CHARLOTTE N.C. —Thomas Hamilton had always enjoyed managing CiCi’s Pizza restaurants, but that was just a job until this summer, when he attended an interactive, multimedia marketing meeting hosted by the Coppell, Texas-based chain’s executive team.
“It reminded me of how different our concept is and how I haven’t embraced it up to this point, even seven years into it, not like I can,” said Hamilton, who is the regional manager of two franchised CiCi’s pizza buffets in Charlotte and Concord, N.C. “I want to be an owner-operator now. As cheesy as it sounds, I saw I could impact lives through pizza.” —Thomas Hamilton had always enjoyed managing CiCi’s Pizza restaurants, but that was just a job until this summer, when he attended an interactive, multimedia marketing meeting hosted by the Coppell, Texas-based chain’s executive team.
CiCi’s senior leadership has been taking its marketing message to the masses—of its franchisees and regional and general managers of the chain’s more than 600 units. The team of home-office executives hit 10 cities in June and is doing another tour this month. They hope to do the training road shows at least two times a year after promising results seen after the first round of regional meetings, said Craig Moore, the chain’s president. —Thomas Hamilton had always enjoyed managing CiCi’s Pizza restaurants, but that was just a job until this summer, when he attended an interactive, multimedia marketing meeting hosted by the Coppell, Texas-based chain’s executive team.
Taking the training to the managers in a dynamic presentation, rather than bringing them to the corporate office for a staid and typical marketing seminar, is creating the impact the company was seeking, Moore said. —Thomas Hamilton had always enjoyed managing CiCi’s Pizza restaurants, but that was just a job until this summer, when he attended an interactive, multimedia marketing meeting hosted by the Coppell, Texas-based chain’s executive team.
“We’ve had strong sales, and mystery shop scores have all been stronger,” he said. “We’re like, ‘Wow, we missed this opportunity in the past. This is where we should have been all the time.’” —Thomas Hamilton had always enjoyed managing CiCi’s Pizza restaurants, but that was just a job until this summer, when he attended an interactive, multimedia marketing meeting hosted by the Coppell, Texas-based chain’s executive team.
Founded in 1985, CiCi’s is a family-oriented, all you-can-eat concept serving 16 kinds of pizza, salads, pasta and dessert, all for less that $5 per customer. The chain generated $540 million in annual sales last year. Units average about $1 million in annual sales. —Thomas Hamilton had always enjoyed managing CiCi’s Pizza restaurants, but that was just a job until this summer, when he attended an interactive, multimedia marketing meeting hosted by the Coppell, Texas-based chain’s executive team.
The Guest First Fever conferences are four-hour productions held in movie theaters, hotel ballrooms, churches and even a comedy club in an attempt to reach as many GMs as possible in CiCi’s 26-state territory. The programs include videos, music and noise makers. In the June meetings, managers sang, danced, and cheered and received ovations for their performance. They walked away with a packet of materials, including shaker boards for outdoor advertising, a pocket guide of local-store marketing ideas and a checklist of things to do in their restaurants. —Thomas Hamilton had always enjoyed managing CiCi’s Pizza restaurants, but that was just a job until this summer, when he attended an interactive, multimedia marketing meeting hosted by the Coppell, Texas-based chain’s executive team.
“It was so practical and hands-on,” said Tom Koenigsberg, CiCi’s chief marketing officer. “It was all things they could go back that day and use.” —Thomas Hamilton had always enjoyed managing CiCi’s Pizza restaurants, but that was just a job until this summer, when he attended an interactive, multimedia marketing meeting hosted by the Coppell, Texas-based chain’s executive team.
A month after the road shows, CiCi’s restaurants were detecting improvements in their mystery shop scores, said Steve Hawter, the chain’s vice president of training. —Thomas Hamilton had always enjoyed managing CiCi’s Pizza restaurants, but that was just a job until this summer, when he attended an interactive, multimedia marketing meeting hosted by the Coppell, Texas-based chain’s executive team.
“In July we had our highest performance as a chain coming out of the June Guest First meetings,” Hawter said. “On a scale of 100, the average score was 91 in July, compared to 89 in July of ’06.” —Thomas Hamilton had always enjoyed managing CiCi’s Pizza restaurants, but that was just a job until this summer, when he attended an interactive, multimedia marketing meeting hosted by the Coppell, Texas-based chain’s executive team.
With a coinciding push from CiCi’s first national advertising campaign, average weekly sales at restaurants also improved by $2,000 to $3,000, Koenigsberg said. —Thomas Hamilton had always enjoyed managing CiCi’s Pizza restaurants, but that was just a job until this summer, when he attended an interactive, multimedia marketing meeting hosted by the Coppell, Texas-based chain’s executive team.
He and Hawter, along with president Moore, operations vice president Kyle Smith and local-store marketing manager Donnie Robertson traveled together in June to present the conference to managers. They were heading out again in September. The program was a mix of operational training, including lessons on how to effectively communicate with employees and customers and ways to promote CiCi’s to customers and in the community. —Thomas Hamilton had always enjoyed managing CiCi’s Pizza restaurants, but that was just a job until this summer, when he attended an interactive, multimedia marketing meeting hosted by the Coppell, Texas-based chain’s executive team.
“You can’t have great marketing in a restaurant until you have great operations,” Koenigsberg said. “Once I have my act together and I know the guest is being taken care of, then I can go out and market and invent opportunities in the restaurant. That was the theme. It was a very active, energetic meeting with a lot of layers.” —Thomas Hamilton had always enjoyed managing CiCi’s Pizza restaurants, but that was just a job until this summer, when he attended an interactive, multimedia marketing meeting hosted by the Coppell, Texas-based chain’s executive team.
The training was effective because it touched all the managers’ senses, Hawter said. —Thomas Hamilton had always enjoyed managing CiCi’s Pizza restaurants, but that was just a job until this summer, when he attended an interactive, multimedia marketing meeting hosted by the Coppell, Texas-based chain’s executive team.
“They got to touch, taste, see, hear,” he said. “If we had taken this approach a year ago, how much further ahead this year we would be?” —Thomas Hamilton had always enjoyed managing CiCi’s Pizza restaurants, but that was just a job until this summer, when he attended an interactive, multimedia marketing meeting hosted by the Coppell, Texas-based chain’s executive team.
Moore said the mobile marketing program also demonstrated to general managers just how important they are to CiCi’s. —Thomas Hamilton had always enjoyed managing CiCi’s Pizza restaurants, but that was just a job until this summer, when he attended an interactive, multimedia marketing meeting hosted by the Coppell, Texas-based chain’s executive team.
“When you show them that you are willing to come to them and talk to them, it becomes true [that they are important],” he said. “They were just blown away. People were leaving crying. We got so many notes back from managers and e-mails saying they can’t believe you did this, that you thought it was important enough to take the time to come talk to them.” —Thomas Hamilton had always enjoyed managing CiCi’s Pizza restaurants, but that was just a job until this summer, when he attended an interactive, multimedia marketing meeting hosted by the Coppell, Texas-based chain’s executive team.
During the conference, the managers would take a break and taste some of the new products CiCi’s was rolling out as part of a marketing launch. Moore and the executive team served the food. —Thomas Hamilton had always enjoyed managing CiCi’s Pizza restaurants, but that was just a job until this summer, when he attended an interactive, multimedia marketing meeting hosted by the Coppell, Texas-based chain’s executive team.
“The GMs usually serve us when we come to their restaurants, but here was the president of the company bussing tables,” Koenigsberg said. —Thomas Hamilton had always enjoyed managing CiCi’s Pizza restaurants, but that was just a job until this summer, when he attended an interactive, multimedia marketing meeting hosted by the Coppell, Texas-based chain’s executive team.
Regional manager Hamilton in Charlotte plans to take two of his younger store managers to the next road show when it comes to Raleigh, N.C., later this month. —Thomas Hamilton had always enjoyed managing CiCi’s Pizza restaurants, but that was just a job until this summer, when he attended an interactive, multimedia marketing meeting hosted by the Coppell, Texas-based chain’s executive team.
“They’ll be nervous,” Hamilton said. “They’ll have their shirts pressed and starched, and they’ll be stressed about meeting people in upper management, and then they’ll walk into a circus. They’ll say, ‘I thought we were going to a meeting.’ And I’ll say, ‘This is the meeting, man!’ And they’ll think, ‘I work for a pretty cool company.’ —Thomas Hamilton had always enjoyed managing CiCi’s Pizza restaurants, but that was just a job until this summer, when he attended an interactive, multimedia marketing meeting hosted by the Coppell, Texas-based chain’s executive team.
“The title of this next meeting is WFO—Wide Friggin’ Open,” Hamilton added. “Companies don’t do that stuff, they don’t talk like that. They’ll be blown away.” —Thomas Hamilton had always enjoyed managing CiCi’s Pizza restaurants, but that was just a job until this summer, when he attended an interactive, multimedia marketing meeting hosted by the Coppell, Texas-based chain’s executive team.