BUFFALO WILD WINGS, Schemes and Mind Maps of Music

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BUFFALO WILD WINGS

#ThisIsMyTeam Campaign

Lumber Strategies Presents

This is a

fictional

campaign plan

created for a class.

SITUATION ANALYSIS

Company History

Buffalo Wild Wings was started in 1982 by founders Jim Disbrow and Scott Lowery. The friends moved from Buffalo, New York, to Columbus, Ohio. After being unable to find wings in Columbus, the pair decided to start their own restaurant, Buffalo Wild Wings & Weck, named after their hometown and inspiration. Buffalo Wild Wings then incorporated beer-on-tap and televisions to their restaurant, and a brand was born. By 1992, Buffalo Wild Wings had eight locations around Ohio. The brand began franchising and would open 30 more locations in the next two years. Sally Smith joined the company in 1994 as the CEO to further grow the company. Buffalo Wild Wings went public in 2003 and the company opened their 300th store in 2004. The company opened their 500th restaurant in 2008, and in 2010, Buffalo Wild Wings opened their first international location in Canada. In 2014, Buffalo Wild Wings opened their 1, location, and had restaurants in several countries. Today, Buffalo Wild Wings has over 1,200 locations. Buffalo Wild Wings has gone through few rebranding effort. Buffalo Wild Wings rebranded their logo in 1994 when Sally Smith was hired and in 2012 for their 30th anniversary. The color palette has been mostly consistent. A notable change in 2012 was removing all words from the logo. In 2018, Roark Capital, the owner of Arby’s, purchased Buffalo Wild Wings for $2.9 billion and formed a new company to oversee both brands: Inspire Brands. The CEO of Inspire Brands said their will be no co-branding of Arby’s and Buffalo Wild Wings.

Industry Trends

Consumers in general are eating out more. This is in part due to the baby boomer generation spending their disposable income eating out. More notable, young adults 18-30 are waiting longer to have kids and have more disposable income than previous generations. This is reflected in their spending habits. 18 to 30 year-olds spend a larger proportion of their food budget eating out than any other group. Eating out is also correlated with consumer confidence, and current consumer confidence is high. Buffalo Wild Wings is classified as a full-service restaurant: an eating establishment which serves food, drink, and has a wait staff. Full-service restaurants represent a $312.2 billion industry and experienced growth of 4.1 percent over the past five years. Asian restaurants are 28.2 percent of the industry, closely followed by American restaurants at 22.1 percent. Even though the full-service restaurant industry is growing, low barriers to entry and high competition make slim profit margins Buffalo Wild Wing could also be classified as a chain restaurant. The chain restaurant industry is a $143.6 billion industry and experienced growth of 4.9 percent in the past five years. Most of this growth was due to the emergence of “fast and casual” restaurants. Consumers are choosing “fast and casual” restaurants more frequently. “Fast and casual” restaurants, like Chipotle or Mod Pizza, typically serve from a food bar and brand themselves as eco-friendly and healthier than their competitors. Consumers are becoming more environmentally and health conscious, and the full-service restaurant industry should be worried because “fast and casual” restaurants brand these traits better than full-service restaurants. Furthermore, meal delivery services like Blue Apron and supermarket food bars like Whole Foods are attracting more consumers and pushing prices down. With that said,

high-end sit down establishments are performing better than low-end sit down restaurants. Buffalo Wild Wings also serves alcohol and competes in the “bar and nightclub” category. Bars and nightclubs are a $26. billion industry and experienced growth of 2.7 percent over the past five years. Beer and ale represented 34 percent of industry revenue while distilled spirit drinks represented 35.2 percent. The emergence of more niche alcohol establishments like wine bars and brewpubs are bringing new demographics into the market. Buffalo Wild Wings could be considered a sports bar, and would compete with these new establishments.

Consumer Analysis

There there are some broad generalizations to be made about the customer who visits Buffalo Wild Wings most often. First, 46. percent of people who visit Buffalo Wild Wings the most have an income of over $100,000. Next, 68.3 percent of consumers who most visit Buffalo Wild Wings are 18 to 44, indicating Buffalo Wild Wings is most popular with a younger crowd. As consumers get older, they become less likely to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings the most. Gender is not a distinguishing factor in people who most frequent Buffalo Wild Wings. While men frequent slightly more, the difference is not significant. Given this information, the consumer that most frequents Buffalo Wild Wings has considerable disposable income and is younger than 50. There are some clear tastes and preferences for consumers who visit Buffalo Wild Wings the most. People who visit Buffalo Wild Wings the most are 55 percent more likely to be very interested in college basketball than the average person. Furthermore, peo- ple who visit Buffalo Wild Wings the most are 39.2 percent more likely to be very interested in the NFL than the average person. Consumers who are interested in sports also appear to enjoy Buffalo Wild Wings, and vice versa. Alcohol may also be a motivating factor for Buffalo Wild Wings customers. Of people who visit Buffalo Wild Wings the most, 70. percent have had a drink in the last 30 days. Furthermore, people who are 25-29 who had a drink in the past 30 days are 159 percent more likely than the average person to say Buffalo Wild Wings is their most visited restaurant. People who have not had a drink in the last 30 days are 37 percent less likely to visit Buffalo Wild Wings most often compared to the average person. Even with the presence of alcohol, Buffalo Wild Wings still appeals to families. People with one or more child are 34 percent more likely than the average person to have Buffalo Wild Wings be their most visited restaurant. Furthermore, of all people 18- 20, 12.3 percent say Buffalo Wild Wings is their most-visited restaurant, and 18-20 year olds are 73 percent more likely than the average person to say Buffalo Wild Wings is their most visited restaurant. However, this population is not making over $100, and are most likely using their parents money. This is good news for Buffalo Wild Wings: parents trust Buffalo Wild Wings with their children and view the establishment as more of a family restaurant than a bar. Teenagers are a secondary market Buffalo Wild Wings should target.

BWW Focus Group Plan

The objective of the focus group is to learn more about college students’ motivations for eating at restaurants. College students age 18-24 are our primary audience and getting detailed descriptions of why they choose to eat out is important. Once we understand these motivations, we can tailor our marketing to this group. The focus group will start by asking general questions which gradually become more pointed and specific and end with a taste test comparing Buffalo Wild Wings with Wingstop wings. The categories of our questions will be about demographics, when and what students choose to eat, how and what they want to pay and what they associate with BWW. We will have six participants in the focus group and the session is expected to last 30 minutes.

Focus Group Results

There were six participants in the focus group. All participants were from families who had an annual salary of over +$100,000, and the group was split evenly by gender. Participants were served four different types of wings. Two wings were from Wingstop and two wings were from Buffalo Wild Wings. The Wingstop sauces were (1) Spicy Korean BBQ and (2) Hickory Smoked BBQ, and the Buffalo Wild Wings sauces were (3) Asian Zing and (4) Spicy Garlic. These flavors were chosen because their titles are similar. Overall, the participants thought the BWW product was more quality. Participants liked BWW Spicy Garlic more than Wingstop’s Hickory Smoked BBQ but liked the Wingstop’s Spicy Korean BBQ more than BWW’s Asian Zing. However, participants thought the quality of BWW meat was better. Most participants were willing to pay $7 for six BWW wings and $6 for six Wingstop wings. One participant asked “Do you have any napkins,” and another participant responded, “That is what your mouth is for!” This statement is telling because some customers expect to get messy when eating wings and are enthusiastic about getting sticky. Getting sticky may deter some customers and attract others. I gave the participant extra napkins. The biggest takeaway is that participants called the BWW “Spicy Garlic” sauce “Buffalo.” It was also the groups’ favorite sauce. Knowing the history of BWW, we know that there is no “Buffalo” flavor without Buffalo Wild Wings. The taste is named after the city of Buffalo, New York, not the animal. Therefore, we know that Buffalo Wild Wings’ branding already has a profound impact on the public and we should devise a marketing plan that considers Buffalo Wild Wings’ history. Based on the focus group, BWW serves a superior product to Wingstop.

Brand Analysis: The Four “P’s” of Buffalo Wild Wings

Price The Buffalo Wild Wings menu makes use of both psychological pricing and price lining. Not a single product on their menu features a price without a decimal. Wing prices end in either .49 and .99 while price of sides varies without ever landing on an integer. Wing prices are also price-lined as sizes continue to get less expensive relative to the amount of wings one orders. A large order of wings (18) will save a customer $ compared to a small order of wings (9). Product Buffalo Wild Wings features traditional buffalo style wings as the centerpiece of their menu, supported by an array of bar food and drinks. Within their restaurants, Buffalo Wild Wings food is meant to accompany any and all sporting events featured on their televisions that blanket the walls of their restaurants. This pairing led to the creations of Buffalo Wild Wings’ slogan: wings, beer, sports. Promotion Recently, Buffalo Wild Wings has focused their marketing campaigns around two promotions. With the start of NFL season, Buffalo Wild Wings debuted their $5 game day menu featuring a cheeseburger or brat accompanied with fries for $5. Buffalo Wild Wings also continues to support their “Fast- break Lunch” campaign which features lunch combos ranging from $7-$10. Place Buffalo Wild Wings features 1,238 locations in 50 states and 2 provinces. They place the majority of their locations around city centers (big and small) and metropolitan areas. Buffalo Wild Wings’ headquarters is located in Minneapolis, Minneso- ta.

Media Usage Analysis

Buffalo Wild Wings spends a majority of their advertising money on television. Research through Kantar showed out of $174 mil- lion dollars spent between May 2016 and April 2018, approximately $125.5 million was spent on network TV and cable TV ads. While $3 million was spent on SLN TV and another $350 thousand on spot TV, network and cable are the dominant forces. Research done via Simmons OneView revealed that between BWW and competitors Hooters, Outback Steakhouse, Olive Garden, Applebee’s and control group ‘other family restaurants,’ BWW had the highest or second highest index number for consumers that watched professional or college sports games on television, including college football and NBA basketball, in addition to numerous cable TV channels like ESPN and NBC Sports Network. This means that customers that go to Buffalo Wild Wings most often had a higher chance of watching these TV programs or channels. This makes continual advertising on TV a great opportu- nity for Buffalo Wild Wings to establish and ensure brand loyalty on the programs and networks that their customers watch. Outside of television, Buffalo Wild Wings’ largest expenditures came from network and local radio, where Buffalo Wild Wings put forward close to a combined $25 million. Their closest competitor in network radio is Chili’s, who spent right under $1.5 million. While Buffalo Wild Wings spent a lot of money in certain categories, they could be matched by competitors. Darden Restaurants, who owns Olive Garden, spent $477 million on advertising in 2016 and 2017, but no data was available on how Darden divided

Stakeholders:

• Arby’s Restaurant Group: Buffalo Wings Wings shifted from a publicly traded company to private on February 5th, 2018 after being purchased by Arby’s Restaurant Group, which later renamed itself “Inspire Brands” and is the parent company to Arby’s, Buffalo Wild Wings, and R Taco.
• Headquartered Employees: Buffalo Wild Wings is headquartered in Minneapolis, MN and employs 2,400 people at their corporate office.
• All Locations: As of 2017, there are 1,220 Buffalo Wild Wings Locations around the globe.
• Franchised Locations: In Q4 in 2016, there were 609 franchised Buffalo Wild Wings locations.
• Sports industry: Buffalo Wild Wings chains have numerous TV screens per location, allowing customers to watch a variety of sports programming while dining at Buffalo Wild Wings. This exposes Buffalo Wild Wings consumers to advertising during sporting events and to the events themselves.
• Buffalo Wild Wings Customers: Customers contribute to the engaging game day atmosphere at Buffalo Wild Wings where game day is a central part to Buffalo Wild Wings’ brand. Additionally, customers purchase food and beverages as a part of their Buffalo Wild Wings experience.
• Chicken Farming Industry: In 2014, 94 million chicken wings were sold, presenting a demand on the chicken farming indus- try for reliable produce.

Creative Analysis

Buffalo Wild Wings reflects its game day-friendly, sports centric air through their print and TV ads, in addition to a loud social media presence. Buffalo Wild Wings, often referred to as “B-dubs”, uses humor, friendship and the appeal of premier chicken wings in their TV ads. These TV commercials have used celebrity spots featuring famous athletes to appeal to their consumer base of sports-fans (Football and Basketball Fan data). Most notably, Brett Favre was featured in a B-Dubs Super Bowl ad, which alluded to the company’s Twitter hashtag #hitthebutton. This idea is tethered to fan conspiracy theories that the restau- rant can control the outcome of sporting events. Other TV ads released have often centered around the camaraderie that unfolds between sports fans at Buffalo Wild Wings. These ads place heavy emphasis on the high-energy and friendly ambiance consumers can expect from their local B-Dubs. The majority of the television ads are centered around the experience of the restaurant more than the food. The select ads that do focus on the food emphasize the variety, simplicity, and flavor in their wings and ice-cold beer. Buffalo Wild Wings’ print ads are often short, sweet and to the point. They focus on beer, wings and sports, while often touching on the conveniences offered, such as takeout options. Buffalo Wild Wings uses their social media platforms as another advertising to their consumers. B-Dubs uses Instagram as a place to engage customers through interactive photo puzzles, each featuring the distinct black and yellow color palette from the company’s logo. The boldness of these colors grabs attention, but can also be interpreted seen as a reflection of the bold flavors and experiences that consumers can experience. Their Twitter presence serves as a news source for consumers, by providing updates on sports games and athletes in the action. Further, they provide witty commentary and oppor- tunities for consumers to be featured on their social media. Currently, fans can submit their Fantasy Football team names for the chance to have their face superimposed onto a video, which is then posted on the company’s Twitter. Their Facebook serves as the halfway point between the company’s Instagram and Twitter, providing photos, news, engagement, gifs, and short clips.

Public Opinion and Trends

In Sept, 2016, 45 percent of American consumers surveyed reported that they were not eating out on the premises as a location of a restaurant as often as they would like as compared to 48 percent reporting that they did not purchase food for delivery or takeout as often as they would like. Addition- ally, younger age groups, such as millenials, are eating out more often. According to Forbes, Millen- nials spend 44 percent of money spent on food eating out. The amount of money spent on food in and outside of the home is beginning to converge, as money spent on food away from home is rising.

SWOT Analysis Strengths

• Unparalleled association with chicken wings
• 1200+ locations
• Child-friendly atmosphere with the presence of alcohol
• Strong association with sports Weaknesses
  • Prices are not competitive
  • Negative PR past when it comes to sanitation
  • One dimensional: reliant on customers enjoying chicken wings Opportunities
• Millenials spend more of their food budget eating-out
• Consumers are more interested in differentiated alcohol Threats
  • “Fast and casual” restaurants attracting millennials
  • Full-service restaurants with reduced prices
  • Creative alcohol establishments like wine bars and brewpubs

Key Issues and Implications

1. “Fast and casual” restaurants are attracting more millennials because they are more convenient and healthier than existing fast food chains. Creating more “fast and casual” lunch options, such as the “fast break lunch” and more take-out will attract more millenials.
2. Buffalo Wild Wings’ prices are significantly higher than relative full-service restaurant competitors. Promoting Buffalo Wild Wings as a party venue with catering and partnering with pay per view sporting events will help consumers get more out of their experience. Creating specialty beers will also differentiate the Buffalo Wild Wings Brand.
3. Buffalo Wild Wings has come under fire for sanitation reasons in the past. Providing and advertising fresh chicken wings may prove expensive in the short term but do well to improve our image as a safe place to eat. Competitors that were identified for Buffalo Wild Wings include Olive Garden, Outback Steakhouse, Applebee’s and Hooters. The TV ads for these competitors focused on family time, lots of menu options and the idea of having a nice meal for a good value by offering promotions, many of which feature some sort of “course” option, such as Outback Steakhouse’s “4 courses for $15.99.” The ads are upbeat, but focus more on the food and service as opposed to Buffalo Wild Wings which focuses more on the atmosphere of the restaurant and the opportunity to watch sports. Hooters was most similar to the BWW ads, as they focus on watching sports with friends while enjoying cold beer. Hooters uses their waitresses to emphasize that you’re never watching the game alone at Hooters. Applebee’s has a similar focus on pick-up or carry out which offers a fast, easy and convenient dining option, similar to Buffalo Wild Wings’ own take-out offerings.

Brad has no problem using the credit card his parents gave him. He buys rounds for his friends at the bar and eats out multiple nights a week. Brad eats on impulse. While he values exercise and looking fit, he fails to maintain a healthy diet. If asked, he will insist he eats healthy. but the 25 honey-barbecue chicken wings say otherwise.

Key Takeaways from Primary Consumer

• 18 to 24-year-olds are highly likely to have Buffalo Wild Wings already be their most visited restaurant.
• 18 to 24-year-olds belong to active social communities, spend a larger proportion of their income eating our than other age groups and are less careful with their money than other consumer groups. Buffalo Wild Wings can capitalize on this behav- ior.
• Buffalo Wild Wings has a large venue to seat a party. This makes the restaurant a logical choice for large groups.
• The sports and jerseys on the wall can generate feelings of nostalgia for the consumer's own sporting career. Secondary Consumer : 40-year-old married couples invested in their school and community 40-year-old married couples is the campaign’s secondary target audience. Individuals age 40 to 44 are 18 percent more likely than the rest of the population to dine at Buffalo Wild Wings. The data on married couples is not statistically significant. These married couples have kids ranging from 5 to 11 years of age. They are involved with their children’s sports teams, schools, and they are invested in their kids’ success. Their social networks are through community organizations and their children’s activi- ties. By targeting married couples, the matriarch in particular, Buffalo Wild Wings can attract the whole family unit. Buffalo Wild Wings already employs several community marketing tools. Sports jerseys of famous players from around the state line the walls of the restaurant. Table pieces advertise partnerships with the local boys and girls club. These are current efforts by Buffalo Wild Wings to support local, community initiatives. Positioning Buffalo Wild Wings as a community staple will attract “Sharon and Tod.” Sharon and Tod Meet Sharon and Tod. They are 41-years-old, met in college and have three kids. Sharon is extroverted and the matriarch of the family; Tod is an introvert and enjoys Sharon’s company. Tod supports the family on his $110,000 salary, and Sharon manages the kids’ schooling and activities. She is involved with her church (currently organizing the rummage sale), serves as the sec- retary of the Parent Teacher Organization and is supportive of her friend Carol who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer.

Sharon finds herself incredibly busy despite not having a full-time job. She’s found that people in her community often turn to her for advice or help when they need it the most. Tod cooks dinner three times a week after work because of Sharon’s high community involvement. On weekends, Sharon takes the family to restaurant fundraisers where 10 percent of the proceeds go to a community organization. Tod usually hangs out by the bar with the other dads, and Sharon makes rounds around the room so she can visit with all of her friends. Their kids are relatively well behaved but are loud and have high energy. Discipline is not Tod or Sharon’s strong suit. When the family goes out to eat, Sharon wants to make sure that it is a time for family. While enjoying dinner, she’d be delighted to interact with other families from school, from the kids’ sports team or Tod’s job. She wants to make sure that even when she and Tod talk to other adults, that the kids still feel like they are enjoying themselves. At the same time, Sharon wants to take her children to a family-friendly restaurant but doesn’t want to feel like she and Tod are too old for the restaurant’s atmosphere. Tod also wants to make sure that his family is having a good time when they choose a restaurant. After working a long week, Tod also wants to make sure that he has a chance to unwind, and would prefer to do it in a place where his family can come too. For Tod, unwinding after a long week can include watching a few football games, enjoying a couple of beers and eating food that he wouldn’t otherwise eat at home. Tod also wants to ensure that his kids and Sharon are happy with the place that their family chooses to go to on the weekends.

Key Takeaways from Secondary Consumer

• 40-year-old married people are slightly more likely than the average person to have Buffalo Wild Wings be their most visited restaurant.
• These consumers are invested in their community, and Buffalo Wild Wings needs to position itself as charitable and a com- munity pillar to pursue this group.
• Buffalo Wild Wings layout supports the needs of introverts and extroverts. Introverts can go sit at the bar, while extroverts can move around in the large open space.
• Targeting either Sharon or Tod will get the whole family to the restaurant.

Campaign Strategy

The ultimate business objectives to which the campaign will fulfill are increasing in-store traffic of 18-24-year-olds, increase sales — especially Thursdays through Sundays — when many major games are broadcasted, increase consumer correlation between Buffalo Wild Wings and high school sports, and increase customer correlation between Buffalo Wild Wings and the community through community engagement. The competitive advantage of our product is that Buffalo Wild Wings provides delicious food and drinks in a family friendly and young environment, merging where sports fans can enjoy watching games with their own communities. The unique selling point is Buffalo Wild Wings is the place you can huddle with your team. What we mean by that is a team comes in all shapes and sizes. Whether it is a literal team, like your high school football team, or your girl gang from work, Buffalo Wild Wings has a table open for you. Compared to other restaurants, Buffalo Wild Wings allows for a casual dining and sports environment for all involved in the sports world and focuses on bringing people from a variety of groups together. Buffalo Wild Wings can serve multiple groups at the same time: your grandmother, your child or your significant other.

Timing

Our campaign will kick off right away with the New Year in 2019 and end in June following the conclusion of the NBA Finals and the NHL Stanley Cup. By starting at the New Year, the campaign would coincide with the beginning, conclusion and/or middle of several sports at the collegiate and professional levels, which appeals to Brad, Sharon and Tod. This time of year will also coincide with the middle of many winter sports seasons for children and teenagers which will appeal especially to Sharon and Tod whose kids will be looking for places to eat with their teammates after their games or practices. Regarding Brad’s social life, he will be starting his New Year ready to revitalize friendships that he may have neglected over the last semester of college. Not wanting to lose his social status, he will continue sustaining his current group of friends that he loves watching sports with by visiting the local Buffalo Wild Wings. By taking the campaign all the way to June, Sharon and Tod will have taken their kids through winter and spring sports seasons. In addition, this will cover the majority of college and professional basketball and hockey seasons. This timing will also match up to the end of the NFL season and the start of the MLB season, which appeals to both of our target audiences. Seeing as a variety of sports will be happening all throughout the week, the campaign would emphasize going to Buffalo Wild Wings especially between Thursdays and Sundays. The weekend incentive would allow for more free time for Brad to spend with his boys, and be beneficial for Sharon and Tod because their children’s weekend meets or games. Outside of a sports context, since the campaign will emphasize communities outside of exclusively teams, the weekend position- ing for large groups to get together is still at a good time. The campaign will focus on dinner over other meal times because it is after work and school hours and is the most accommodating for people’s busy schedules. After a long day at work, Sharon and Tod are exhausted. When they pick up their kids from afterschool activities in the evening, Buffalo Wild Wings will be the perfect place to go before heading home for the night. While dinner time is the perfect time to discuss everyone’s day, at the same time, many professional and collegiate sports games will be broadcasted during the night, appealing to those who want to catch up on the games. The campaign will be prominent in mid-size cities such as La Crosse, Wisconsin, to appeal to Brad, Sharon and Tod. While these areas have more activity and options than small cities or rural areas, these areas are populated enough to draw large groups of people to play off of our community focus, and there is a larger chance that there will be more families like Sharon and Tod’s with disposable income. Moreover, there would be a larger chance that families like Sharon and Tod’s have kids that are in or approaching Brad’s age, making Buffalo Wild Wings a strong contender for when Brad wants to meet up with his friends. At the same time, competition will be more limited compared to an urban area. For consumers like Brad, the campaign will target cam- puses of the Big Ten Conference that have a Buffalo Wild Wings near or on campus as these schools will have a focus on their own respective athletics and large populations of Brad’s age group. This will come in handy for assembling groups together for a variety of reasons: sports teams, club meetings, Greek life, music groups and so many more student organizations.

The campaign will allocate resources towards TV, particularly network and cable TV, as both of those resources broadcast major sports games. This would also reach a lot of families like Sharon and Tod’s, especially when the home family is gathered togeth- er in the living room to watch an NFL football game on Sunday. To reach more consumers like Brad, we would allocate resources for streaming service ads such as Hulu or Fox Sports. As younger consumers turn more to streaming services instead of tradi- tional television networks, we would be reaching those consumers more effectively. Outside of traditional and streaming television, we would allocate money towards online video ads such as YouTube through both mobile and desktop and other funds towards social media networks like Facebook. While online ads would reach a lot of consumers like Brad, older consumers like Sharon and Tod, would still see these advertisements when scrolling through their Facebook feeds. The internet is filled with consumers, it is just a matter of finding the consumers like Brad, Sharon and Tod: young social media users that like sports, for example, have a larger chance of being like Brad, while older social media users with disposable income would have a larger chance of being like Sharon and Tod.

IV. The Big Idea

What are the three key issues that this campaign must address?

1. The first key issue to address through this campaign is to make Buffalo Wild Wings equally appealing to young people, families and sports fans alike.
2. The second key issue to address is to highlight that Buffalo Wild Wings is easily equipped to provide a community environ- ment. Buffalo Wild Wings will look to franchise owners and general managers for suggestions to provide local craft beers, hang more local sports jerseys in each location and find other ways to integrate each Buffalo Wild Wings with the communi- ty.
3. The third key issue this campaign will address is rebranding Buffalo Wild Wings as not just a sports bar or a place for single men to watch sporting events, but as a place for everyone. The restaurant is more family-friendly than the average bar, and families will feel comfortable bringing their kids here. There is always a table open for your team. What do we expect our target to do, feel or understand as a result of this advertising? Buffalo Wild Wings is a place for your personal team or community to gather regardless of whether this team is your family, sports team or a group of girlfriends. Not only will this advertising reflect Buffalo Wild Wings inclusive and versatile nature, but it will also highlight the restaurant’s ability to accommodate your desired experience. Whether it be the pre-game, during the game, or post-game, Buffalo Wild Wings is a place where your team — big or small — will feel welcome. What is the key insight that we have into our consumers? Buffalo Wild Wings consumers are subconsciously coexisting in the restaurant with varying age-ranges and different desired experiences. The primary consumers of Buffalo Wild Wings are 18-24-year-olds, while the secondary consumers are 40-year-old married couples. The wide range of appeal that Buffalo Wild Wings yields a competitive advantage that separates the franchise from its competitors.

MEDIA PLAN

The Ruling

Buffalo Wild Wings’ latest campaign would launch in January 2019 and run through December 2019. The goal of the campaign is to promote Buffalo Wild Wings as the place where consumers could huddle up with their team, with a communal focus outside of a strict-sports audience while still maintaining BWW’s energetic sport-driven brand. With different seasons of sports over- lapping at different points of the year, we will take a continuous spending approach with pulses in January, March and October, each pulse coinciding with a different PR initiative. There will also be slight variations in spending for different expenses de- pending on the month to keep different media buys on their own individual schedule, thus spreading our message more consis- tently through a variety of media forms. Through our campaign, we aim to reach 70 percent of our target audience of full-time college students three times; this means we will have to reach 8.61 million people and create 26 million impressions through the course of a year.

The Offense: Aperture

While Buffalo Wild Wings will be promoted as a communal sports bar with capabilities outside of serving only sports teams, BWW’s pre-existing sports connotations will be taken advantage of, as sports are a widely popular and widely viewed pinnacle of modern American culture. We will be reaching our primary and secondary audiences mainly while they are consuming other media, as using technology at BWW is central to their brand as consumers watch sports while eating, in addition to appealing to our younger primary audience, Brad, who is very tech-savvy, and Sharon and Tod, who grow continuously more tech-savvy as their kids grow up with it. Launching the campaign in January will coincide with the NFL postseason start. While the Green Bay Packers are unlikely to make it into the postseason, their brand and their quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, have a prolific and long standing brand rec- ognition that will draw viewers, especially with a good cause. Ads centered around Rodgers and the recent California fires will premiere in January via prime time television and cable. The connection to Rodgers will maintain BWW’s sports connotation, but the PR nature of the ad and the showing of the ad on non-sports programs will expand BWW’s brand to less serious sports fans and more casual audiences. In addition, the leading pulse in January will feature a week-long Snapchat filter that will launch the day after the Aaron Rodgers ad premieres. The campaign will also pulse in March and August. In March, Buffalo Wild Wings will promote its hashtag #ThisIsMyTeam with a coinciding emoji to donate to the Special Olympics, which will take place March 14-21, 2019. The pulse will also feature the return of the Snapchat filter for the week of the Special Olympics and commercial airtime for the NCAA basketball tournament’s first and second round games. In September/October, the last pulse will feature Kyle Kuzma, NBA basketball player, in a similar ad to the Aaron Rodgers piece, though this time connecting to his hometown of Flint, Michigan, and the widely-known clean wa- ter crisis that has affected the town. These ads will air leading up to and during the start of the NBA regular season and feature another week of the Snapchat filter. Aside from the PR-related pulse spendings, the only other special event pulse will be the MTV Movie Awards in June 2019 and a week of the Snapchat filter. College students showed a 71% more likelihood to plan to watch and households with children ages 12-17 showed a 22% more likelihood to plan to watch^6 (Kids in Households v. Restaurants and Special Events) this event, so it is a worthy addition to increase frequency in the middle of a non-pulse period.

Television

Research data shows that the shows Empire, Family Guy and The Simpsons are all popular with full-time college students, people who visit BWW the most and in households with children. The Simpsons showed index numbers of 155 for college stu- dents, 122 for households with children aged 6-11 and 211 for people who visit BWW the most, meaning those audiences were 55%, 22% and 111% more likely, respectively, to watch Empire^1 (Audiences watching and cable programs). BWW will start with showing Aaron Rodgers ads during these programs before airing other BWW ads throughout the rest of the year. For cable ads, BWW will focus in particular on The Flash and The Walking Dead. The former is shown to be popular with households with children aged 12-17, reporting an index number of 127, while the latter reported a 156 index number for full-time college stu- dents^1. Both programs were even more popular for consumers that went to BWW the most, reporting 182 and 211, respectively, making these two shows solid ground to reiterate to loyal BWW fans while also bringing in new ones. The only only late night pro- grams that consistently interested households with children was Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which reported households with children ages 12-17 were 23 percent more likely to watch and households with children ages 6-17 were 45% more likely to view the show with at least some attention. Full-time college students were 37% more likely to watch Saturday Night Live, the highest-scoring late night program for the target audience. The same ads will be promoted on national late night television, in addition to spot cable and spot television for focus in mid-size cities.

Sports Streaming Services

One unique aspect for Buffalo Wild Wings’ campaign would be its focus on streaming services. As young people continue to prefer streaming versus traditional television, Buffalo Wild Wings will reach Brad by marketing on those platforms. Consum- ers aged 22-24 yielded an index number of 248 when using a website or app from a broadcast or cable provider and an index number of 187 when using Hulu Plus, both in the last 30 days^4 (BWW and Age v. Streaming Service). With such high index numbers, Buffalo Wild Wings would spend a large portion of its budget on Hulu and other streaming channel buys to increase the frequency to viewers on those platforms.

Social Media

Social media and other recreational Internet usage is extremely high between full-time college students, households with chil- dren and consumers who visit BWW the most of any restaurant. Research revealed full-time college students were 219% more likely to visit Twitter and 170% more likely to use Instagram within the past seven days^7 (Audience vs. Social Media Websites), along with 211% more likely to use Spotify. BWW will reach out to full-time college students with the aforementioned Twitter promotions, native Instagram advertisements and audio ads on Spotify. Households with children were 15% more likely to use Facebook, 29% more likely to use Pandora, 20% more likely to use YouTube and 32% more likely to use Instagram. Similarly, BWW will stream audio ads on Pandora, the aforementioned Instagram ads, native post ads on Facebook, and snippets from other campaign video materials as Youtube video ads.