E x e c u t i v e S u m m a r y

How to Spread Brand Love Through Effective Use of Social MediaOctober 17, 2012

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What’s inside• The world of social media

is changing what a brand means.

• A “Social 4-Pack” powers successful social network marketing.

• Restaurants can create “brand love” for their dining experiences.

Cecily Sorensen, Director of Communications, Firehouse SubsDan Kim, Chief Concept Officer & Founder, Red MangoBrad Taylor, Vice President of Customer Marketing, Coca-Cola

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It’s no longer about messaging to your customers; it’s about corresponding and communicating with them—and sharing their stories.Brad Taylor

OverviewThe popularity of social networks like Facebook and Twitter has transformed the marketing landscape for restaurant operators. One-way mass marketing has given way to close, even individualized, engagement with brands online, where “brand lovers” share their experiences with family, friends, and the world at large.

For companies, social networks represent an enormous opportunity to tell their stories and to enable customers to share and amplify theirs with Tweets, Pins, Instagram photos, and other multimedia content. In embracing social media, marketers must strive to remain responsive, upbeat, honest, concise, and true to their brands.

ContextThree experts discussed the impact of social media on restaurant marketing.

Key TakeawaysThe world of social media is changing what a brand means.

Prior to today’s audience of interconnected networks of consumers, the media marketing was one-way…from TV broadcast, to cable channel segments, to the introduction of the internet.

Now, in the 2010’s, social networks are transforming the brand marketing landscape, replacing one-way broadcasts with many-to-many conversations, and sharing consumers’ personal experiences, both good and bad. And measurements are moving from media impressions to consumer expressions that have significant impact on the perception of brands with other consumers.

As a consequence, the very definition of a brand is shifting. Previously, a brand could be defined as the sum of a product’s attributes: its name, packaging, pricing, reputation, and advertising. Today, a brand is:

A collection of stories about the experience with your product or service that people share with their friends, family, and social networks.

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The Firehouse Subs brand today is a collection of stories. It’s not a theme; it’s the real deal.Cecily Sorensen

A “Social 4-Pack” powers successful social network marketing.

Given the emphasis on stories and sharing, Coca-Cola developed a set of hallmarks for effective marketing in this environment—its “Social 4-Pack,” which consists of:

1. Storytelling. Stories—from both companies and consumers—are the new and valuable marketing currency. Stories are so powerful because they represent the way people connect, remember, learn, and share. For example, Firehouse Subs focuses its brand marketing on its founders’ actual firehouse heritage, how their foundation has donated nearly $5.5 million to first responders, and the story behind the unusual datil peppers in its signature hot sauce.

2. “Shareworthyness.” Beyond customer stories, marketing content aimed at social networks must be designed with sharing in mind. For example, Coca-Cola rigged a beverage vending machine to become a “happiness machine” by dispensing gifts, and then filmed customers’ spontaneous reactions. To date, this entertaining video has received more than 4.4 million views on YouTube, driven exclusively by enthusiastic sharing. For Coca-Cola, “Share” button clicks (representing active expression) are more important than “Like” button clicks (representing simply an impression).

Coca-Cola actually turned a beverage dispenser into a story. Its innovative Freestyle™ dispenser lets customers choose from a selection of 125 branded drinks using a touchscreen, and even mix different flavors. The fountain has its own Facebook page where guests post photos and video with the machine. Plus Coca-Cola provides a smartphone app that lets consumers locate the nearest unit. During the initial test in the Southeast, Coca-Cola teamed up with Firehouse Subs (which had a proprietary cherry limeade beverage) to create a tour bus that garnered press coverage.

3. Listening. Social media obviously enables companies to listen for (and respond to) consumer complaints, but it is equally important to listen for opportunities. Red Mango, a chain of frozen yogurt and smoothie stores, noticed that its Facebook fans were posting smartphone photos of its stores’ frozen-yogurt products. The company leveraged this activity by featuring the best pictures on Pinterest, a popular online “corkboard” of favorite products, services, recipes, destinations, artwork, and other items. Each year since it was founded, Red Mango has continued to add social networks: what started

with MySpace in 2007 has expanded to Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, Vimeo, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr, YouTube, Foursquare, and Google+. In addition to the company’s brand page on Facebook, every franchisee has its own page to focus on local conversations and promotions. Along the way, the company has grown to 200 stores and rates highly in consumer sentiment surveys.

Celebrate  fans  &  brand   Share  photos  

Ask/answer  ques8ons  

Connect  brand  lovers  

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We use social media as a central hub through which everyone can communicate with one another.Dan Kim

4. “Flawesome.” Operational and quality mistakes are bound to occur, but social networks enable companies to deal with them proactively and transparently. By communicating directly with an unhappy consumer, marketers can often turn a critic into a fan. When confronted by a vocal “foodie” blogger in Las Vegas, for example, Firehouse Subs arranged a meeting with the company’s president during a visit to the city. His criticisms addressed, the blogger is now a booster of the restaurants. By the same token, when a customer’s complaint is ignored, it is more likely to be shared widely; social media is a powerful amplifier.

By connecting these social activities with conventional campaigns, marketers find that return on investment is both substantial and straightforward to measure. Red Mango embeds coupons in Tweets, for example, and then tracks their POS redemption. In support of local events like grand openings, Firehouse Subs posts VIP-only free sub offers in Facebook, then counts how many customers appear. In fact, Facebook provides a “Custom Audiences” tool that helps companies match email lists with Facebook users for campaign purposes.

Restaurants can create “brand love” for their dining experiences.

“Brand love” is “loyalty beyond reason,” when consumers go out of their way to praise a product or service, purchase it more frequently, and recommend it to their friends. What can restaurants do via social networks to promote this passion?

• Stay positive. Keep all communication upbeat, and resist the temptation to respond defensively to an angry consumer. Coca-Cola has found that its Facebook fans deal effectively with negative posts.

• Leverage multimedia. Foodservice is inherently visual, so restaurants have lots of potential video and photographic material, and they can encourage customers to upload their own. In an upcoming campaign, Firehouse Subs will give a dollar for every customer picture of its famous pickle barrel.

• Keep it short. Maintain a consistent brand tone and be succinct. Include a question or other call to action in every post. Twitter is the ultimate platform for brief brand messages and near real-time conversation.

• Be honest. When a mistake is made, admit it and move on. Trying to erase it from the Web will only backfire.

• Be social. Communicate on all platforms every day, and mention partners whenever possible. Try to respond to all contributors, whether positive or negative. Red Mango has a four-member social media team that manages to respond to nearly every post.

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© Copyright 2012, Penton Media, Inc. All rights Reserved

Cecily SorensonDirector of Communications, Firehouse Subs of AmericaCecily Sorensen is the Director of Communications for Firehouse Subs, one of the nation’s leading fast casual restaurant brands. Having worked in public relations for 11 years — agency and corporate, Cecily is a PR girl at heart. In addition to her leadership of public relations efforts for the brand, she directs the social media, guest services and internal communications strategies for the 525+ unit restaurant chain that specializes in steaming hot subs and @savinglives through the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation.

Dan KimFounder and Chief Concept Officer, Red MangoDan is a true entrepreneur, having taken an idea from his own kitchen table to the corner office and beyond. After thousands of recipe trials in his own kitchen, he perfected a healthy, all-natural frozen yogurt recipe in 2006. In 2007 Dan founded Red Mango. He is currently Red Mango’s Chief Concept Officer.

Dan graduated from the UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and worked as an investment banker with Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette and as a financial analyst with Deloitte. He also held jobs for a number of startups, including Stamps.com.

Red Mango is the #1 Zagat-rated Yogurt & Smoothie chain in the United States and received both “Best Smoothie/Frozen Yogurt” and “Top Healthy Options within the Quick Refreshments Chains” awards in 2011.

Brad TaylorVice President, Customer Marketing, Coca Cola CompanyBrad Taylor serves as Vice President, Customer Marketing for the Coca-Cola Refreshments Division of The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta. In this role, Brad leads a team of marketing professionals who provide strategic marketing support to the divisions’ largest chain customers in the Foodservice and On-Premise channels including restaurants, colleges and universities, at-work, malls, specialty retail stores, and other channels where Coca-Cola fountain or bottled beverages are bought and consumed one drink at a time.

Because dining is a social activity, it naturally lends itself to the immediacy and fun of real-time smartphone Tweets and photo uploads. With social networks, restaurants enable a customer to extend and share his or her dining experience with friends, family, and the restaurant operator. For Firehouse Subs, an online share is essentially the same as a compliment or criticism delivered during a meal, and it should be treated no differently.

Other Important Points• 140 characters. Search for #SpreadBrandLove posts at Twitter.com.

Mr. Taylor’s Twitter feed is @bcoketaylor; Mr. Kim’s is @DanKimRedMango; Ms. Sorensen’s is @cecilysorensen.

• The Happiness Machine. Watch Coca-Cola’s viral YouTube video at bit.ly/S9j1dG.