gate. Third time’s a charm.

My reactions:  Wow that was unexpected.  I feel bad that I walked passed Taco Bell the first time! Will I get this treatment at every Taco Bell, every time?  Now that would be cool. I know exactly what I will pick up next time I am at the DFW airport.

When a store says that they close at 7:00 PM, shouldn’t that be the last minute they are ready to serve their customers with a complete guest experience? Are they not telling a customer that if you can make it by 7:00 PM, we will make it worth the trip?  Or does that mean that employees will leave at 7:00 PM and need to do all the store closing before that, effectively closing the store 30 to 45 minutes early?  The same way when we send a coupon out to a customer stating that it expires on June 30th, we do not decide randomly to stop taking it a week early so we can report accurately in the half yearly statement.  So why do we do this with store hours?

Closing early may be a great way to manage labor cost and reduce food waste and in a captive environment like an airport.  Hence the restaurant sales at the airport locations most probably will not be impacted by these practices, in fact the store may be more profitable as a result of this. But after this kind of “compromised guest experience” will the customer visit the brand outside the airport ever again? Was it worth losing all of a customer’s future business just to save 30 minutes of labor?  I think not.

MY SEARCH FOR FOOD (CONTD.): The story does not simply end here.  Still to come is my United Airlines flight from Dallas to Denver with my Taco Bell salad. You will be pleasantly surprised to learn how in an industry marked by cutting costs, one team member decided to stand up and provide a wow customer experience.

{The New Apple iPhone and Brand Insistence}

My daughter, my niece, and I woke up at 5:30 in the morning to get to Cherry Creek Mall on June 24th because the new iPhone came out.  Of course as a dad I did not want to miss the opportunity to get the first iPhone on the first day just to make my daughter smile.

We got to the mall at 6:15 and to my utter surprise, we were sitting in a line behind at least 100 people.  There were other dads and moms with kids, business professionals ready to go to office, young couples, people with colorful hair, and people from all walks of life standing or sitting in line. The Apple team was out walking around with bottled water, coffee, and breakfast from Einstein Bros Bagels. As I looked around I saw a few things in common among all of us. All of us either had an iPhone or an iPod in hand and some of us were sitting with Macs or iPads on our lap, but there was no one with a PC around. I am starting to understand that it was the coming out of the cult of iPhone followers. All of us could have waited for two weeks to get the new iPhone without any line or wait, but somehow all of us felt it was important to come out and show our support for the favorite “working toy” in our life.  Now that I get it, I am surprised that there was no one with their face painted; no banners or cheering.  I guess we, the iPhone gang, are a group of somewhat quiet introverts who were just happy to be there.

The store opened a few minutes before 7a.m. and iPhone sales started at 9a.m.  Even if I couldn't have gotten my iPhone that morning, I was glad I was there, out with my daughter and my niece, out with other members of the iPhone gang. I get it. This is what brand insistence is.  We were not there for a phone, we were not there for an upgrade, we were there to celebrate a way of life around our Macs, our iPods, our iPhones, and our iPads that we all discovered in our own ways. Marketing gurus may call it a brand insistence but to me it is truly a way of life.

{How a Lose-Win Strategy Can Help You Win Customers}

In the classical business model, we all say we want a win-win relationship. But is there such thing as a true win-win relationship? Isn’t there always an ending where one party feels that he/she could have gotten more?

But traditional marketers and operators as well finance team in organizations reject the concept of lose-win immediately.

Recently, when I was helping a few restaurant chains find the next big local store marketing idea, I suggested a series of micro-ideas. One of the micro ideas I proposed was:

A SIMPLE LOSE-WIN IDEA
Instead of approaching the high school athletic director and signing the school up for fund raising, why not target for individual students. Every high school student will arrive at the age when they are able to get their driver’s license. That means if we have two high schools in a trade-area, and each high school has a class of 150, then every year the restaurant has opportunity to “touch the lives of “ nearly 300 students in a very special way. So what was the recommended in store promotion? A student gets to eat for free with two friends on the week they get their first driver’s license.

WHY THE IDEA IS BRILLIANT (my personal opinion, of course)
This is a simple idea that needed no media dollars to promote. Successful implementation in the store is what one needs to spread this viral message.

Now why with friends? We all know that teens today move in herds, and there are hardly any occasions in which a teen goes and eats alone. Only giving the teen with a new driver’s license the free meal, and not their friends too, would fall in the win-win category and not lose-win, as the teen who eats free will be bringing business to the store as their accompanying friends have to pay. Teens will see through it and realize that this is another marketing gimmick, where, in other words, the store is promoting a much used buy one and get one free offer. That discovery completely takes away from the teen-connectivity to the offer.

Instead, an unconditional eat free with two friends offer is slightly bizarre in today's world, and the teens will be trying to figure out  the catch. There are no catches, and the no-catch part will make this deal an emotional connection for the brand.

So now that we have a teen with their two best friends enjoying a free meal at the store, the experience will be etched in the memory of the teen forever as “one of the cherished firsts in my life.” And in that cherished first memory, the brand gets planted in a unique favorable positioning.

REACTIONS

MARKETING GUY: How can I do this without capturing the information from teens? The promotion fails as students will come and take advantage of the offer. Effectively we will be feeding every school in the high school three times.
Marperations Response: Teens today build relationship on their very own terms. Instead of looking at the lost opportunity to collect teen information, this promotion is capturing a lifetime moment in the teen’s mind. The teen will think, “the day I got my first driver’s license, I ate free with my two best friends at restaurant xxx.” Isn’t that priceless?

OPERATIONS GUY: Can we do it at off-peak times only? I do not want more stress of ‘comping’ (meaning free food) during times when operations is stressed. Can't we do the new driver eats free IF a friend pays full price? And, what if 40 teens come the same week? That will really hurt that week’s sales.
Marperations Response: A celebration cannot have limitations. Offering this only at off-peak is very transparent, and teens will see that they are offered the special when the restaurant has surplus food. And the idea of friends paying full price is another way of doing BOGO (buy one get one free) offer and that is already there. That cannot be the gift for a special moment. And now about the unlikely event of 40 teens getting their license the same time, isn’t that a jackpot for the brand? The synergy of the positive energy will be more than individual teens coming on different days.

FINANCE GUY: This would result in a $15 loss or write-off per occasion. On an average we would feed every student in the high school nearly twice a year and that makes it nearly a $6000 loss. What is the ROI of the $6000 spending on LSM?
Marperations Response: Yes, ROI can be calculated very easily. All one needs to do is to calculate the lifetime $ that the teen will spend at different similar restaurants and then estimate how much this “special moment” will make the teen choose the restaurant. If this makes the teen spend $20 for just one month at the restaurant and assuming there were 200 students in the high school, every year this has the potential to generate $4000. And of course that is for one year. Hence the lifetime ROI of this well over break-even.