Using paid social media to grow loyalty programs—and not trying to be great at everything in your convenience store—were two of several subjects CSP’sAt Your Convenience podcast recently discussed with Kyle Drenon, pictured above with Keisha Alexander. The two are co-owners of Springfield, Missouri-based Supper Co.
Supper Co. is a full-service advertising agency that specializes in food and beverage. The agency works with convenience stores, restaurants and food manufacturers.
What follows is an edited transcript from the podcast:
At Your Convenience: Could you tell our listeners why they shouldn't aspire to do everything great and subsequently why it's important to focus on just one or two items or areas to be excellent? And I believe this is also known as brand positioning.
Drenon: I think this is one component of brand positioning. One thing we see a lot of in the c-store space right now is foodservice is such an important part of building a brand in that space. With QSRs becoming more competition, taking share of beverage and share of food away from c-stores, they’re really trying to get into it. And I think the one thing.
You can’t be everything to everybody. Everyone’s natural inclination is to say, “We got to have chicken for people who like chicken. We got to have sandwiches for people on the go. We got to have pizza. We got to have Italian, all of the different things.” I think as an emerging c-store brand, if you’re just getting started, pick one thing and do it really, really well and become known for that thing. Some of the most successful companies in the space that have done that, with pizza and Wawa with hoagies. That's how they were able to build those foodservice brands.
If you’re an emerging brand, stake your claim on something. You’re in Chicago, Chuck, I mean, if somebody were to start an Italian beef food service brand within the c-store space there, that could be very interesting. People love that in your region.
‘If you’re an emerging brand, stake your claim on something..
At Your Convenience: Let's move on to menu strategy, including limited-time offers. How do you help companies in this area and what insight and advice do you have for our listeners? Dutch Bros is not a c-store, but it is a competitor in the dispensed beverage arena. They have a protein coffee, that’s just one example. But can you talk a little bit about menu strategy and LTOs?
Drenon: Dutch Bros is such a good example. They are an emerging beverage-only chain that’s kind of encroaching on some of the coffee programs of big c-store chains. And one of the things I think they do really well is research-based LTOs. So they knew that value-add inside of beverage was a big deal, an emerging trend, especially among young people,
With that “genzennial” group, they tested that protein coffee out as an LTO to kind of set themselves apart. It’s not just coffee, it’s coffee with an added benefit of protein for people who like to go to the gym or on some kind of meal program. It’s like a trial balloon. It starts selling pretty well for them, and as they get toward the end of the LTO, my guess is that they wanted to create demand, so they let the LTO expire, and it went away for a little while. And then they waited for people to say, “Hey, we love that protein coffee. Is that going to come back to the menu?” And then they got a chance to create new news even after the LTO was over.
At Your Convenience: I spoke with somebody recently for a story and they talked about the McRib effect. If McRib was on McDonald’s permanent menu, it wouldn’t be nearly as successful, and it wouldn’t create that buzz every time they bring it back.
Drenon: Exactly. The McRib is the perfect example of this because McDonald’s knew they had a very passionate although small fan base for that sandwich. So that’s how they manufactured demand over time: by taking it away and bringing it back. It’s a really smart menu strategy.
‘It’s not just coffee, it’s coffee with an added benefit of protein for people who like to go to the gym or on some kind of meal program.’
At Your Convenience: Supper Co. has been able to generate thousands of new loyalty members for one of your c-store clients using TikTok and Google. And when we were preparing for this, you said it's a very affordable and incorporates brand awareness. Tell me more.
Drenon: We’ve seen amazing results in growing loyalty programs with paid social media using short form vertical video.
What you can do with this is show, for example, a six-second ad to everyone within a 10-mile radius of a convenience store to only the people in that radius who also have a competitor’s mobile app on their phone. So if we’re talking about Wawa, for example, if there’s a Sheetz right next to them and they have the Sheetz mobile app, we could target Sheetz users with our content to try to get them to switch over to loyalty programs with Wawa.
There’s all sorts of really interesting targeting you can do. And the old way of doing this would use TV where you get to show ads to the people who are watching that TV station right now. Everybody is using TikTok reels or YouTube shorts, so what we can do on those platforms is limit the targeting, which controls the cost, and only show to the right type of people who might actually be interested in the low-tech program. It’s really exciting, cost-effective. Every time somebody watches your video, it’s about a penny, which is pretty good. And they converted a really high rate.
‘That’s how they manufactured demand over time: by taking it away and bringing it back. It’s a really smart menu strategy.’
At Your Convenience: Everybody selling food and beverages is vying for customer attention, obviously. And you had mentioned to me how Taco Bell is making their tostada with a giant Cheez-It. And I actually saw that on a menu board two days ago. Can you talk about the importance of doing new things, new innovations in foodservice and dispensed beverages to get attention and stay relevant?
Drenon: I think this is so important for foodservice and c-stores right now as they’re beginning to compete more with quick-service restaurants. We got to start thinking like a QSR to beat them. One of my favorites is Yum brands, and they do this with KFC and Taco Bell and lots of their concepts. They are always doing something that seems larger than life. Like that giant Cheez-It, who doesn’t want to try that—or at least it makes you somewhat curious about it.
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