Marketing
cReaTiVe deconSTRucTion
Thinking inside the box
Tropical Smoothie’s ‘blitz in a box’ helps franchisees boost traffic, sales l BY MARK BRANDAU
Many restaurant chains were content to run out he clock on 2009 in the hopes of starting fresh
in 2010. But Tropical Smoothie
Café finished last year with a
“local-store marketing blitz” in
its Orlando, Fla., market that re-
invigorated local and corporate
employees. The promotion near-
ly broke weekly sales records
for the operator piloting the pro-
Mike Rotondo, Tropical Smoothie Café’s vice
president of operations,
donned a gorilla costume for
a local-store marketing blitz
in Orlando, Fla.
to carry out the local-
store marketing blitz,
to reward them for
achieving flat sales in
a brutal market.
“Our Orlando mar-
ket had seen one of
the biggest impacts
from the economy,”
said Sam Osborne,
Tropical Smoothie’s
area developer for
chasing the bananas around the
premises.
Redeeming qualities
A two-week rush resulted
from the chain’s local-store marketing blitz: Daily guest counts
rose year-over-year 132 percent
for Oct. 27, 238 percent for Oct.
28 and 144 percent for Oct. 29.
During the two-week redemption period of the blitz, traffic
increased 122 percent compared
with the year earlier, Osborne
said. Traffic gains held an average of 23 percent for the two
months immediately following
the promotion, “and those were
all just paying customers,” he
added.
Even though the discount rate
for the promotion totaled near
50 percent, Osborne said, the
franchisees still almost hit an
all-time record for weekly sales,
missing it by about only $100.
The franchisees had a surge
in sign-ups for text message offers and in fans on their Facebook page, Rotondo added.
“Local-store marketing al-
time to go work for getting your
customers.”
The chain plans to debut the
blitz package to its franchisees
this year during its company
conventions held in several mar-
kets.
ways gives you the best
return on investment,”
Osborne said. “Getting
outside your store, meeting
your neighbors and rein-
troducing yourself always
gets more feet in the door.
The problem with doing
this is it requires effort
and some planning, and a
lot of businesses out there
don’t want to take the more
difficult road. Some would
rather just write a check
for a radio ad.”
Linda Duke, chief executive of
Duke Marketing and author of
“marketing cookbook” “Recipes
for Restaurateurs,” has advo-
cated such aggressive local-store
marketing for years.
“If you can break through the
clutter in your two-to-three-mile
radius around your store by doing something unique and different, it’s better than running a
$500 ad and hoping people come
in to try your food. You’re driving people in to taste it, and your
cost is your food cost.”
122% Increase in guest traffic during the
two-week period of redemption
for Tropical Smoothie Café’s local-store marketing blitz last October
and November in Orlando, Fla.
SOURCE: TROPICAL SMOOTHIE CAFE
The VP goes ape
To combat those economic
headwinds, Tropical Smoothie
put the gorilla in “guerrilla marketing.” From Oct. 27-29, the
chain handed out 10,000 coupons, offering either a 99-cent
smoothie or a free breakfast
wrap to people passing within
two miles of the store. The coupons had a two-week limit for
redemptions.
All through the trade area,
the chain put up dozens of
yard signs with the Tropical
Smoothie logo and that simply
said “smoothies,” “sandwiches”
or “wraps.” Outside the stores,
employees grabbed the attention
of passersby by posing in banana
costumes.
Rotondo took one for the team
and donned a gorilla costume,
Putting it all together
Duke, who said she saw firsthand the tough market Orlando
had become when
she attended last
year’s Florida Restaurant & Lodging
Show, praised Tropical Smoothie’s efforts to package all
the marketing materials, from coupons
to costumes, into a
kit available to its
franchisees.
“It’s hard to convince franchisees to do
this because it takes time, energy and free food,” she said. “But
if you can show results and that
this works, it’s easier to get them
to buy in. In drastic times, it’s
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