Macaroni Grill franchisee hires ad agency, plans to open NW units

Nation's Restaurant News, Nov 10, 2003 by Gregg Cebrzynski

VANCOUVER, WASH. -- Waterloo Restaurant Ventures Inc., the only U.S. franchisee of Romano's Macaroni Grill, hired its first ad agency of record as it prepares to launch the initial expansion of the chain in the Pacific Northwest.

JohnsonSheen Advertising of Portland, Ore., won the account in October and will handle all marketing duties, including media planning and buying, promotions and public relations. Initial media billings of $180,000 are expected to reach more than $1.5 million as restaurants are opened.

Waterloo became the first franchisee late last year and is expected to announce soon the signing of the first lease in a program to open more than 12 restaurants during the next five years in the Portland and Seattle markets. It has one restaurant now, in Boise, Idaho.

"We feel like we're on track to meet our plan," Waterloo president and chief executive Barry McGowan said. "It's one restaurant at a time. We're pretty cautious and prudent."

The 200-unit Romano's is owned by Dallas-based Brinker International Inc., which previously had franchised the brand in Mexico, Canada, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom, but not in the United States.

Brinker, however, wanted to expand into the Pacific Northwest, where it has another brand, Chili's Grill & Bar, but none of its six other restaurant concepts.

The company chose McGowan, former managing director of Brinker's franchise groups in the United Kingdom, to head the franchising efforts

McGowan said he chose JohnsonSheen because the agency "understood the Puget Sound area" and can tailor marketing efforts to consumers there.

"We are a national brand, but our approach will be very local," he said. "We want to make sure we have that Pacific Northwest flavor."

The Romano's units will offer local wines and seafood for seasonal promotions because "that's our point of differentiation" in an area that has "a lot of great local restaurants," McGowan said.

A major goal for JohnsonSheen is "maintaining strategic integrity" for a national brand while developing strictly local marketing efforts for the Pacific Northwest, according to agency president Pat Johnson.

"If we do a promotion, it's going to be relevant to the brand," she said. "We're an agency extremely committed to creating and protecting brands,"

McGowan's decision to promote local food and wine "is smart on his part," Johnson said. "He wants to take what works on z national level and incorporate it locally."

JohnsonSheen already has experience in leveraging national brands on the local level, having handled regional marketing for the Subway sandwich chain and Pacific Coast Restaurants Inc.

Although the first campaigns for Romano's have not been developed, Johnson said one idea might be to promote a restaurant opening by tying in with a local theater and sponsoring an Italian film festival. That sort of low-key approach fits in with the type of promotions McGowan favors, she said.

"Barry's philosophy is to have a soft launch instead of a hard launch," she said. "It's less about hype and media hype and more of how we can have an impact with the local market."

McGowan said initial ad efforts for new restaurants probably will introduce the brand and the people behind it so that consumers unaware of the brand will know "what Romano's Macaroni Grill is all about."

For Brinker, "it certainly makes sense" to expand into the Pacific Northwest through franchising, according to Matthew Shay, executive vice president of the Washington, D.C.-based International Franchise Association.

"Historically, franchises have tended to outperform company-operated units," he said. "With regard to the development plan, one of the most important factors ... is to penetrate the market adequately. For purposes of advertising and promotion and name recognition, franchise systems choose markets in which they can achieve critical mass and market penetration."