Category: Retail

Increase Restaurant Revenue With Controversial Ads: CKE Filmed Paris Hilton

Have you seen the Paris Hilton ad for Carl Jr’s Too Hot BBQ $6.00 burger? I have and I received it as a link in an email from my brother. Did I watch it? Yes and in addition to the very nice visuals I noticed there is a link for a screen saver, photos you can save, coupons for $1.00 off the burger (nice tracking device) and an easy to use link for forwarding the commercial to anyone you want. That commercial is already speeding around the Internet getting more exposure than if the networks ran it. Plus the fact it is being banned on commercial TV makes the ad that much hotter.

There are many lessons to take from this campaign and no you don’t need to produce something near pornographic.

Now look at the sales results of their advertising strategy: a 40% increase in sales and 25 consecutive quarters of same store sales increases.

Here are several excerpts from the news story:

CKE Restaurants, which has a reputation for politically incorrect advertising, tapped the sexy socialite for a new Carl’s Jr. TV spot. The problem, according to a source, is the spot is meeting with some resistance from network executives. “It couldn’t be more pornographic,” said the source. “It’s about as racy as I’ve seen.” …..

Set to the song “I Love Paris in the Springtime,” the 30-second spot, via Mendelsohn/Zien in Los Angeles, shows Hilton washing a car “with hoses shooting everywhere and her soaping everything up,” said the source. Touting the BBQ Six Dollar Burger, it plays off her catch phrase, “That’s hot.”

“We liken our advertising to more of what the beer brands do,” said Brad Haley, evp of marketing at Carl’s Jr. (which targets men 18-34) in an interview with Brandweek earlier this year. “There’s a lot of male attitude, personality and edge. Sometimes sex appeal enters into it on occasion. It’s something younger guys are interested in.”

The strategy appears to be working. The 959-unit chain rang up $1.4 billion in sales last year, up from $1 billion, per Technomic, Chicago. It also has reported 25 consecutive months of same-store sales increases.

Developing Effective Marketing Programs and Tracking Return on Investment Is A Key Part of The Retail Profit System (www.retailprofitsystem.com)

Aricle Comments and Compilation by Steve Pohlit www.stevepohlit.com This article may be republished in its entirety with the inclusion of all information to this point.

Develop A Customer Data Base, Communicate With Them And Beat 85% of Your Competition!

Maybe you don’t want to work that hard, or maybe you have been burned by consultants or maybe you already have a measure of success. No matter what position you are in, if you Do This One Thing you will beat 85% of your competition. If you are in the 15% category already, please email me with a sentence or two confirming how well this works for you. 

What we are about to discuss applies to every business large or small and in every industry. Next, this is easy to do, but it does require some work. Finally, when you do this consistently, you will make more money than you ever imagined. This action is at the core of what makes people happy.

OK, here it is: every business has customers. if you are a professional service business, your customers may be called clients or patients. At the transaction level they are customers. They buy something from you. Some people cross the path of your business and don’t buy. Others you call on and some buy and some don’t. With each action there is a contact and when you have contact you have an opportunity to make a record of that customer or prospect’ s contact information. That record can be as simple as a first name and email address. It may be comprehensive including complete contact information, biographical sketch, business history and so on.

The one thing you must do if you are in business is obtain the contact information of people doing business with you and people who visit with you but have not yet purchased. You must then use this information and let them know you are thankful and you are sincerely interested in continuing the business relationship. Yes, this applies to every business.

One of the questions I consistently receive is the concern of contacting customers using email. Think of it this way, for most people they are going to business to buy something they want. They will welcome properly positioned messages from you. When you communicate with them regularly with messages containing valuable information and offers, they will continue to support your business and tell all their friends about you.

In assisting clients with implementing a customer development plan I have confirmed the importance of a couple very important points: First you must have a clear privacy policy, next you must use a registration process that confirms their interest in receiving information from you (opt-in) and finally they must be able to easily unsubscribe from your mailing list at anytime. I do not recommend telemarketing to your customers. However, an email alerting them to be listening for an important voice mail broadcast can work and should be tested. Email should not be relied upon exclusively. It should be part of a comprehensive marketing strategy.

I offer all potential clients a complimentary call for up to one hour and most prospective clients walk away with five or more ideas they can use right now to grow their business profits. I highly recommend you take advantage of this offer before time constraints make it impossible to continue.

Be well and prosper,

Steve Pohlit

www.stevepohlit.com  

 

P.S. For more information visit www.localretailmarketing.com

Steve Pohlit is a CPA has his MBA and has been the CFO of several major domestic and international companies. Today Steve is an expert business consultant focused on helping companies improve their business performance including growing profits, revenues and customers. For a FREE 6 week mini course where you will receive 10 easy to implement action steps guaranteed to increase business revenue in profits by at least 30% in the next 90 days, please visit www.StevePohlit.com  All articles published by Steve unless specifically restricted may be freely published with this resource box in tact.