PANERA BREAD RISES TO NATIONAL BRAND
The Challenge:
One of the biggest challenges faced by local retail/foodservice firms is to cost-effectively expand from local stores to regional and national prominence. The challenge was to promote newly opened Panera Bread stores in local markets, and then attracting the attention of national media.
The Background:
I began working with Panera Bread when it was re-branding from the St. Louis Bread Company. CEO Ron Shaich, who helped start Au Bon Pain, had sold that company and was eager to create a new business with a fresh concept. Shaich figured if Au Bon Pain could work in cities, why not offer a quality, baked fresh food outlet in the suburbs?
The PR Strategy:
As Panera Bread began opening new stores all over the country, I helped promote those individual openings with a strong local media campaign. As the coverage snowballed, we not only attained local news coverage, but also got the attention of the national media. Within a very short time, Panera Bread was getting coverage well beyond St. Louis! CNBC, The Wall Street Journal and other top tier media were covering the company and Panera Bread transformed from a little known start-up to a major food brand.
The Results:
With a strong management team, a consumer-oriented concept, and quality products – combined with effective marketing and media relations – Panera Bread jumped from a handful of local stores to a national brand.
smarTours: Growing a travel brand from anonymity to prominence
The Challenge:
Since 1996, smarTours had been offering high quality, exciting group tours to some of the most fascinating countries in the world at the lowest possible price. The problem: few had heard of them and tour bookings were just okay. They were not competitive in awareness, bookings or sales with the major tour company brands. They needed and were seeking help.
The Background:
The company CEO reached out to me with the goal to raise awareness, grown the brand and increase bookings and sales. The CEO knew he had a great product, but also knew that smarTours was little-known compared to major tour brands like Tauck, Abercrombie & Kent and Butterfield & Robinson. He wanted smarTours to be recognized among the major tour operators.
The PR Strategy:
We needed to put smarTours on the media’s radar. We needed to raise the brand from obscurity to prominence. The mission was to promote the dozens of excellent, affordable tours to Europe, China, Africa, the Middle East. South America, Japan, Asia, India, Nepal, Australia and New Zealand. We needed to publicize the company’s superb, knowledgeable tour guides. And we needed to tell potential clients that that when you booked a smarTours vacation, everything was taken care of: from flights, hotels, meals and special needs. We focused on every possible media outlet to create awareness for smarTours: from TV and cable, to travel websites, to major newspapers to all the major wire services. smarTours was covered from the Associated Press, New York Times, USA Today and Washington Post to Frommer’s, Fodors, and Travel Weekly. Not a week went by when smarTours was not mentioned or covered by the media.
The Results:
Over a three-year period, thanks to an aggressive public relations campaign, smarTours went from an obscure small tour company to a major brand in the travel tour industry. Awareness was up, bookings and sales were up and the company’s image was enhanced thanks to its excellent media coverage. Mission accomplished!
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REVENGE OF THE NERDS
The Challenge:
In today’s competitive business world, how do you get the investment and business communities to take a trio of college students seriously? Despite the phenomenal success of Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, most students are viewed as beer-guzzling fraternity boys in school for a good time.
The Background:
Catalant formerly HourlyNerd, was a start-up concept that had roots in a Harvard Business School classroom. As part of a class assignment, Rob Biederman, 26; Peter Maglathlin, 27; and Patrick Petitti, 29, came up with the idea of creating a website that linked small businesses seeking professional help and advice with student MBAs from the top business schools in the country. Today, Hourly Nerd.com helps small businesses that cannot afford a major consulting company like a McKinsey, Booz Allen & Hamilton; Deloitte; or Bain, with top-flight MBA students who provide to-flight input and advice for a fraction of the price. And with the reach of the Internet, geography posed no problem in connecting students from across the nation with businesses located anywhere.
The PR Strategy:
We focused on reaching both sides of the equation, college students across the nation who were talented and experienced enough to provide real value to businesses seeking assistance, and businesses willing to utilize those skills. In less than one month, stories appeared at CNBC.com, Yahoo! NBC News.com, and the NY Times. The media we approached were those that would appeal to the business community, completely ignoring lifestyle and entertainment media.
The Results:
The coverage not only created instant awareness, generating businesses and student MBAs signing-up on the site, but also fueled investor funding interest in the co-founders and the company, including a major financial investment from entrepreneur Mark Cuban.
GENERATING GREEN FROM GREEN SPACES
The Challenge:
Dan Biederman wanted to leapfrog his success in transforming one park into a national business, and a combination of his abilities and a successful media relations campaign were the dual tools to do the job.
The Background:
Dan Biederman is the man responsible for transforming Bryant Park in New York in 1992 from a crime-ridden, drug-filled, dangerous midtown location behind the New York Public Library in midtown Manhattan into a seven- acre jewel and quiet haven for New Yorkers and tourists alike. Biederman contacted me to implement a public relations campaign for his private firm, Biederman Redevelopment Ventures. The goal was to create further awareness and generate new business. BRV Corp. is a leader in place- making, the planning, design and management of public spaces and partners with cities in the creation and revitalization of parks, public outdoor areas, and streetscapes via private management funding.
The PR Strategy:
The timing could not have been better given, the financial strains on states and cities. Words like “public/private management” and “redevelopment” were bandied about in city council chambers and municipal planning firms’ conference rooms across the nation…and that was an imperative we took advantage of on behalf of the Biederman organization.
The Results:
In short order, Biederman and his firm’s capabilities was covered by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Crain’s New York Business, Washington Post and other major media outlets for his work from The Boston Common, and the Chelsea District of New York City to his urban park and beatification projects in Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Miami, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Newark. And that coverage helped generate new projects around the country.
For further information on the above case studies or other media relations programs I have implemented related to your specific needs, contact me at john@johnlgoodman.com