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Charlotte, N.C.-based smoothie and organic healthy foods chain Clean Juice saw significant growth during the pandemic with their focus on a healthy, organic lifestyle. Landon and Kat Eckles discuss how their brand saw double-digit growth in 2020 by focusing on the success of their franchisees and branding the Clean Juice concept as a lifestyle. ...
Charles Watson began as CEO of Tropical Smoothie Cafe in January 2019, and the world has changed wildly in his first year and a half. One thing remains the same: Tropical Smoothie Cafe is gunning to become a household name, with or without a pandemic. “We make no bones about the fact that we are trying to be a household name,” said Watson. The Atlanta-based healthful smoothie concept is certainly on the way, having increased comp sales by 25.5% in July – while other brands saw sales drop – and opening new units throughout the pandemic. That is largely due to having a robust pipeline of franchisees, and being specific about locations. Don’t expect to see a unit on every corner just yet; that doesn’t fit in with Watson’s goals for the next 5 to 10 years. Right now, he’s focused on what he calls “hospitology,” hospitality enabled by technology at all 850 units. The brand maintains a mix between hospitality and technology by focusing on contactless transactions, delivery, leaning into digital and mobile channels and point-of-sale improvements while also maintaining a warm environment, something Watson says is often lost in the automation of restaurants, especially during COVID. Without safety and sanitation, “you have nothing,” according to Watson. Listen to the full episode and be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. ...
If you know Sonic Drive-In you probably know the "two guys" commercials. Those guys, Peter Grosz and T.J. Jagodowski, gave their humorous, lightly improvised musings in the brand's advertisements for years. But in the brand's new campaign, the guys are replaced by real people, mostly families, and a heartfelt message about the power of everyday moments in the car. Lori Abou Habib, chief marketing officer at Sonic, lead the brand towards this transition and spoke to NRN's Extra Serving Podcast about the process. "One of the things that we really attribute a lot of the success of 2019 to was getting to know our guests better than we ever have before through some extensive consumer research," Abou Habib. "What we've uncovered in the last couple of years is there's an opportunity for us to really connect more with our fans and with prospective fans. And the best way that we landed on doing that was through launching a new advertising campaign, but also just refreshing the visual identity of the brand. It's been at least a decade since we've changed our logo, maybe more. And it was just time to signal to consumers that there was something new going on at Sonic." Sonic hired real fans and created "authentic" storylines centered around Sonic.To keep the "realness" in a polished professional commercial, took some help from a reality TV production crew, which Sonic hired through the brand's new creative agency, Mother LA. Hear more from Abou Habib on the process of casting fans, developing authentic storylines and creating a new identity for Sonic. ...
