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White Dog Café

Service Marketing (MacEwan University)

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White Dog Café

Hey Good evening everyone, my names nelson and today I’ll be doing an analysis on White Dog
Café

About us

White Dog traced its origins back to 1983 when founder Judy Wicks opened a
small coffee and muffin shop in Philadelphia. The restaurant had grown from
these humble beginnings and transforming into a company with over 100
employees and $5 million in annual sales.

White Dog was sold in early 2009. Store owner and founder, Judy Wicks
operated her restaurant in a very sustainable way. Including having a four-
part social responsibility philosophy: serving customers, serving the
community, serving each other and serving the Earth.

First restaurant in Pennsylvania to use 100% renewable energy as well as

having a vast array of Fairtrade and organic ingredients on the menu. They
also prided themselves in treating their workers fairly by providing a
livable wage and health care benefits.

Marty Grims

Marty Grims is a restaurateur who purchased the restaurant in 2009. She

agreed to Wicks “social contract” as conditions of the sale to upholds Wicks
vision for the brand.

Wicks success came from “not maximizing profits but maximizing

relationships” She adds that “the great thing about sustainability is that it’s
really profitable in the long-run

QUESTION

Problem(s)

How could Van Horn convince owner Marty Grims that the brand
management agency could help the White Dog brand evolve to meet
expectations of an increasingly sophisticated marketplace?

If White Dog was to stay relevant and evolve with the changing needs of the
marketplace, management needed to nurture its brand identity which would
hopefully also grow its brand equity.

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Market Implications

Being ethical and using sustainable measures to operate business were seen as
standard practices. Especially now in modern times.

Customers became skeptical about environmental claims. One research found

that 95% of products claimed to be green and were not actually green.
Another research found that a 52% believed organizations marketed their
products as ethical as a way to manipulate them.

Would consumers see advertising as genuine or as a marketing ploy?

(rhetorical)

QUESTION
Current Proposition

“It was about hospitality. It was about food, it was about wine, it was about
entertainment and collecting people together”

- Obviously this quote highlights the majority of the White Dog value
proposition but also important to note that they achieved this by using
their network with farmers and sourcing high quality ingredients to
give that experience.

Current Marketing Strategy

Product – What benefits a consumer received

- The chefs at each location were given tremendous freedom to be

creative with the dishes.
- The menu was constantly changing, so guests got a sophisticated and
creative taste profile every time they visited.
- Customers had peace of mind knowing the ingredients were of the
finest quality, and they could trust the staff when they claimed
something was local or organic.
- Guests also felt good dining at White Dog as they felt they made a
small contribution to social and environmental justice.
Price What Consumers paid to get the Product

- Because of the restaurants support of local farmers it couldn’t take

advantage of price discounts from large food distribution
conglomerates.
- White Dog paid for ingredients that were significantly more
expensive.
- The White Dog used perceived-value pricing which meant
customers understood that they paid a little more to get a little more.

Place – How consumers got Access to the product

- White Dog attracted a mix of customers to the restaurant – local

customers who appreciated the high-quality food and ever-changing
menu options.
- Each location had a different atmoshphere depening on where it was
situated, this meant some were more urban, funky, academic and others
were more conservative and upscale. Some were in urban areas or
suburban areas.

Promotion – How Information Was Communicated

Grims was not a strong proponent of advertising. He believed the product

should speak for itself and that everything else would fall into place after
that.

Guests said 1 of 3 things:

- We cant wait to come back
- I am not in a hurry to come back
- I am never coming back

He believed that if the dining experience was excellent, customers would

then find out more information about White Dog’s efforts regarding
sustainability, energy and local farmers and would feel even better about
the White Dog.

Very little advertising and promotion was done. Everything was done by
word of mouth and by flying under the radar. They focused on people coming
in with low expectations and leave with a good impression.
BRANDING

Before we continue I just wanted to cover some important terms that are
related to the case.

a good brand positioning helps guide marketing strategy by clarifying the

brand’s essence, identifying the goals it helps the consumer achieve and
showing how it does so in a unique way.

Increasing brand equity means:

o improving the perceptions of the products

o Increase in loyalty
o Larger margins
o Additionalbrand extension opportunities

So obviously with this in mind its in White Dogs best interest to

increase their brand Equity.

Research & Findings

To accurately design and create an alternative I thought would be effective,

it was important to do some light research. Here’s what I found:

- 81% of luxury consumers search for fine dining restaurants through

mobile apps and 75% make decisions from those results. Huge number

- Immense potential for upscale restaurants to reach customers

prior to launch. Restaurant owners can now showcase their
culinary journey to an audience seeking experience-led dining.

- Millennials and generation Z spend more money eating out than any
other generation, with 54 percent dining out at least three times a week.

- 80% of Millennials want to know more about process and origins,

how their food is grown and where it’s sourced.

Points of Difference and Points of Parity

Something I also found interested from our textbook is that When a product
is new or emerging we must inform the audience of the brands category.

An example of that could be announcing category benefits

Annoucing category benefits - reassure consumers that a brand will deliver
on the
fundamental reason for using a category.

Alternatives

Digital Marketing Strategy

Implement a revised Marketing Strategy that involves print, social media and
digital platforms. Van Horn doesn’t really get into the specifics of what that
would look like but this is what I would recommend if it were up to me.

I would highlight some stories of their support for local farmers, use of
quality ingredients etc and push that on social media platforms.

Complete redesign of their channels and how they push content (more
information on that in the following slides)

Status Quo
This would mean relying specifically on word on mouth from customers and
expecting to grow in this manner. Some restaurants have managed to become
successful and lucrative by doing minimal marketing strategy and becoming
more niche.

QUESTION

So the one that I thought would be best given the circumstance and light
research I conducted was Digital Marketing Strategy.

Pros:

has the ability to modernize its marketing approach and start engaging with
audiences they typically wouldn’t if they simply stuck to a word of mouth
approach.

They are able to test something entirely different; they are able to learn and
gather data from the market with software’s, mailing lists, SEO/Google
analytics.

Able to engage with their audiences in a manner that’s more appropriate.

Customers want to keep up with brands they love on social platforms and
see posts that relate to the values they believe in. This is a great way to
build deeper connections and strengthen White Dog’s brand equity.

Cons:
Goes against what Grims is comfortable doing and what hes done in the
past.

Involves hiring a third party agency to take care of the marketing strategy.

Risk that either the agency doesn’t have the appropriate vision or cannot
generate enough buzz or interest to new clients

People may be annoyed if White Dog Café is more of a hidden gem, it

may lose that value of being local and have that community aspect if too
many people start to become aware of it.

Implementation

Focus more on the digital marketing strategy than print. This would include
reaching out to local food magazines that review popular fine dining
restaurant and cafes and have the chefs promote or preview one of their recent
dishes.

- This helps new users who are unfamiliar with White Dog brand get a
first look of what their offerings are and at least make that first
impression. These articles are usually very in depth and would
highlight White Dog’s commitment to using sustainable ingredients
to elevate their fine dining experience.

This strategy applies to any other forms of third party promotion, it can
include using bloggers or news outlets if they decide to go that route.

Their website should be SEO optimized for when potential consumers look
up specific key words like “Fine dining, sustainable, ethically sourced, fair
trade” so that they are the first restaurant that pops up into their consumers
search engines.

CONT’D

Integrate a seamless digital experience from the beginning where users get
educated then visit and document their experience and finally share with
friends and family.

Build on story-telling and user generated content

Utilize software and market research to identify key audiences and specific
trends.
Build online profiles of their target audiences.

Thank you

So in short this is what I would go with, I took kindof a biased approach I

guess but all the literature and research kind of supported what I already
assumed. If anyone has any other feedback or ideas they’d like to share
please let me know.