DQ Makes a Connection with Fans
By Ken Beaulieu, senior director of marketing and communications, ANA
Last September, for the first time, Dairy Queen offered two Blizzards of the Month — its classic Pumpkin Pie Blizzard and the new Apple Pie Blizzard. Rather than introduce its latest creation via traditional marketing, DQ’s agency of record, Barkley, came up with the clever idea to pit the apple capital of the world, Wenatchee, Wash., against the pumpkin capital of the world, Caro, Mich., to see who was most passionate about their favorite Blizzard. The competition was promoted across social channels through online videos, and DQ created a microsite for consumers to vote for their favorite flavor using the hashtag #TeamApple or #TeamPumpkin.
“We expected 80,000 votes for the flavors over the course of the month-long program, but we received 800,000,” recalls Barry Westrum, executive vice president of marketing at American Dairy Queen Corp. “That really showed the passion our fans have for our brand and how we approach marketing a little bit differently. It really struck a chord with our fans. For the record, the Pumpkin Blizzard did win in a tight-fought battle.”
Westrum, a featured speaker for the ANA Brand Masters Conference, February 4-6 in Dana Point, Calif., explains his philosophy for transforming an iconic brand like DQ, how he keeps marketing relevant, his relationship with the product development team, and the management principle he lives by today.
Q. You have extensive experience delivering turnaround plans for major brands. What are the guiding principles you follow in any brand transformation?
A. There are two things I think about. First, you have to lead with your brand’s strength. In the case of Dairy Queen, it’s the Blizzard. It’s a fabulous 30-year-old brand that, through all the changing consumer taste profiles, is still America’s No. 1 ice cream treat. Our ability to continue to innovate, in terms of flavor innovation, communication innovation, and service innovation, is key to keeping the brand fresh. In the past five years, the Blizzard brand has grown 20 percent — a testament to our focus on innovation. Second, you cannot ignore your big brand challenges. In Dairy Queen’s case, we compete in a category that is built on value and convenience, and yet, we have some of the lowest value scores. That’s why we developed “Five Buck Lunch,” which features an entrée, a side, a drink, and a signature Dairy Queen sundae. It has been on our menu since April of 2013, and during that timeframe, we have consistently outperformed the quick-serve restaurant category on same-store sales and transactions. I think it’s because we had the courage to tackle something that inherently had been a problem for a number of years. Courage is also about having the discipline to test your ideas before you launch them so your risk is significantly minimized. Once we had a solid business case for Five Buck Lunch, we were able to launch it nationally with the confidence that our business performance would mirror what we saw in the market test. And today, we continue to grow the franchise via new product offerings, new advertising, and new social and digital campaigns.
Q. This year, Dairy Queen celebrates its 75th anniversary as a brand. Is it important to keep the chain’s storied heritage and values in mind as you build your marketing capabilities for the future?
A. Dairy Queen is one of the oldest and most iconic American brands, so it’s critical that we respect and maintain that heritage. It’s also critical that we ensure the brand is contemporary and relevant for today. That’s why we’re celebrating what we call our “75th Fanniversary.” Throughout the year, we’re going to be bring a lot of new news and innovations to our fans to help them celebrate how they use our brand and give them new reasons to visit a store every day. There’s a timeless nature to this brand, whether you’re visiting a Dairy Queen with family, going with a sports team to celebrate a big win, or taking someone on a first date. Our ability to celebrate those special moments with our fans via our communications and marketing will only make the brand more relevant going forward.
There’s an emotional connection our fans have with our brand that we’ve really tried to tap into in our marketing. That was the impetus for our “Fan Food Not Fast Food” campaign. Dairy Queen customers are not just customers, they are genuine fans of the brand, and fans are loyal and they recruit other fans. We’ve tried to change our mindset as an organization to ensure that we think about our fans in that way. Before anything leaves our building — whether it’s a new product or service initiative — we ask ourselves if it’s “fan-worthy.” It challenges us to be smarter about what we bring to our customers and what we bring to our crew members. I think that’s a big reason why we’ve had some success recently.
Q. For a venerable brand like Dairy Queen, how do you keep campaigns fresh and differentiated in such a competitive marketplace?
A. When you’re outspent 10 to 1 by your largest competitor, you have to be very smart about what you say. We will never outspend anyone, so we challenge ourselves to outthink our competitors every day across our entire innovation spectrum, through news and promotions that are significantly different from the competition. The words we choose, both strategically and executionally, have to be well thought out so that when consumers see a Dairy Queen television commercial, tweet, Facebook post, or banner ad, it registers with them and generates an incremental visit. That’s the only way we can break through the clutter and win in the marketplace.
Q. As you’ve stated, product innovation has played in a key role in Dairy Queen’s continued evolution. Tell me about the relationship between marketing and the product team.
A. We have a wonderful product development team, with very talented, creative individuals who are masters of their craft. Marketing provides direction as it relates to consumer tastes and trends, and then we let the product team do the rest. Having marketing, product development, and operations moving in lockstep is critical. One cannot achieve anything without the other. Marketing understands the importance of a strong product development team and the importance of a strong operations team. We can create the most amazing Blizzard, but if it does not get executed with excellence across thousands of stores and across millions of Blizzards every day, we achieve absolutely nothing. So having that strong team is critical.
Q. What is the best piece of advice you have received as a marketer?
A. I grew up as a marketer in the Yum! Brands organization, which at one point was owned by Pepsi. Pepsi’s CEO at the time was a gentleman by the name of Roger Enrico. One of his management principles was, “Make big changes to big things.” I think that’s a very powerful piece of advice. Small changes to small things are a waste of time. Big changes to small things might look good on paper, but don’t fundamentally impact the business. When you make big changes to big pieces of the business, it can fundamentally grow. In our category, you’re only as good as yesterday’s sales, so you never want to think you have it all figured out. The consumer and the competition move too fast, so it’s important to always stay out in front of them.
Source
"DQ Makes a Connection with Fans.'" Ken Beaulieu. 1/9/2015.