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This morning Brian yelled out that he had gotten an email from Copeland’s inviting him to join their Frequent Lunch Club (buy five lunches and get the 6th free)… and the office chorus rang out “looks like someone’s in trouble!”
You see, as marketers we’re trained to look at the “why” of a promotion, and a spiffy place like Copeland’s throwing out a price promotion says only one thing: must... get... cash...
Another way to identify a restaurant scrounging for business is when it introduces new menu items. Take KFC, for example, which has released all kinds of new products in the recent past: grilled chicken, wings, variety buckets, box meals, and the all new Double Down (gross!).
This approach is usually worthwhile, but in KFC’s case they seem to have missed the boat. Its market share has dropped 5.8% since 2005, and sales fell 6% last year… all while the market for fast food chicken grew over 11%.
An AdAge.com article published today noted that “the series of [promotional] stunts drove buzz and the introduction of grilled chicken spiked short-term sales, [but] the moves also contributed to a lack of consistent brand positioning and a distraction from KFC's flagship product.”
There are other issues at play for KFC, such as hefty competition, operational issues, and failure to handle special promotions well; however, experts agree the overarching issue is brand inconsistency. In that AdAge piece branding consultant Denise Lee-Yohn said it very simply, "They don't have a clear identity anymore, and I think that's hurt them.”
The same can be said for Copeland’s: a high(er)-end restaurant offering price promotions is confusing to consumers.
I don’t care who it is, every business fights cashflow issues and has slumps. In those times it’s imperative to try, try, try to avoid making desperate, stupid promotion decisions that can hurt your brand and in the long run do more harm than good.
-Sarah, Emogen marketer
Monday, April 19, 2010
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I certainly agree with your thoughts here. But I think the number one problem is quality. If a business lacks a good quality product followed up with great customer service, then all the marketing in the world will fail. KFC's grilled chicken is dry. Every time I eat it it's dry (therefore I've stopped going). And Copeland's has good food but VERY inconsistent service. They are trying desperately to keep people coming back. So if you fix #1 (quality) and #2 (service), then #3 (marketing) will ring true instead of feeling/sounding hollow and empty. I think THAT is the business trifecta.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up an excellent point here.
ReplyDeleteMost times, people equate “brand” with “logo.” David Ogilvy (founder of Ogilvy & Mather) put it very nicely. He said a brand is “the intangible sum of a product's attributes: its name, packaging, and price, its history, its reputation, and the way it's advertised.”
It’s sort of like saying you're Elizabeth, which is true; but it’s way more than just your name. It’s what we use to identify YOU: your physical self, your mind and thoughts, your history, your personality... everything that makes up who you are.
So, right you are. Their problems are much more than just confusing products and pricing. There are many, many moving parts to a brand (and thus profitability).
The lesson these guys present is that the answer isn’t necessarily always “what can we do that’s new.” Often times it’s “what can we fix that’s broken.”