Quick-service restaurants in the U.S. may need to focus on innovative uses of digital signage to improve consumer perceptions of their brands as we move into the second half of 2012.
Brand performance at many leading QSRs is reliant on intensive advertising campaigns. It?s big budget stuff that saw the likes of Subway, Wendy?s and Taco Bell make significant mid-year improvements in YouGov BrandIndex?s Buzz Scores ? a weekly survey of American consumers that asks ?If you?ve heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative??
Restaurant operators with the biggest marketing budgets are the ones making the big plays to increase consumer awareness. But BrandIndex?s buzz score is not just about the size of advertising purses. News reports and word of mouth influence how consumers perceive brands too, and are included as part of the buzz score.
Where restaurants could score more heavily on consumer perception in the next few months and years is in their adoption and innovative use of digital signage technology to get people talking about their brands in a new light. ?
Big gains from digital signage
At the Digital Signage Expo 2012 in Las Vegas last March restaurant owners were left wowed by the opportunities opening up in the market to use digital signage as a consumer engagement tool.
QSR operators Dairy Queen and Wendy?s were at the event. They helped provide insight to attendees on how digital menu boards were helping them to influence customer buying decisions and to drive sales on higher margin items.
Sue Culver, Vice President of Retail Merchandising at International Dairy Queen, who was speaking as part of a panel at the Digital Menu Boards in QSR: Why Now? seminar at DSE 2012 said tests revealed that for 80% of the time in which selected items were featured on digital signage boards, sales of those items increased above expectation.
?Digital is the future in menu board merchandising,? commented Culver. Her confidence is not misplaced.
At Dairy Queen, Culver is seeing innovative uses of digital signage technology pushing consumer engagement forward to great effect. Messaging is formatted to make suggestions to restaurant guests ? for example, on what they might like to drink with a specific food item. It is used to reach out to guests on items that are not normally a part of the regular menu, and to move overstocked items and promote limited offers.
Overall, Dairy Queen?s move towards creative digital signage use means that they create more opportunities for consumer engagement. As a consequence demand for promoted items is up, as are sales receipts at the tills. Consumers like it. They talk about it and tell others. For sure digital signage is positioned to be a big consumer influencer for Dairy Queen.
Taking restaurants digital
If you?re a restaurant owner and would like to move towards digital signage your first step should be to seek out the right sort of digital signage screens for your operation. There are plenty of vendors offering high-spec digital screen solutions, including bright LCD screens that are weatherproof and sun readable. For sidewalk digital signage Delphi Systems is worth checking out.
Content is of course key. It has to focus on engagement and be seen to be of value to consumers. Most content can be designed in-house and captured as a jpeg.
Distribution to signage screens can be via free digital signage software, such as that provided by Signagelink. The software is split into two parts: a content creation system that runs on a PC server, and a media player that runs on a second PC or laptop to where the digital signage screen is connected. A simple network is needed to connect the PC server to the second PC running the screen.
For restaurants that already have existing hardware ? i.e. screens and network etc., setting up a digital signage system is even simpler. It?s just a matter of downloading the digital signage software and creating the content.
Consumer perception is complex to manage. With an innovative and consistent approach to digital signage messaging though QSRs have a clear opportunity to push their brands further, and to translate that reach into a real return on bottom line figures. We wait with baited breath to see if leading QSRs take up the challenge in the second half of 2012!
Seb Jay is a freelance copywriter and marketing strategist with over eight years experience designing high performance copy for a diverse and global client base. His aim is to help businesses better connect with their target audience through a combination of creative and engaging content that empowers minds and inspires? View?full?profile
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