ATLANTA Cinnabon thrives on it. —Consumers may hate the crowds and traffic during the holiday shopping season, but
The cinnamon roll specialist, a 750-unit brand in Atlanta-based Roark Capital Group’s portfolio, relies on foot traffic in front of its bakeries in malls and airports, and the smell of its fresh-baked treats usually did the trick for driving trial and impulse purchases—until the recession settled in. —Consumers may hate the crowds and traffic during the holiday shopping season, but
“That aroma is our best advertising,” said Geoff Hill, president of Cinnabon. “For a long time, Cinnabon was able to basically win by aroma because the foot traffic in front of our bakeries was very high. But it hasn’t been that high the last 24 months.” —Consumers may hate the crowds and traffic during the holiday shopping season, but
During last year’s shopping season, as economic anxieties kept people home for the holidays to shop online or generally spend less, Cinnabon got proactive with a direct-mail offer from Money Mailer, a business also owned by Roark Capital. —Consumers may hate the crowds and traffic during the holiday shopping season, but
Cinnabon sent a glossy flier with 20 perforated pieces that people could tear off and redeem for different offers. The flier was sent to small businesses of between five and 49 employees located within two miles of Cinnabon’s mall locations. The program had a 4.6-percent redemption rate and a 54-percent return on investment, Hill said. —Consumers may hate the crowds and traffic during the holiday shopping season, but
“One thing that intrigued me is that they had this targeted approach,” Hill said. “We can’t afford to miss very often.… We were amazed at how great the redemption was. You do a [direct-mail or e-mail] campaign and you get a terrible rate—1 percent to 2 percent is the norm. We were very happy with this program.” —Consumers may hate the crowds and traffic during the holiday shopping season, but
Cinnabon was so pleased with the targeted, perforated flier that it plans to reuse the program in the new year to introduce a new product, Hill added. He would not get into specifics, but characterized the new item as “game-changing” for Cinnabon. —Consumers may hate the crowds and traffic during the holiday shopping season, but
“This product will get us into a different type of category not dependent on impulse snacking,” Hill said. “Our brand doesn’t travel well, but this item will and it will be ‘wow’ at room temperature.” —Consumers may hate the crowds and traffic during the holiday shopping season, but
Cinnabon may be saving the perforated flier for its post-holiday product rollout, but the tactic still could drive holiday traffic for other restaurants in and around malls or strip centers, said Steven Gray, chief operating officer of Money Mailer. —Consumers may hate the crowds and traffic during the holiday shopping season, but
The key to the success of what he calls the “billboard direct-mail piece” in Cinnabon’s case was the focus on small businesses, Gray said. —Consumers may hate the crowds and traffic during the holiday shopping season, but
“We didn’t want too huge a company, where this offer would be clutter in the high-traffic area [like the break room],” he said. “We targeted smaller businesses that were much more likely to be open to this type of communication. They’re doing everything from raffles for local sports groups and all the other coupon-related items distributed around to local offices.” —Consumers may hate the crowds and traffic during the holiday shopping season, but
Hill projected that shopping activity wouldn’t recover for quite some time, necessitating more ROI-heavy marketing tactics, and he said his brand wouldn’t wait for consumers to wake up and smell the cinnamon rolls. —Consumers may hate the crowds and traffic during the holiday shopping season, but
“I won’t hypothesize about a W-shaped recovery, but it’s going to be a difficult road over the next several years,” he said. “We don’t see massive shifts of people flooding into enclosed malls. People need to…take a deep breath and think we’re out of this. Then they’ll start indulging again.”— [email protected] —Consumers may hate the crowds and traffic during the holiday shopping season, but