Customized, Location-Based Merchandising Reduces Marketing Costs | QSR
1/2/2024
RRD’s personalized store profiles and ConnectOne Storefront℠ portal optimize material distribution for leading quick-service restaurant chain
CHALLENGE
A leading quick-service restaurant chain sought assistance optimizing in-store marketing materials. For 25 years, the chain’s incumbent vendor had produced the same merchandising for each restaurant, even though each location has specific marketing needs. When restaurants received marketing collateral they had no use for, they would simply throw it away. This resulted in unnecessary freight costs, squandered materials, and wasted personnel hours.
The restaurant chain sought a way to balance their brand standards and centralized marketing programs with the unique, changing needs of individual restaurants. Ultimately, they needed external help customizing marketing materials based on each restaurant’s needs.
SOLUTION
An existing commercial print relationship led the company to entrust RRD with solving their merchandising challenges. RRD first recommended that instead of mass-shipping bulk orders for the company’s multiple signage pushes per year, marketing materials should be custom-printed, kitted, and shipped to support each restaurant’s individual needs.
To achieve this level of customization, RRD built a unique store profile for each restaurant. These profiles — located in RRD’s Restaurant Profile System — contain individual store data and allow for differentiation.
Additionally, RRD took over the manufacturing of all marketing materials, from the color-match process to production and kitting. RRD receives creative from the company’s agency, pairs that creative with each restaurant’s customized profile, and then produces, kits, and ships items — sometimes as soon as the same day.
For supplemental materials beyond the scheduled national pushes, RRD built and deployed a proprietary ConnectOne Storefront web-to-print portal. If a restaurant loses or damages a merchandising piece, or wants to further localize promotional efforts, they simply log into their ConnectOne Storefront interface, select available items and desired customization, and order those materials on-demand.
An individual restaurant can also customize the offer, discount, and quantity of a particular coupon — all based on their unique market circumstances. RRD then proofs, prints, and ships each order. The portal auto-populates restaurant profile information and contains only approved collateral, maximizing brand stewardship and compliance.
In addition, RRD analyzed all existing marketing collateral across franchisees and reduced the number of products from 175 to just 20 — each in strict alignment with the restaurant chain’s brand standards.
RESULTS
RRD’s deployment of the ConnectOne Storefront portal, plus the implementation of unique restaurant profiles for each location, provided the following benefits:
- Reduction in time to market by nearly 58% — from 13 weeks to just 5.5 weeks
- Comprehensive, customized marketing material support for all locations throughout more than 25 signage pushes each year
- 25% reduction in freight costs, less material waste, and fewer personnel hours spent sorting through bulk-shipped signage
- Improved quality, faster production, and cost savings due to centralized production
- Unique restaurant profile for each location, allowing stores to receive marketing materials based on individual needs
- Increased brand stewardship
- Ability for each location to order marketing materials on-demand through RRD’s proprietary ConnectOne Storefront portal