MARKETING MORE with Less Making the most of your marketing spend Written By EDDY GOLDBERG
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ough times reveal character. Tough times also reveal leadership, innovation, and the ability to adapt quickly to uncertainty. This is especially true when it comes to consumer marketing in a pandemic, where in-store traffic is down and in-home service visits are severely curtailed—reducing revenues and placing added pressure on marketing budgets. So how can franchisees lower their marketing costs without affecting sales and customer traffic in these Covid-ridden times?
For restaurant and other food brands in 2020, one savior has been drive-thrus. QSRs and many other brands have been playing up their “no contact” service in both traditional and social media channels, nationally and locally. Franchisees who already had drivethrus when the pandemic hit were a step ahead of those who didn’t. Those without them scrambled to build them if they could, and rapidly create a carry-out, pickup, or delivery strategy. Drive-thrus certainly saved Bryce Bares’ bacon at his 12 Dunkin’ Donuts in Nebraska and Kansas. And with three more in development, you know they’ll have drive-thrus. “Dunkin’ has a very strong mobile app, so much of our traffic is going through the drive-thru. And with safety and health so important to our teams and our customers, we’re pushing our mobile payments options as much as we can,” says Bares. It’s not only a safer way to pay, he says, it also helps build customer loyalty.
Turns out his franchisor thought so too. “Initially, Dunkin’ put a lot of money into sports partnerships and other traditional marketing media that were disrupted by Covid. Social media is an opportunity to market in a post-Covid world.” Pre-Covid, he says, delivery was not huge to begin with for Dunkin’ especially in Nebraska. “It was a blip. Now it’s a huge part of our sales. We’ve partnered with all the delivery companies.” Catering, on the other hand, will probably see the opposite effect, a result of the big drop-off from large gatherings and closed offices, he says. And he did have to shut one unit, located on the University of Nebraska campus. It had no drive-thru. “I think we’re going to see some permanent changes in consumer behavior, including traffic patterns,” he says. And, as many companies continue their shift from office work to working from home, this is likely one of those long-term changes. For example, a business located near office buildings will have to adjust, find new customers, or possibly relocate or close. Reduced commuting has also affected his business, but the changes are not all dire. “There will be new traffic patterns, so the way you advertise will be different, he says. “I think all of us are waiting to see what permanent changes come out of Covid and deploy our marketing dollars accordingly.”
Big picture? “We’ve been very fortunate,” says Bares. “We were “We had to recalibrate our strategy entirely,” says Bares. “We hit very hard early. The drive-thrus saved us.” pulled a lot of our marketing dollars when Covid first hit. It made “GOOGLE IS MY BOSS” no sense to spend when customers weren’t.” Observing conWhen it comes to using social media as an effective, low-cost way sumer behavior over the ensuing months, he saw an increase in to drive traffic, Sarah Toney, a multi-unit franchisee of Any Lab drive-thru business and little to no foot traffic. So he focused his Test Now in Austin, Texas, has a lot to say. She and her husband marketing spend on social media. “Social media is a very effective, have been multi-unit franchisees of the brand since 2008. low-cost way to drive traffic,” he says.
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Multi-Unit Franchisee
ISSUE 4, 2020
