Foodservice P-O-P Report

The marketing staff at Carillon Importers Ltd. has seen its wholesale channel consolidate to fewer and fewer distributors in recent years, forcing sales reps to spend less time promoting each brand to each restaurant they service. To reduce that pressure and garner more attention for its new line of Stolichnaya flavored vodkas, Carillon created a direct-mail program last summer for restaurateurs, offering a complete merchandising kit by returning a request card. The result was a turnkey display program for the restaurant, a pre-sold account for the wholesaler and more visibility and customer trial for Carillon's new products."It was extremely effective," says Cary Schwartz, vice president of marketing services at the Fort Lee, N.J.-based importer. "It achieved a number of goals for us. It extended our distribution of the products, sold additional units, improved brand familiarity among consumers and solidified the product line for the addition of new flavors later on. All without overtaxing the distribution chain."In fact, many suppliers and restaurateurs are examining creative new approaches, employing new technologies and working together in co-branded situations whenever possible to increase the value and impact of their P-O-P materials. "Foodservice P-O-P is an area we're keenly interested in because it's a passive opportunity to promote our products," says Bob Fallon, marketing director at Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc., Lakeville, Mass."Our use of in-store materials has grown significantly," says Howard B. Terry, brand marketing director for Denny's restaurants. "P-O-P used to be an afterthought for us, and we didn't maximize the opportunities as we try to do now." That new focus has led the Spartanburg, S.C.-based restaurant chain to increase its P-O-P budget by 60 percent in the past two years. "We're looking at the restaurants today more as a marketing vehicle and trying to find the appropriate places to merchandise within them."Creativity is a MustIn general, that means marketers and restaurateurs are finding they have to get creative. That was certainly the case with Carillon. In fact, the company used those words as the slogan for its direct-mail campaign. The "Get Creative" mailing list was generated from a list used for a program when the six flavors were introduced in mid-1996. The package included an assortment of all six flavors and merchandising collateral materials.The 8,000 accounts that responded to that program through wholesalers received the direct-mail piece in mid-1997. It was also sent to the wholesalers responsible for supplying the name of each targeted restaurant. About 20 percent -- 1,300 accounts -- returned the response card. They then received a merchandising kit that included shot samplers so the waitstaff could offer trial tastes at each table, table tents, waitstaff buttons, laminated recipe cards for the tables, recipe books to hand out to customers, materials to support special promotion nights for the drinks, and a number of other pieces.The initial kit was followed by a six-month program of additional materials, with each monthly offering focused around a different flavor and accompanied by a newsletter promoting what other accounts were doing to generate sales. Then a second mailing was done to the accounts that hadn't responded, increasing participation further. The final segment of the second group's six-month program will hit in May -- just as the company anticipates launching a follow-up campaign."We received excellent feedback from restaurants," Schwartz notes, recalling a T.G.I.Friday's manager who raved about his success. "It was very straightforward and supplied a lot of materials, and it didn't hinge on the wholesalers being able to push the products."That need to be creative is uppermost in marketers' minds, according to Debbie Littmann, director of marketing at Eli's Cheesecake, Chicago. "We're constantly looking for new ideas we can use, because each restaurant has different needs." Crew buttons are very popular with some, while others want menu boards or static clings for their drive-through windows, and a few have asked for banners. Those requests vary greatly by customer type. The most in-demand piece currently, she notes, is danglers. "We're being asked for more all the time, and we've done some wonderful three-sided point-of-sale materials to hang from the ceiling that are easy to assemble."Denny's Terry is a big fan of danglers, too. "We've recently done tests with half the stores using danglers and half not using them, and we find that they greatly improve the success of a promotion by 5 or 6 percent of sales," he says. "But we're also trying to be very integrated with our promotions and use as many media as possible." That includes window clings, lobby posters, danglers, table tents, and laminated handout menus.In part, that integrated approach stems from Denny's positioning as a 24-hour restaurant. Eli's similarly faces unique challenges, as it must hit the customer with dessert suggestions before the initial food order is placed so the customer saves room.Liquor and beverage marketers face similar challenges in putting their message in front of customers. Coasters offered an ideal approach three or four years ago, says Joe Smith, sales manager for premium accounts at Ocean Spray. "The waitstaff greets the customer with a menu and a coaster with the brand name on it," he explains. "It not only puts the message in front of the customer, but it prompts the server to suggest something specific without seeming overt or pushy."But now, Smith notes, coaster use has fallen off, with more restaurants opting for a rolltop card holder placed on tables that can show a variety of options. "We're constantly being asked by our accounts what the next generation of merchandiser will be," he says. "And we're constantly trying to figure out what it will be."Adolph Coors Co. has found success recently with special bottle designs, says Dave Taylor, a spokesman for the Golden, Colo.-based brewery. Last spring the company promoted a limited edition Coors Lite design that featured pressure-sensitive labels that added distinctive graphics to the bottles. The company also has featured a Coors "roping bottle," in which a relief of a lasso was applied to the bottle with a ceramic technique. Other pressure-sensitive styles and clear-plastic labels have been used as well. Each is promoted with table tents and other more traditional materials.Co-Branding Opens OptionsThe best approach for liquor and beverage accounts, according to Ocean Spray's Fallon, comes in co-branded products, where two manufacturers combine to create a unique product and accompanying P-O-P. The Outback Steakhouse chain, for instance, promotes a variety of Ocean Spray-based drinks. "Retailers are very open to these ideas if the concept is creative," says Fallon.Eli's Littmann agrees. Often, the company will co-label its products with the restaurant's logo to add more options for the restaurant's line and boost sales of take-out desserts.Other marketers also take advantage of co-branded options, including Nabisco. There, a spokeswoman mentions promotions for Oreo cookie desserts paired with Baskin-Robbins ice cream as well as programs with A.1. steak sauce and Grey Poupon mustard as being popular.Denny's Terry, however, is lukewarm on the idea of co-op programs with marketers. "Most aren't good fits for our products, and we don't want to overload the customer with logos," he says. "If the customer is the focus and the link is a natural, then well do it," he says. "But we won't force it to work in order to get the co-op funds."Carillon's Schwartz agrees that retailer support must be sought before launching any program. "Getting into the pipeline is easy, but if it's not right for the accounts, it will collect dust on the back-bar and then be gone. You have to have a program that works for both the restaurant and the final customer."Adds Ocean Spray's Smith, "There's always a need and an interest by the restaurants in P-O-P, but it has to be the right vehicle." Many accounts, he notes, are combining their options. "They're wrapping their arms around a combined beverage/appetizer promotion or beverage/appetizer/dessert offering. They are looking at their key add-on sales and trying to find ways to communicate better with those."Technologies ImprovingSome of the new ideas are being driven by improvements in technology, Denny's Terry says. "Die-cutting, spot lamination and folding have changed a lot in the last few years," he says. "It used to cost us significantly more to create those. Now, that's all very minimal."That, in turn, opens the door to better cost control, if not more creative approaches. For instance, Denny's used to have to do 20-percent to 40-percent overruns on all pieces to ensure it had enough to last the full length of a promotion. "Now we print much closer to need, and the durability has improved so much that the original order still looks good when the promotion is finished," Terry says.One area where technology has made improvements is in accounts that demand their own customized pieces, marketers say. "Customization is much more important than it used to be," says Eli's Littmann. "And that's become so much easier to handle with today's desktop publishing. We can scan in a logo and create a unique look quickly with the graphics. It's a major help with custom menus, which we're seeing more interest in."Printing and photography improvements have led Denny's to examine new synthetic paper stocks, which can now hold ink as well as traditional stock at a lower cost and higher durability, Terry says. "Those have really opened new doors for us." The problem is that few vendors can handle the new papers. "We've told our suppliers that they have to get up to speed on these ideas if they want to retain our business," he says."We continually challenge our vendors to bring us new ideas," Terry adds. He points to a special interactive menu Denny's created last year that involved dual printing and kiss cutting with flip-up panels that showed additional products underneath. "Those are expensive to do, but they really made the promotion successful."High-Tech Falls ShortTerry, however, remains unimpressed with many of the new technologies, as do many others in the industry. "The problem with some of the ideas, such as lenticular printing, is that they don't offer the best portrayal of food products," Terry says. Eli's Littmann agrees. "Most technologies [such as blinking lights or motion options] are geared for lower-end situations, not the white-tablecloth operations. They're promoting an image where high-tech pieces would be too expensive for the return."Ocean Spray's Fallon also hears from many vendors who want to sell him new technologies, but his budget wouldn't justify them. "Most of those pieces are aimed at the large liquor and soda manufacturers who have the budgets and volume." Adds his colleague Smith, "I've not seen anything on the horizon that I think is going to make me say, 'Wow! That's going to be around for a long time!'"Many New IdeasIndeed, many marketers are garnering success by putting new twists on existing concepts. Among the ideas marketers mentioned as proving popular today are:Wearables, such as the branded ties created for staffers to promote California Brands winery, makers of William Hill wines and others. "It was subtle but effective because it drew attention," says Miles Johnson, marketing manager for the Healdsburg, Calif.-based group.Coors' Taylor had great success in chain accounts with an LED-blinking button and Eli's Littmann finds many restaurants request the company's basic "Ask Me About Eli's Cheesecake" button.Training programs that offer a more intensive but subtle merchandising approach. California Brands produced laminated pocket description cards that explain the differences between wines so the waitstaff can answer questions. The winemaker also provides three- and four-minute videotapes that explain the key differences between wine types and present a tour of the winemaking facilities.This has proven popular for Carillon, too, Schwartz reports. Its wholesalers have been trained to train restaurateurs to stage tasting events. The company also offers videotapes that explain 10 key ways to promote Stolichnaya products to customers.Large standees and other representational pieces are gaining ground, many say. California Brands' Johnson says the use of oversize display bottles that restaurants can put in the front entry are popular. "Those are great, because they're very impactful and hit the customer before he's made any decisions," he notes. Denny's Terry sees that idea extending further, too. "We see the idea of corrugated standees moving out of retail settings into restaurant applications," he says. "It may not be used for food products exactly, but it could be used for promotions or as brochure holders for special menus.""I like to look outside our industry to see what we can adapt," Terry says. "We're starting to see more crossover from traditional retail vehicles that can be used in our industry."Ocean Spray's Smith agrees that other industries and new technologies may offer good ideas to help restaurateurs and foodservice marketers think in new ways. But he also says those elements won't replace the evaluation process at the bottom of every successful program in the distinctively different foodservice category. "Retailers are very open to new ideas, but it's a different environment than the retail market," he says. "It's up to us as marketers to look at what an idea will do for our brand, what the cost implications will be, and what other partners we might be able to involve to make it a success."

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