For North Salt Lake City, Utah-based Maverik, "Adventure's First Stop" is its Kick Start reality show, which launched in May 2008. Brad Call, executive vice president of adventure culture and general counsel for the 200-store chain, said the show developed from a discussion about the propensity for DVR users to fast forward through commercials.
Call told the assembled group of about 75 retailers and suppliers the [image-nocss] idea of Kick Start is "taking the average Joe or Josette" and doing some fun, adventurous things with Maverik and its adventure partners. Each episode includes a trip to Maverik, highlighting products from vendors that support the program. The show airs on NBC affiliates in western states, with about 16,000 people watching weekly.
Maverik challenged employees to create ads for the highlighted products, with plans for the winning ad, as voted by the employees, included in Kick Start. "It's important in any media campaign to have the active participation and involvement of your own people," Call said. "And they've got to feel it, be excited, have fun with it. It creates the energy within your corporation."
Call said Maverik also likes to create stories around its products. The story of the company's new Bodacious Bean coffee focuses on the unearthing of an ancient civilization powered by a simple belief: "The thrill of adventure, powered by the nectar of the bodacious bean." Upcoming plans include wrapping counters to look like they are built from rocks.
At Maverik, according to Call, everything must pass through an "adventure lens" or it won't work. "It doesn't matter how clever the idea, how fun it is; if it doesn't go through that lens, if it does not somehow tell that story of adventure, it bounces off the lens and we don't accept it."
Meanwhile, for White House Station, N.J.-based Quick Chek, many promotional efforts are based online. John Schaninger, vice president of sales and merchandising spoke of how much he enjoys working with his company's new Facebook page.
"We're actually talking to our most loyal fans," he said, "because why would you go on Quick Chek's Facebook [page] unless you're a loyal fan?" The 121-store chain's Facebook promotions include freebies when the site reaches a friend-quota goal, fan of the month and couponingand the fan base is growing at a rate of about 10% a week.
One possible problem that's proven surprisingly positive, Schaninger said, is that "we can't control fan content and comments." He concedes some concerns that everyone can see comments, but he appreciates the opportunity for direct responses to also be public. One interaction included a posting from a customer that was unhappy about the discontinuation of a coffee flavor. Soon other people were posting that they take half of one coffee and half of another to achieve a desired flavor, and other "recipes" then ensued.
Two other online Quick Chek offerings have also gained a lot of interest. One, referred to as "Sub Culture," atwww.qcsubculture.com, allows users to pick a sub sandwich, dress it up, give it a personality and tell it what to say. Another was a "Name It, Claim It" contest directing kids to come up with a name for the company's frozen drink. It got 1,800 names, which Quick Chek narrowed to 25, and subsequently 21 following a trademark search. Instead of spending big money on a focus group, Schaninger went to his son's junior-year, high-school marketing class, which brought it down to three, and he hopes to have a name later this month.
Some promotions are about building relationships. The annual Quick Chek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning attracts "150,000 of our closest friends," according to Schaninger, and "it's all about Quick Chek" with the company's products prominently displayed throughout.
Quick Chek also recently refined its marketing strategy, hitting hard on value for local customers, who have a $50,000 average household income. It dropped pricing on sub sandwiches to $2.99. And with the help of vendors providing "great costs," was able to do so without compromising recipes or quality. The first week, the company saw a 60% increase in units.
And in July 2008, morning Quick Chek customers were literally branded with a "Claim Your Steak" stamp on their hands. The "skinvertising" meant you could then come back later in the day and get a steak sub. "It did a couple of things: One is it got you to try my sub, which is pretty good," Schaninger said. "But the second is you're walking around all day with my brand on you."
This past May, the company did it again with a "Sub Stimulus" plan, where morning coffee purchasers got their hands stamped and came in later for a free sub. "The interesting thing out of both of these is that the next day we had an increase in breakfast. It was immediate, because people came in and got a great cup of coffee, but probably never had our breakfast. And then they came back and had a sub and said these guys make pretty good food, so they came back the next day."
Watch for a full report from CSP's 2009 Consumer Insights Forum in the December issue of CSP magazine.
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