Marketing Case Study ----- Applebee's Neighborhood Grill + Bar

Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar 

Applebee's International Inc. is a US-based company that franchise and operates more than 2,000 restaurant chain under the name of Applebee's Neighborhood Grill and Bar. The restaurant are throughout 15 countries, which opened in 1980 by TJ Palmer and his wife Bill in Atlanta, Georgia.

Their value proposition is "Good food, good people. That's what we believe in. That philosophy lives on in each and every Applebee's restaurant across North America and around the world." The Applebee's focus is on casual dining, which mainly serves American dishes, such as chicken, pasta, burgers, salads, steaks, and ribs. All their restaurants have a bar to serve alcoholic beverages excluding some place prohibited by the law. 

As we know, there is an intensified competition in the restaurant industry. Because of the development of technology and society, our life becomes more and more convenient. When we want to eat some food, we will not need to go outside by ourselves if we don't want. Instead, customers can use the app to order dishes or just call the restaurant to delivery it. Besides, cheaper price in the market or grocery store making people to be more willing to cook at home. All these factors create more difficulties for restaurants to get customers in the stores. However, it seems like this is not a problem in Applebee's. 

In 2017, Applebee's restaurants started to use cheap alcoholic beverages and dinner deals attracted many customers, such as $ 1 margaritas. Also, they have monthly drink promotion. This marketing strategy lead them to achieve positive same-store sales with four consecutive quarters, and there is no sign to stop this trend. The newest president of Applebee's, John Cywinski, told CNBC that this strategy helped them to bring the same-store sales up to 7.7 percent which was the best performance for the brand in at least 14 years, while the rest of the restaurant industry just have the sales up to 1.2 percent. 

The beverage program is very important to Applebee's, as half of the growth of sales is dine-in which is driven by cheap beverages. During last month in the Halloween, their monthly drink promotion was Halloween-themed $ 1 Zombie drink with a decorating of a gummy brain. This is a very good way to attract young people to purchase their product. Indeed, when customers get a good deal on beverages, they will be willing to order some desserts and appetizers, according to the research of Cywinski. Applebee's are not only working hard on raising in-store sales, but also putting some priority on to-go sales with curbside pickup. 

In terms of their promotion online, Applebee's did pretty well in Twitter. They have frequent and interesting advertising with some attractive picture or short videos to show the public what is the new dishes, beverages, and events, etc. 

In my point of view, Applebee’s put too much focus on their drinks instead of their dishes and services. Most people go to the restaurant are looking for a great steak, fried chicken or a comfortable dining experience, ect. If I were the marketing management of Applebee’s, my next strategy would be to improve several dishes in the next following months, while continuing the monthly drink promotion. For example, the next coming event is Thanksgiving, so I would work with the culinary department and promote a Thanksgiving-themed menu.

Questions:

1. Can Applebee's keep earning profits by this strategy for a long period?

2. Do you think other restaurants can use this way to win customers, too?

Citation:

https://www.google.com/search?q=applebees&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjQ0sHEks7eAhU0On0KHd3bBgMQ_AUIFSgD&biw=1600&bih=794#imgrc=yVeTC4iRClnZlM:

https://twitter.com/Applebees?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/02/-applebees-is-turning-its-business-around-a-1-cocktail-at-a-time.html

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DocBYVlW4AEG3Yy.jpg