"Basically, it's big, bold signage. It really showcases great-looking food," Nancy Cabell, ExtraMile consumer value proposition consultant, told CSP Daily News. "And it's flexible, so it allows us to change menu items and change prices very easily." Click here to read about the basics of the new ExtraGood to Go program.
The signage includes a new menu, attractive photography of the food offering and information about products on promotion.
The company also is now allocating space specifically for foodservice promotional communication. Cabell said that in the past, foodservice was just one of the items rolled into the company's point-of-purchase cycle. Not anymore: "So when you stop in, probably the first thing you see is the graphics, and you're like 'Wow, they have food here.' And then the next thing, and not far behind, is the equipment," Cabal said.
That's a big step forward, according to Don Tovar, San Ramon, Calif.,-based Chevron's U.S. foodservice category manager. "It really breaks [customers'] standard routine, in regards to the way they perceive our stores," he said.
Among the promotional elements is a traffic interrupter, which is generally within 10 to 15 feet as the customer steps inside the store. "It's specifically designed to communicate to the customer what's new and what's hot in terms of the current promotional activity for the ExtraGood to Go program," Tovar said.
Cabell said the company also added accent lighting in the foodservice area to accentuate the new signage. "One of the things that customers told us as we were developing and piloting this program is that lighting makes the food look better, she said. "And customers really noticed when the area was well-lit. It helped focus their attention there, and it helped customers see that these are great quality products, really great-looking food."
Cabell said the company also took a holistic approach in regard to changing store layouts to optimize the placement of both foodservice and coffee.
"At sites where we need to, we're making some changes in order to get meaningful adjacencies," she said. "Because what we know customers do is, especially customers who buy food, they'll often buy other things: They'll buy chips, they'll buy drinks. So we're trying to get those together. And we're also trying to optimize the placement and the visibility of our coffee program. And so those layout changes, you wouldn't probably notice them unless you've seen a particular site before and after, but we feel that that's really going to help drive business for both coffee and foodservice."
The company is also working with product manufacturers to develop new packaging for the food. "All of this wonderful lighting and the new food-warmer case design doesn't do us a whole bunch of good if we're merchandising and packaging our products in an opaque bag, where the customer can't really see the product inside," Tovar said. "So as much as possible, we're working with those folks to develop new packaging standards that would involve the opportunity to place some sort of a window or see-through view of the product in the case."
As for training on the new program, Cabell said this rollout is meant to be a step-change improvement in the program. "One of the things that we felt was very important was that every site received the full foodservice training again, including all of the new ExtraGood to Go elements," she said.
Each site received four hours of training, with franchisee sites getting training on-site, with the equipment available right there. The training was typically done the day following the actual conversion. For company-operated sites, training was done in groups with the store managers, who then effectively become trainers themselves, training their individual store staff.
Tovar said even after a site was physically converted, they were mandated not to start using the new program until after training was completed.
Cabell added that the effort has been a "labor of love" over the last year. "One of the things that we think is really important, and we think is really going to contribute to the success of the program is that we piloted this program for several months to refine various aspects of the program," she said. "And we got a lot of feedback along the way." She added the feedback came from customers, the company's nine-member franchisee council and from Chevron's own management.
Changes implemented based on that feedback included changing the initial graphics package. And the company also tested a number of different pieces of equipment during that time, according to Cabell. "So I would say that took us several iterations to decide on the optimum combination of equipment that we felt was going to both drive sales and present the product in an optimal way," she said. So far the feedback on the final iteration has been "very positive," she added.
"We feel like we've really engaged the stakeholders that are critical to making this successful," Cabell said. "And we think that's going to be important in driving the success that we're already starting to see."
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