Rest Stop
Families traveling by car across the country often mark their progress by stops at the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store for a bite to eat or to peruse the gift shop. Since the first restaurant opened in 1969, many things have stayed the same: the mashed potatoes are made from scratch and the biscuits are served with real butter.
In addition to its down-home charm, the chain is giving customers another reason to stop by even more often. It is out with its first large-scale national promotion offering a pool of prizes worth more than $1 million.
Visitors to the restaurants or retail stores receive a game piece and game board as part of The Greatest Family Road Trip Instant-Win and Collect-and-Win Game. The game board can also be downloaded at www.CrackerBarrel.com.
The first thing they do is peel open the top portion of the game piece. If the word “winner” is revealed, they have instantly won a prize, one of 91,148 gift cards worth $7.50 each to be given away during the promo. Between May, when the game kicked off, and June, close to 8,000 cards had been redeemed, says Peter Keiser, vice president of marketing for Cracker Barrel.
Vistors can begin to collect the game pieces, which mimic license plates with custom wording, and match them to the corresponding license plates on the game board to assemble winning phrases. If the correct phrase is completed, a prize is won.
For example, if the words “Good Country Cookin’” are spelled out, the player wins the grand prize, a 2008 Monaco Cayman XL Class A diesel motor home from Monaco Coach Corp. and about $56,000 in cash, or they can choose a $250,000 cash prize instead. Those who spell out “Next Exit” will win one of 400 GPS devices.
“We were looking to improve the way we advertise and promote our brand,” Keiser says.
And to ensure someone wins the grand prize, Cracker Barrel is offering a second chance drawing. Customers can mail in their contact information to enter.
Cracker Barrel is using the promotion, which carries a seven-figure budget, in part to reward new and existing guests and drive visits to the chain.
“We’re always looking to increase the effectiveness of our marketing,” says Keiser, whose company spends $50 million a year on marketing and promotion, or 2% of its sales.
The company tailored the promotion with a family travel theme to align with its core audience, 40% of whom are travelers. Some 42 million customers are expected to visit Cracker Barrel’s 576 locations in 41 states during the promotion, which runs through July 28, Keiser estimates.
People driving past many of the company’s locations will see Monoco RVs parked in the parking lot wrapped with promotional banners. In addition, a similar RV is traveling to Cracker Barrel locations during the nine-week promotion to help spread the word.
Newspaper ads, online marketing and PR also support the campaign. Catapult Marketing was involved in the promotion’s planning, helped develop the game’s creative and manages the logistics.
The promotion is a departure from the company’s typical marketing efforts. The majority of the firm’s marketing is dedicated to more than 1,500 highway billboards, as well as radio and TV spots to reach its target audience.
“Marketing is an evolution. This is one step along that journey,” Keiser says.
For more articles on retail marketing go to www.promomagazine.com/retail
