Company: Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp.
Contact: Jill Drecker, Manager of Guest Loyalty
Location: San Diego, Calif.
Industry: Retail (B2C)
Annual revenue: Confidential
Number of employees: 6000
Quick Read:
Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp., which manages a chain of 102 family-style buffet restaurants in 15 states, had a sizable email loyalty club. Its "Club Veg" totaled more than half a million members, all of whom had voluntarily signed up to be notified about upcoming food promotions. But Garden Fresh wanted these members to do more than receive emails—it wanted them to visit its Web site and learn more about the restaurant's offerings. In short, it wanted to be more interactive with its email members.
Working with online marketing agency Red Door Interactive, Garden Fresh tried two interactive email campaigns last year tied to a monthly food promotion at its restaurant chains. The first encouraged Club Veg members to visit the chain's homepage and learn more about the cherry dishes being featured that month, while the second campaign featured a clock counting down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until a popular chicken pot pie menu item would be available. In both instances, Club Veg members had a chance to win free meals by clicking on the link in the email and visiting the homepage.
The two promotions led to a huge increase in site traffic to the company's homepage: The cherry email campaign garnered a 906% increase in site visits on the day of the email blast, while the chicken pot pie menu initiative led to a 1,430% increase in visits.
The Challenge:
Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp. had an asset that any B2C company would envy: a database of more than half a million consumers who had voluntarily asked to stay informed about changes to the menu, ongoing promotions, and other relevant information. The company knew that this was an untapped asset; it wanted to reach out to this group and get them more involved without alienating valuable customers.
By setting up an interactive and fun email campaign offering customers the chance to win free meals and giving them recipes of their favorite dishes, Garden Fresh aimed to elicit more customer loyalty. The company hoped that more Club Veg members would visit its Web site to learn more about upcoming promotions, encouraging them to send emails to their friends about the restaurant and also visit the outlets more frequently.
The Campaign:
Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp. operates 102 casual-dining buffet-style restaurants in 15 states under the name Souplantation or Sweet Tomatoes. The company's niche is to have a different food theme each month. One month may feature "buffalo chicken" items, while another month may feature apple items.
The company began its "Club Veg" email club in March 2005, in part to keep customers informed about the current and future themes of the month. Patrons could sign up by giving their contact details at the restaurants or by going to the Souplantation Web site. Within 18 months of its launch, Club Veg boasted half a million members.
With so many members, Garden Fresh realized that it was time to try to do more than just send them emails. "We wanted to be more interactive with our online club," said Jill Drucker, director of customer loyalty.
In August 2006, Garden Fresh sent its first interactive email to Club Veg members to promote its Cherry month. The personalized email had art work and invited guests to go to the Souplantation Web site and visit its cherry tree. "If a visitor put their mouse over a cherry on the tree, either a fact about cherries or information about one of our cherry-related menu items would come up," recalled Drucker. The email also offered the chance to win two free meals.
On the day of the email blast, traffic to the Souplantation Webs site jumped 906%, said Drucker. The company didn't track sales for that month to see whether sales also rose.
