In the restaurant business, keeping the customer happy - and well-fed - is everything. The management of Bertucci's restaurants, a small chain of casual, Italian restaurants on
the East Coast, knew its clientele was generally satisfied with the Bertucci's experience. But the team wanted to develop a better understanding of the attributes of the
Bertucci's brand so they could leverage it with more customers and grow the business in 2002.
The chain brought in Cronin & Co., a marketing communications firm in Connecticut, to examine the brand and develop a large-scale advertising campaign to reach customers.
Perhaps more importantly, however, Cronin would help the restaurant develop an internal communications campaign designed to reach Bertucci's most important stakeholders in the
branding equation: its employees.
First Choice in Casual Dining
Cronin & Co. immediately began conducting market research and focus groups with Bertucci's customers to find out what it was about the restaurant, known for its brick oven
pizzas and authentic Italian cuisine, that diners found inviting.
The focus groups and research helped the organization determine what its brand message should be. Bertucci's, customers said, was an experiential brand - the experience of
dining at a Bertucci's restaurant is memorable, guests think about the food often, and the service and overall feel of the meal is considered vibrant and warm.
That translated to an easygoing, welcoming brand message for the campaign: "Our vision for the organization was to be 'America's first choice in casual dining,'" says Rick
Barbrick, president and COO of Bertucci's. "In Italy, the restaurant experience is very focused on the food and on having you be happy and making you feel at home."
An ad blitz with TV and radio spots was planned to draw consumers in, but Barbrick says running promotions to the guest wouldn't accomplish the overall goal of fulfilling on
that brand promise so that consumers would come back for more. "You have to have buy-in inside the four walls of the restaurants."
In order to achieve that buy-in, Bertucci's management would have to ensure that each and every employee, from general managers to chefs to busboys, understood the brand and
communicated it to customers.
The company, along with the team at Cronin, put together a brand film, touting the warm, familial feeling of the restaurant experience, and showing employees how important they
were to the success of the brand. In March, Bertucci's debuted the film to a meeting of general managers and managing partners. The video was then rolled out to all 75 Bertucci's
locations in a "road show." Each Bertucci's location aired the tape to its employees during a breakfast meeting, and local teams could tailor the roll-out slightly to fit their
own needs.
The concepts behind the video were simple but evocative of the brand message: reminding employees to smile and focus on the "authentic Italian" restaurant experience of
hospitality, teaching staff to focus on body language in customers. "We're going to make mistakes, but it's how [the employees handle them] within these four walls," Barbrick
emphasizes.
The video "got every single employee to see and understand what we're doing," he says. "It also got them to understand how they're going to help, how it's a team effort - and
what's in it for them." What is in it for them? If you're a server, gratuities go up; if you work in the back, as the company grows, Barbrick says bonuses will go up; if you're a
manager, you're part of the profit-sharing plan, all of which the video made clear.
The Delicious Results
Though the campaign just rolled out to employees this spring, it's already producing quantifiable results. Bertucci's has been employing a quality measurement program in its
restaurants since before the roll-out of the internal communications campaign. Customers are asked to rank various elements of their Bertucci's experience - including taste and
quality of product, quality of service, etc. - on a scale of one to five. When a customer scores the restaurant at a five, research shows that customer is six times more likely to
choose Bertucci's over a competitor. Before the roll-out, Bertucci's was tracking around a four, now scores are up around four and a half. Plus, the guest complaint level has
dropped a whopping 80 percent, and when asked if they would return, the percentage of customers who indicate they would not has dropped to around 2 percent.
Campaign Stats
Timeframe: Launched in spring of 2002 and ongoing
Budget: $4 million overall including advertising and PR costs
On Site Training
What better way to come to grips with an authentic Italian restaurant experience than to eat in an authentic Italian restaurant ... in Italy? Bertucci's is sending groups of
managers and senior managers to the Old Country to witness firsthand what's behind the Bertucci's brand. "They come back and say, 'Now we know what you're talking about,'"
Barbrick says. And they can in turn communicate the experience to other employees who have direct contact with customers.
(Contact: Barbrick, 508/351-2500)