McNellie’s Restaurant: Personalized Maps Drive Traffic to New Location - PODi Case Study

Vertical Market: Retail
Business Application: Direct Marketing/Traffic Generation

Business Objectives:
McNellie’s is a restaurant chain based in Tulsa, OK. The downtown McNellie’s location is well known and usually packed. But when the company opened a second "City South" location that was literally "over the hill" from a busy intersection, that location didn’t receive as much business.

The restaurant had been running ads in several local papers promoting both locations. These ads helped to drive business to the downtown location, but the results for the second location were not as effective.

McNellie’s knew once people found the restaurant, they would likely return. So it turned to Tulsa-based marketing service agency TPSi for help.

The campaign objectives were:

• To generate awareness of the new restaurant
• To encourage people to visit the new restaurant

Results

• The response rate for the direct mail was 24 percent
• 600 of the 2,500 food coupons were redeemed

Campaign Architecture
TPSi knew McNellie’s had good name recognition and there were many happy patrons eating at its downtown location. To create that same loyal following in a new location, people would need to know exactly where it is.

TPSi created a direct mail campaign designed to create awareness of the new location, provide instructions on how to find it, and offer an incentive to visit.

TPSi bought a mailing list that was comprised of 2,500 prospects with specific demographic information and geographic proximity to the restaurant.

In creating the direct mail piece, TPSi used engaging images and capitalized on the time of year with a "Happy Holidays" message.

The direct mail piece needed to include easy to follow instructions for how to find the restaurant. Using addresses from the mailing list, TPSi added personalized maps created by locr that detailed the route from the recipient’s home to the location of the restaurant. A unique map was created for each recipient and included as part of the direct mail piece.

As an incentive, the direct mail piece also included a generous $10 food coupon. The recipient had two months to redeem the coupon.

Reasons for Success

• The campaign provided a map that guided the recipient from their home to the new restaurant—they could literally visualize themselves going to the restaurant.
• There was a generous gift coupon that provided an additional incentive.

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Source: PODi.

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