Restaurant Brands

On the Brand Show this week, the Two West crew took a look at restaurant brands. A restaurant brand is a lot of different things, but above all the brand should be about food and customer service. We take a look at different examples of how restaurants do a good and not so good job of this such as, Red Robin, Planet Hollywood and Applebee’s. Believe me, there is a lot going on. So much so, we didn’t even get to all of our topics.

In our Brand Rant, we spoke about Equinox Fitness. They’ve chosen Fallon as their agency of record and their new campaign is getting all kinds of buzz. But is it all positive? Check out these ads and you be the judge. Would you know that this is an ad for a gym?























Jen Gulvik, director of marketing for Houlihan’s came on the show to discuss the payoff of re-branding themselves five years ago. Jen also gave us a teaser for their new promotion coming up in partnership with Skyy Vodka and the new Sex and the City movie. Check out the podcast to hear the interview in its entirety.

We touched on a little bit Applebee’s new branding campaign. They have changed everything – from their logo, uniforms, restaurant motif and of course, a new advertising campaign. Can all of this turn the Applebee’s brand around? We think it’s going to take more than comedian Wanda Sykes, who plays the voice of the talking apple, to bring their brand back to cool. Check out the article to find out more of what they are doing.

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Something that we didn’t get to on the show, but thought it was worth mentioning was that O’Charley’s is coming out with a new branding campaign. They needed a way to stand out from a competitive field of casual dining. They did some research and you know what they found out? Customer’s love the roll experience! It’s like we always say at Two West, you need to get to the heart of what customers think about your brand through some in-depth research. That’s what they have decided to focus their campaign on. Check out the link to the article and see their new spot.

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Active Lifestyle Branding

The crew from Two West explored the world of brands that are engaged with active lifestyles. These consumers are very loyal and emotionally attached to these brands for the lifestyle and values they represent. Check out the podcast as we delve into whom these consumers are and what brands are doing to keep them loyal.

If you listened to the show, you heard about our Brand Rant with Barbie. We addressed the Barbie Collectors Series and how these dolls are dressed very risqué and even marketed as such. Here are some pictures from the Barbie Collectors Web site that we found. Are these dolls appropriate for the Barbie brand? Post a comment and let us know what you think?
















Marty Ellery and Dawn Finnegan from Hanson Dodge, a Milwaukee-based active lifestyle agency, were guests on the show. They shared details about their new Active Insights Program. Check out more insights about the program that they posted on our blog.

So there were a couple of articles we didn’t get to on the show because there was so much to talk about! Here is an article about North Face and their new in-store kiosks that they have installed in their stores. It’s a great way to showcase all of their items that they couldn’t sell in their store and it even has the ability to purchase items from the kiosk.

North Face Kiosks

Another article we didn’t get to, but mentioned in the show is that REI has just completed a green prototype store in Boulder, Colorado. It’s amazing some of the things that they did with this store. REI has reduced energy consumption by 20% and water consumption by 30% against industry standards. Check out the article and here are some pictures of the store.














REI 'Eco-Sensitive' Store