Inside track by Mark McCulloch
When I was asked to write a piece on the current state of marketing in the sector I went through the usual moral struggle of “are you honest about the state of things or do you write a harmonious piece that credits where credit is due and leaves out the rest”?
I have opted for the former, but in doing so I am issuing a rallying cry to the industry to stand up and be counted, create world class marketing and campaigns and to gain real confidence with digital and not to just do it because you feel you have to or worse, underuse it.
I joined the restaurant industry in 2009 when I was lucky enough to join YO! Sushi, I fell in love with the brand, the industry and its people instantly, but knew there was a clear space to bring marketing expertise and nouse from other sectors such as online, finance (measurement and rigour) and music (attitude) to name but a few. I wish I had joined the industry a lot earlier as it is hands down the best industry I have ever worked in and I hope to work in it or a long time to come.
Without dodging the question, it is tricky to assess the industry as it has so many sectors and therefore styles, preferred channels, messages to get across and categories within it (fast casual, fast food, takeaway, delivery, coffee shops, pubs etc). However, there are commonalities amongst all of these strands within.
At some stage you will launch and/or need to establish your brand on and offline.
At some stage peak sales/LFLs will dip which means you go on a customer acquisition and retention drive or you need to grow sales in quieter day parts.
A competitor will take business from you.
You will be freshening up your offering a few times a year and need to communicate that.
You will need to expand and with that hope that all new employees are engaged with your brand as the first crack team is totally 'baptised' in the brand. New hire may not believe as much.
You wonder how the hell you are going to achieve the last five points well within modest budgets and with a small team, who are trusted to do all of that and make sure it works every time.
Most of the clients I have worked with are operationally focused and instilled in that mindset of 'JFDI'. This or a focus on measurement if finance led that can sometimes lead you to plough the same furrow which then can lead to lack of imagination from the “conditioned” marketer. Marketing can then take a back seat or be seen as marketing fluff or worse brand b****cks.
The value of marketing does seem to have fallen from grace and as Elvis said “we are caught in a trap”. The marketing departments at large seem to be promotion jockeys and when one idea fails, they fall back on the only path they know, which is a literal aboard, big price, discount voucher mail out and a few Facebook posts. I can see why this happens, you see running a restaurant or pub is all about how busy you were yesterday and how you can you be busier today. It is instant, tangible and much more pacey and sales orientated than a lot if industries. Maybe marketing needs to keep up!
It breaks my heart that every Monday-Sunday there is a voucher for most things. That is except for the 'golden trio'. Pret, Nandos and Wagamama (I know there are more examples but for these large chains to continue to kick out good numbers without losing brand value is pretty impressive).
These operators for whatever reason see the value in their food, their staff and to be frank their brand. They are making a statement; we value our food, our staff and your custom. The trick is to continually give reasons for people to want to pay full price. For lots of reasons (not just one), customers want to do it with these three brands.
I am not saying this is a short-term fix but there must be ways to wean ourselves off of this habit we have long been trying to kick. It will be a balance but we must look for a strategy together to pull away from 40%, 50% off or more. It also creates behaviour where if you wait long enough, one of your repertoire of brands will send you a voucher.
Yes, the like-for-likes on the first Monday board meeting after you go 'cold turkey' will be awful, but can we all really build a business and indeed an industry on vouchers and cutting our margins by half long term? Could we not take that spend and use it in better ways? I am all for offers and value deals, however for it to be the norm really has got out of hand.
When all roads lead to discounting, you need to get off that motorway. To keep the analogy going yes you won't know exactly when you are going at times, it will take longer, but you will discover new things along the way (even if your other half (CEO) is whinging in your ear to let them drive or stick on the sat nav).
The other common belief I have seen is that “we'll get some PR for that”. In terms of getting PR you need to have something new and interesting to say, an innovation or something that will make people drop everything to come and visit you.
A new menu release or we are opening is just business as usual and although interesting to you, will not grab the column inches you need to drive sales. Emma Woods and her team at Pizza Express have been a leading light on PR as they have been brave at being first. First to build a lab, first to enable customers to pay by PayPal, first to have diet pizza. I mean diet pizza, genius!
Mark McCulloch is the former marketing director of YO! Sushi and Pret A Manger. He is also the founder of Spectacular Marketing.
