Radio flier: take to airwaves, increase customer frequency; sound advice for operators: start spreading the news and pump up the volume

Nation's Restaurant News, May 19, 2003 by Gregg Cebrzynski

Consumers usually do not get into their cars and drive over to Auntie Anne's Hand-Rolled Soft Pretzels. They drive to the mall, and they won't necessarily know that Auntie Anne's has a unit there.

And only if they get an urge will they buy a pretzel. "Auntie Anne's remains an impulse purchase. We haven't yet gotten to the point where people are making a special trip to the mall for Auntie Anne's," says Judy Shaffer, director of advertising and marketing services for the 760-unit chain.

Radio advertising might change that. It already has raised awareness for the brand in five test markets: Baltimore; Cleveland; New Orleans; Fresno, Calif.; and Montgomery, Ala.

"We chose those because we had some barriers to awareness and purchase intent," Shaffer says.

Tests were conducted last fall, and Shaffer says she is "very pleased" by the results.

Customer purchase intention increased 10 percent. The chain's overall rating went up 8 percent. Perception of customer service increased 8 percent. Perception of getting value for the price paid went up 12 percent, which Shaffer says is a "huge testament to radio working in that area."

Product awareness was a particularly vexing problem to overcome in the Southeast, where Auntie Anne's is not well known.

"In the Southeast they think of pretzels as a hard, crunchy snack," Shaffer says, and, of course, Auntie Anne's serves soft pretzels in various flavors.

The bulk of the chain's $3 million marketing budget is spent on print. Based on the test results, however, the chain's corporate office will consider making radio spots available to all franchisees and "encourage them to try them on their own," Shaffer says. "Radio will work differently in each market. It's not something we'd do on a national basis. It wouldn't make sense. Where there are barriers it could be an effective tool."

For Chipotle, the 200-unit burrito-specialty chain, radio is "another tool in the tool kit" and "we try to be very strategic about how and when we use radio," says Jim Adams, director of public relations and corporate spokesman for the Denver-based chain.

The chain's marketing budget is about $5 million. To make the most of that relatively small fund, Chipotle has hit on a strategy for radio buys that taps into the psychographics, not demographics, of the market.

That means age doesn't count as much as values and lifestyles. Adams recalls meeting at a function in Denver an attorney who did not appear to be a Chipotle customer. Adams offered to treat the attorney's firm to lunch, and he and his colleagues "were thrilled," Adams says.

The lesson? "It's more his lifestyle choice than his age," Adams explains.

When Chipotle is considering where to make radio buys, Adams says, it looks for a "station that is very cool, that plays the type of music we think our customers are listening to."

That type of station promotes concerts, invites touring musicians to come in for live sessions and overall is just "very hip."

Chipotle uses original songs in its radio ads, and "they're not in-your-face advertising," Adams says. "They're songs. They don't necessarily say Chipotle right off the bat."

And Chipotle varies the types of music it uses. The chain's target market expects something cool and original and not the same thing all the time.

"You hear a radio ad over and over, and you know what it is and pretty soon you're sick of it," Adams says. Two current spots illustrate that point: "Burrito Lady" sounds like a love ballad; "Hound Dog" is funky rock. Because Chipotle doesn't have a huge ad budget, it uses a strategy that director of marketing Dan Fogarty once described as a "rifle-shot approach"--using radio as a complement to print and to promote new-store openings and special events. Radio also can give added awareness to a prominent store in a particular market. Chipotle usually buys radio in three-week flights. Last year in its home market of Denver, it used a three-week, multi-station buy, switched to a single station for three weeks and then went back to the multi-station buy for another three weeks.

"When we sit down in our marketing meetings, we know that every one [of us] listens to something different," Adams explains. The staff varies in age and musical taste, and so "we can look around the table and say: 'That works. Let's go multistation. Let's hit all of our stations.'"

Chipotle will develop more radio ads this year, viewing them as the chain always does. "We look to radio advertising to entertain our customers and speak to our brand," Adams says. "I think the way we're using [radio] now is effective for us in the development of Chipotle."

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