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Agency Work > Ruby Tuesday Hawaii
CASE STUDY: RUBY TUESDAY HAWAII
Ruby Tuesday is a powerhouse brand in the grill and bar category of casual dining in the Eastern and
Southern parts of the US with over 1500 locations, but it was relatively unknown in Hawaii. In 2004,
three local partners made a pact to change that and brought the growing restaurant chain to the
Hawaiian Islands. Careful selection of locations, well-planned marketing strategies and a simple
philosophy of offering guests great food at reasonable prices have helped the chain become one of
Hawaii’s favorite casual dining experiences.
SITUATION
Planned development of four restaurants within two years meant that the first restaurant had to be successful. Armed with a limited marketing budget, a careful combination of advertising and PR would have to weave a bigger story to captivate local market interest and patronage. Operationally, everything had to be perfect and coordination with community awareness was very critical.
Three other locations were waiting to be developed after the first restaurant’s success—they were to be built upon the demonstrated cash flow of the first location.
STRATEGIES
CHARITIES/PRESS RELEASES
The first location, situated in Millilani, provided a much needed venue to a demographically affluent
and psychographically moral, family-oriented community. PCF Virtual took the opportunity to work
with an assortment of charitable, non-profit organizations to position Ruby Tuesday as a
community-concerned local business. Planned exposure via numerous press releases kept media
expenditures in budget for its grand opening announcements.
Some of the non-profit organizations included the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Hawaii FoodBank and Lokahi Giving Project. With effective press releases and consistent follow up, each of the locations received a tremendous amount of media coverage, including on air interviews with the local partners, such as KHON2’s interview with Manolo Morales.
Additional press releases and editorial pitches provide an ongoing effort to inform the public about the restaurant’s partners, events and promotions.
HOSPITALITY
Hospitality for any restaurant is a key component to its success and with Ruby Tuesday’s philosophy
of providing a fun and friendly atmosphere for all its guests, the staff must be well trained and ready
prior to its grand opening. Not only did PCF Virtual see this as a must for the restaurant, but it also
took it to the next level and incorporated a pre-grand opening marketing effort in the area.
A mock service program where ticket holders were able to eat for $5 was initiated in the restaurants’ neighboring areas, this allowed Ruby Tuesday to bring awareness to the neighborhood that they are coming and also provided an opportunity for the staff to practice their servicing skills. All funds raised were donated to the Military’s Morale Welfare and Recreation programs.
RETAIL
After the initial hype of the grand opening, each restaurant faced the need to maintain a top of mind
awareness in respective communities. PCF Virtual planned successively larger media exposure
through television, radio and print campaigns. In addition, PCF Virtual facilitated relations between
Ruby Tuesday and Costco Wholesale to sell gift discount cards. This provided an additional retail
location for Ruby Tuesday with minimal cost. This program continues to be a tremendous success
for both businesses. Since its launch in October 2006, over $320,000 gift cards have been purchased.
As an ongoing marketing effort, 50,000 business appreciation cards were created and distributed to
major businesses and offered a 15% off discount to card holders. Over 30 major businesses received
these cards and the results were astonishing with current plans to launch a similar program.
VISITOR MARKETING
Ruby Tuesday Ala Moana receives the most visitor traffic out of all the locations on the island. An
interesting factor that PCF Virtual identified was that for restaurants that are located in a shopping
center setting, specific visitor advertising might not necessarily be the key to capture the visitor
audience. Since a very small budget was available for visitor marketing, in-mall advertising was
selected to be the key medium to target visitors.
After conducting some in-restaurant research, it was found that most mall visitors plan to stay on site during mealtimes for convenience. Taking advantage of Ala Moana Center’s existing kiosk advertising to the visitor market, Ruby Tuesday places in-mall advertising at strategic locations throughout the center and entices shoppers to stop at Ruby Tuesday for their next meal.
RESULTS
Looking beyond the grand opening is essential to a successful restaurant launch; some form of marketing must be ongoing regardless of budget limitations. By incorporating effective public relations and other marketing strategies, Because of these basic principles, PCF Virtual has helped Ruby Tuesday Hawaii to consistently rank among the top grossing national and international restaurants in the chain every quarter.