Country Kitchen breaks first TV spots under new ad co-op program

Nation's Restaurant News, March 5, 2001 by Gregg Cebrzynski

MADISON, WIS. -- Country Kitchen launched an ambitious media campaign under the family-dining chain's first ever ad co-op program.

New 15- and 30-second TV spots promoting skillet meals broke in markets covering half of the chain's 250 units. The number of media buys and covered markets are the largest in the chain's 62-year history.

"We spent the better part of last year getting our franchisees to commit to a national advertising fund," vice president of marketing Scott Hughes said. "It's really the first time there's been any ad co-ops to speak of in the Country Kitchen system."

Franchisees contribute 3 percent of sales to the ad fund. Hughes said Country Kitchen has a multimillion-dollar ad budget, but he declined to release a specific figure.

Markets not covered by co-op ads either don't have enough units to warrant the expense of the systemwide campaign, or media costs in those markets are too high, Hughes said. Franchisees in such markets are encouraged to spend 3 percent of sales on local buys.

Hughes said persuading older franchisees about the merits of the ad co-op took a lot of work. "It was a hard sell," he said. "They asked hard questions; they asked pointed questions. To a person they said, 'Yeah, let's do it.'"

TV and radio buys have been increased significantly, Hughes said. In Madison, for example, Country Kitchen will air TV spots for 36 weeks this year, compared with nine weeks in 2000. The Duluth, Minn., market will be covered by TV spots this year for the first time, with ads running "almost every week," Hughes said.

The TV campaign is part of a "coordinated media blitz" that includes radio and in-store material, all of it designed to reinforce Country Kitchen's "real meals" positioning.

The TV spots are done in a split-screen format, with segments showing either families, food shots or price points. Lindsay, Stone & Briggs of Madison created the campaign. The spots target Generation X families with children younger than 10 -- the same demographic Country Kitchen targeted last year when it returned to TV ads after a three-year hiatus.

The chain began the ad co-op program and increased its media buys because of stiffer competition -- but not necessarily from other family-dining chains.

"When we look at our business and our direct competitors, we all talk the same language," Hughes said. "We talk about great food and reasonable prices. The QSRs are in many cases our major competition, more so than Perkins or Bob Evans. How do we differentiate ourselves? That's where 'real food' came from."

Country Kitchen promotes its meals as good alternatives to quick-serve food. A 30-second spot in the new campaign opens showing breakfast sandwiches sliding down a chute at a fast-foot restaurant. A little girl says: "Sure our family eats fast food. But we love real food."

The screen then splits into three sections as the girl describes the Sunrise Skillet breakfast. She ends by saying, "So the next time you think fast, get real."

The first flight of ads for the "Skillet Spectacular" promotion will run through May. TV spots this summer will focus on dinner, and the fall campaign will emphasize lunch.

In addition to using the campaign to promote food to consumers, Country Kitchen hopes the ads will grab the attention of potential franchisees. The chain wants to open between 20 and 25 new franchised units this year, and the national ad program is designed to show Country Kitchen's determination to leverage the brand's strengths.

The ultimate goal of the new marketing push, however, is to generate the type of awareness that the competition has achieved for itself.

"What we were really finding was that competitors were outscreaming us," Hughes said. "Even where we had good penetration we were getting less awareness. This is changing the whole way people see the Country Kitchen system from an awareness standpoint. They're going to know about us now."