When unexpectedly… people couldn’t see each other physically and had been given the opportunity to really choose who to talk to and when to cater to their needs, uninteresting people, oops brands…. went very lonely.
On the other hand, interesting, stronger brands were having loads of dialogues and transactional exchanges. The need for services, and therefore food, was there, more than ever. It just changed. From Atoms(restaurants) to bits(delivery apps).
Loads of fast-casual brands needed to engage by means of delivery-only for the first time. We’re not here saying that bad burgers will sell just because they have an interesting story to tell, but that it helps a lot to be a conversational brand.
So, what makes your brand conversational? Well, let’s talk about a client of ours, Tio Burgers n’Fritas, a south Brazilian burger joint focused, well, on burgers. They had just opened their first physical store and then… the pandemic came crushing.
Tio Burgers was only a 6-month-old restaurant when the pandemic crushed our routines and lives, and yet they already had a reputation built by their products, very good essential burgers, cooked to a single medium rare style.
But the thing that made them keep up with the good numbers during these tough times was actually how they would engage in social media. They managed to keep their relevance and build upon their fan base stronger bonds turning regular customers into advocates for the brand.
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WELL DONE BURGERS, ONLY TOMORROW
A very opinionated and strong type o personality made them more approachable, conversational, and interesting to local foodies now hunting for options to satisfy their burger cravings.
GROWING DURING PANDEMICS, HUH?
Being a brand that has THINGS TO SAY, without fear, showcasing with pride their positioning and brand messaging in an almost unapologetic fashion, makes people want to engage more; Truth and passion are really relatable.
TIO burgers not only understood their efforts on communicating actively on Instagram, but they also used active promotional campaigns together with local delivery platforms to shape their positioning with these new stakeholders (stay-at-home biters).
Along with the other brands of Libel.Kitchen’s group – which has 6 virtual restaurants now & which you will read about it in the next couple of articles – sells MORE THAN 1% of the city’s delivery. And we are talking about a city filled with McDonald’s / Burger King / Pizza hut / KFC type of players.
So here’s the main takeaway people… Shape your central narrative and brand personality to make you ready to exchange ideas and concepts with your consumers truthfully and we assure you, it will pay off.
Using old Millennial marketing terms, they will become “advocates” for you. You’ll make the algorithms understand your value more and eventually, your sales will be obviously impacted.
With Tio’s success and Sim Salabim (the first Food truck in the city turned into a local folk-food hero) being physical stores, the idea of re-purposing the company mindset and operations popped out; Now they’re using its kitchen know-how and some underused spaces better. Libel Kitchen together with Bodega, built a cloud-kitchen house of brands under what we call a cloud kitchen server.
Today delivery sales represent 60% of libel.kitchen revenues. Libel.kitchen owns 8 restaurant brands, of which 6 don’t have a physical store.
Within the past years we have been building narratives for different clients from all over the world that have the same will to navigate better the cloud kitchen segment and go relevant by means of digital.
By doing that we have shaped a methodology and an understanding of how to deliver MVPs for this fast-paced segment. We are eager to share some insights on how to evolve food brands into fully digital brand narratives.
Stay tuned, because next week we’ll be uncovering a little bit more about that.
Enjoyed the points we’ve shared here? Wanna grab a bite and maybe discuss your challenge with us?
We promise to provide some insights on how to make your brand stand out.