Bojangles Leans Into Catering, Influencer Marketing
HT caught up with Tom Boland, CMO, Bojangles, to talk about his role with the beloved QSR, catering and its use of data to drive customer loyalty.
Boland is a newcomer to the restaurant industry. Prior to Bojangles, he used his marketing skills for WWE, Warner Brothers, Turner and most recently Barstool Sports.
“The background of how to target and reach consumers at scale is something I've done my whole career, but what I always look for are brands that people don't just like, they love. Because once you find a brand with killer products, you can really bring the brand to life. That’s why I joined this brand.”
Bojangles partnered with ezCater to roll out catering at its 800 stores in 17 states. For catering, the average check can be 10X that of a standard check and the food travels well, he explained.
“Franchisees love catering. It gives them a chance to focus and plan around high-value orders … optimizing kitchen operations and increasing the utilization rate of the kitchen.”
Plus, catering can help drive loyalty and brand awareness. "The beauty of catering a wedding is it exposes the brand and the product to a whole new audience," Boland explained.
While some franchisees had been offering catering, Bojangles partnership with ezCater is helping the brand to “get consistency on the menu,” Boland explained. “And then with consistency, you can move faster. (ezCater) helped us as we looked at the menu. We had some thoughts and then they pointed out some additional insights to us. Different day parts that we should focus on and which products would travel the best.”
Fried chicken, chicken sandwiches, chicken tenders, mac and cheese, biscuits, and dirty rice are some of the offerings.
The brand rolled out catering in June. “I'm really interested to see, what are the consumer segments that order the most frequently. Is it the wedding or is it the team lunch for auto dealers on a Wednesday? There are so many fun things that we could learn,” he said.
Influencer Marketing
Word of mouth is important to driving awareness. The brand is also leaning into influencer marketing on social media, including TikTok and Instagram. “We've had success with some of our new product launches, leaning in with influencers and having our fans help tell the story for us. It resonates so much better” than an advertisement, Boland explained.
It’s like a movie trailer versus a friend’s glowing movie review. “The movie trailers are all great, but when a friend tells you ‘This is the best movie!,’ you take notice. And that's where we win. And then the quality of our product comes shining through,” he said.
Fostering Long-Term Loyalty
To foster long-term loyalty amongst its current fans, Bojangles plans to continue to amplify word-of-mouth, both organic and sponsored. “People love this brand so much… They not only like telling you, they also like telling others.”
Whether it’s the brand’s mobile app, third-party delivery marketplaces and ezCater, “We're using a combination of variables to learn as much as we can, not only about the audience, but also their consumption patterns. For example, is there a different behavior pattern during the week versus the weekend, and if so, what are the products that people are looking for? That ties to mining the data and seeing what consumers are ordering. We're finding menu hacks, and we're reusing these menu hacks,” he said.
Communication with people working inside the restaurant is equally valuable. “To be honest, a lot of the (new products) that we're coming up with by talking to the employees that are working in the store and the franchisees that have been there for years and years,” Boland explained.
The Role of Personalized Offers
“We're testing on a regular basis all sorts of individual offers. We've got data to get a sense of different audience segments. Either they're loyal to a particular product or a particular offer or a particular day part.
“One of the opportunities of loyalty programs is there's an opportunity to stop and listen to what people want. Offer broadly and then see what the response is. For example, offer 20% off this product, or take 20% off an order of X dollars. And then I can then sort the data: are more people ordering breakfast, lunch or dinner? And what percentage did a drink attachment or did they not do a drink attachment? There's so much data out there.
“You can get lost in the data, but if you know exactly what you're looking for, you can find it. We are building those operating segments and then we're seeing how it responds to three different consumer segments. Rather than an individual, what if we looked at it broader: new guests, lapsed guests and current guests. They all have different needs. And then how are they responding? And then how are you coordinating your marketing against that? We are actively doing all of that and we're learning.”