Reference no: EM132241318

Berton's Burgers- Rebuilding a Brand

Read the overview below and complete the activities that follow.

Trent Berton is in charge of all marketing for the family business, Berton's Burgers, which is a family owned and operated fast food chain in the Midwest. Berton's operates 20 different locations in 4 states. Beginning in 1974, Tom Berton, Trent's father, began selling hamburgers at a kiosk outside a library to hungry college students. Last year, Berton's Burgers reported annual sales in excess of $18 million. Tom always said that Berton's Burgers stands for "Quick Quality." It was very important to him that he serve the same hamburgers to customers that he would serve to guests in his home. A couple of years ago, Tom retired and his sons, Trent and Todd took over running the family business.

Read the case and answer the questions that follow.

Todd is in charge of all operations for the stores. While Trent is concerned with maintaining his father's legacy, Todd is concerned with quick food turnover and increased gross margins. Todd has alienated many of the employees that have worked at Berton's for years because he has cut corners on quality and health measures at each location. In 2009, Todd found a low-cost food service provider that would sell Berton's meat and vegetable products at a dramatically discounted rate from what it was currently paying. Trent and Todd had a big fight about it because Trent wanted to continue with the quality food provider Berton's had used for over 30 years. Todd negotiated a new contract anyway.

Last week, the local newspaper ran an expose article reporting that Berton's Burgers served subpar meat that was made with more animal by-products and fillers than actual beef. This week, people are picketing the stores and Trent just heard that a national newspaper was coming to town to cover the story. While Trent wanted to hide under his desk, he knew that he needed to take dramatic measures to rebuild the Berton's Burgers brand and his father's legacy.

Trent evaluates all the ways that Berton's currently communicates with customers. He decides that the direct mail coupons and newspaper and radio advertisements he currently uses are not going to be enough to win back his customers' loyalty. He knows that it is time for bold measures. His main communication objective is to rebuild customer confidence and halt the erosion to the Berton's brand image. Trent looks at his marketing budget for the year and determines it is not enough. He decides it is time to invest all the money that Todd "saved" with his cheap food distributor into repairing the damage. He outlines his plan and calculates that it will cost him $500,000 to launch his campaign. He allocates that money where he thinks he will make the most impact.

Trent decides to use all of the tools in his communications arsenal. His campaign theme is "Restoration Burger Nation" and is focused on convincing customers that Berton's is returning to its high-quality roots.

Trent begins by using social media. He creates a "Restoration" Facebook page and Twitter account and begins by "friending" everyone he knows and all the customers in the Berton's database. He then updates hourly reporting about all the measures that he is taking to bring back quality to the store. His first status update and tweet is "Dad fired Todd today! Come celebrate sibling rivalry week with a Berton's Burger… back to 100% all natural beef." He also offers customers coupons for coming to Berton's and tweeting about their experience and the food while they are in the store.

Trent knows that he needs to build immediate excitement about the restaurant or he is going to lose his customers forever. He tries a series of sales promotion techniques as well. First, he offers coupons in every town where there is a Berton's Burgers. He offers discounts for students, teachers, law enforcement, and public officials. He also engaged every store manager to go to ball games and public events in their towns and hand out samples of the burgers, allowing people to experience the quality of the burgers firsthand.

Trent wants to build goodwill and repair the damage that Todd did to the Berton's Brand. He knows that public relations is crucial at this point. So, he also begins by sponsoring many charitable events and becomes the primary sponsor for an entire children's t-ball league. He also sent in editorials to the paper outlining every detail of the demise of Berton's and the role that his brother played in it and how Trent is committed to restoring the Berton's Brand.

Finally, Trent hires an advertising agency to design several promotional messages to reach a broad audience of customers. Trent wants billboards, newspaper ads, and radio spots that encourage customers to come back and try Berton's Burgers. He wants to admit the problem to customers and tell them the steps Berton's is taking to win them back with its quality products.

Trent wants to ensure that the message is consistent across all of the communication channels. Berton's wants customers to know that they are returning to their quality roots and these mistakes will not happen again. Trent also hires a new chief of operations, someone not related to the Berton family.

1. After the story broke, Trent's first form of communication with customers was through _________________ where he could update customers immediately about the status of Berton's Burgers.

A. social media

B. direct marketing

C. direct mail

D. pop-up stores

E. personal selling

2. Trent believes that giving away free __________________ at events is a good sales promotion tool to help convince customers to give Berton's another chance.

A. gimmicks

B. samples

C. catalogs

D. money

E. promotions

3. Trent works hard on ______________________ initiatives like event sponsorship and newspaper articles to help build goodwill and repair the damage to the Berton's Burgers brand.

A. invitational

B. personal selling

C. sales

D. public relations

E. organizational

4. Trent also uses ________________ like radio ads, billboards, and newspaper spots to help convince customers to come back to Berton's. With this type of communication, Trent can control the message to the customers.

A. orientation

B. personal selling

C. sales promotion

D. advertising

E. public relations

5. Trent wants all of the communication to customers to be ______________ and centered on the quality of Berton's Burgers.

A. operated

B. disheveled

C. combined

D. oriented

E. integrated