Franchise Update Magazine Issue III, 2012 | Page 30

Grow Market Lead

By Eddy Goldberg

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Franchisors and franchisees
team up on local store marketing

W

hen the weather in Pennsylvania turned unexpectedly warm this past
March, a local Quaker
Steak & Lube held an “emergency” bike
night in their parking lot—much earlier
in the year than usually possible.
“Quaker Steak & Lube uses our parking lots as a revenue generator, with lots
of outdoor events,” says Russell Berner,
vice president of restaurant operations
for JDK Management Company in
Bloomsburg, Pa. “It’s a marketing tool
for people to have fun and come back
other times.”
JDK also operates other restaurants
(Perkins), hotels (Holiday Inn Express,
Microtel Inn, Econo Lodge, and Hampton Inn), and nursing facilities across six
states in the eastern U.S. And at their
Florida Quaker Steak & Lube location,
the parking lot events for bikers and
car enthusiasts are year-round (barring
hurricanes).
“We operate from some of the largest
brands to new, up-and-coming brands
like Quaker Steak & Lube,” says Berner.
Local store marketing at the grassroots
level is part of the brand’s roots, he says.

“We follow that model as we develop in
small and medium markets.”
About three years ago, Quaker Steak
& Lube embraced a local store marketing program at its corporate restaurants
and created marketing activities coordinator (MAC) positions. The MACs
focus on driving traffic to restaurants
through activities such as daily events,
community participation, and doing
anything and everything to promote
the restaurants. The MAC positions,
which steadily expanded from part-time,
resulted in increased sales at the corporate stores. When franchisees got wind
of that, they wanted in.
“The franchise community was asking,
‘What are the company restaurants doing
that’s working so well?’ The managers at
the company restaurants attributed it to
great operations and the matured MAC
program,” says Megan Duniec, director
of field marketing for the Quaker Steak
& Lube Support Center in Sharon, Pa.
Although some franchisees embraced
the MAC program around this time,
it soon became clear to them that the
MACs at their franchise units needed
additional training and guidance. So in

“Quaker Steak & Lube uses our
parking lots as a revenue generator,
with lots of outdoor events. It’s a
marketing tool for people to have fun
and come back other times.”
—Russell Berner
28

Franchiseupdate Iss u e III, 2 0 1 2

July 2011, The Lube restructured its field
marketing support to help franchisees
attain similar results, hiring three field
marketing strategists, which they call
MACROs (marketing area catalyst of
revenue optimization).
With the introduction of the MACRO
team, each franchise location was asked
to employ a local MAC. The MACRO
Megan Duniec

team would then help support the local
MACs, with the ultimate goal of increasing same-store sales through local store
marketing. MACROs devote their time
to training and developing restaurantlevel MACs, implementing restaurant
visits, helping to create marketing and
PR plans, and delivering additional support tailored to the local market.
“In 2011, The Lubes that embraced
the MAC program saw same-store sales
rise 2 percent,” says Duniec. “A strong local
store marketing program can keep you
on the minds of your guests far beyond
their time spent within your four walls.”