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Brand Comparison Paper Olive Garden vs. Carrabba's Italian Grill
The document compares Carrabba's Italian Grill and Olive Garden, focusing on their history, audience profiles, social media metrics, and marketing strategies. Carrabba's, founded in 1986, has around 250 locations and appeals to a family-oriented demographic, while Olive Garden, established in 1982 with over 800 stores, targets middle-to-upper-class families and seniors. The analysis concludes that Carrabba's has a more polished social media presence that effectively engages its audience compared to Olive Garden, which lacks consistency in its marketing approach.
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Brand Comparison Paper Olive Garden vs. Carrabba's Italian Grill
- 1. WHO POSTED ITBETTER? CARRABBA’S ITALIAN GRILL VS OLIVE GARDEN Samantha Snyder February 28, 2017 Carrabba’s Italian Grill 2202 N.West Shore Blvd. Tampa, FL 33607 (800) 354-1416 Olive Garden 1000 Darden Center Dr Orlando, FL 32837 (407) 245-4000
- 2. Executive Summary………………………………………………………………. 3 History……………………………………………………………………………4 Audience Profiles…………………………………………………………………. 6 Goals and Strategies……………………………………………………………… 7 Social Media Metrics…………………………………………………………….... 9 Platforms…………………………………………………………………………. 11 Facebook……………………………………………………………………. 12 Twitter………………………………………………………………………. 14 Instagram……………………………………………………………………. 16 Email………………………………………………………………………… 18 In-Store Engagement……………………………………………………………... 20 Recent Campaigns……………………………………………………………….. 22 Summary…………………………………………………………………………. 26 TABLEOFCONTENTS
- 3. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Carrabba’s ItalianGrill Olive Garden Year Founded 1986 1982 Founding Location Houston,TX Orlando, FL Number of Stores 242 837 2014 Revenue $710 Million $3.8 Billion 2014 Average Per-Person Check $21.00 $16.50 Facebook Likes 406,465 6,622,557 Twitter Followers 24.8k 363k Instagram Followers 8,795 357k Carrabba’s Italian Grill and Olive Garden are two of many Italian-American Cuisine restaurant chains. Carrabba’s was founded in 1986 by an uncle-nephew pair in Houston,TX and currently has approximately 250 stores across the United States.As a chain, Carrabba’s makes up 17% of Bloomin’ Brands’ revenue and has a combined social following of approximately 440,000 users. Olive Garden, started in 1982, is a subsidiary of Darden Restaurants, Inc.With 837 stores across the globe, Olive Garden accounts for approximately 55% of Darden revenue. Across all active social platforms, Olive Garden has an approximate collective following of 7,342,557. 3
- 4. In 1986, Carrabba’sItalian Grill (or simply Carrabba’s) was founded in Houston,TX by Johnny Carrabba and his uncle, Damian Mandola.The restaurant focuses on family, history and “traditional” Italian cuisine made from family recipes. It is known for high quality food and customer experiences. The restaurant was expanded through a joint venture with Outback Steakhouse, Inc. and expansion rights were bought by Bloomin’ Brands (formerly Outback Steakhouse, Inc.) in 1995. Carrabba’s is now headquartered inTampa, FL and has approximately 250 stores across the United States. HISTORY OF CARRABBA’S ITALIAN GRILL The first Carrabba’s has been remodeled, but still stands in its’ original location in Houston,TX. ”There is no love more sincere than the love of food” 4
- 5. HISTORY OF OLIVEGARDEN Olive Garden was founded in 1982 as a unit of General Mills, Inc. in Orlando, FL. It quickly became the fastest growing unit in the General Mills, Inc. restaurant division, growing by an average of 20 stores per year for the first 7 years after opening. General Mills, Inc. later split their restaurant business off into a freestanding company called Darden Restaurants, Inc. in 1995. Headquartered in Orange County, FL, Olive Garden is now a global brand with over 800 stores. “We’re all family here” 5
- 6. CARRABBA’S ITALIAN GRILL Carrabba’sinitially targeted families, friends, and “regulars.” As the brand has matured, an older, more affluent crowd has been the focus of targeted marketing. A wealthier man or woman between the ages of 27 and 65 is the general targeted demographics group. Olive Garden’s traditional target market includes wealthy families and seniors. Recently, various campaigns and menu changes have been initiated to attract a more “financially constrained” guest. OLIVE GARDEN AUDIENCE PROFILES 6
- 7. Carrabba’s is agrowing restaurant.With less than 300 stores in the United States, brand awareness is key to expanding into new markets. Using YouTube, Carrabba’s is sharing video content with socially relevant themes (think TastyVideos) that are also rich with Carrabba’s history and the familial relationships so engrained in the restaurant’s culture. Carrabba’s is currently positioned as a middle-to-upper-middle class family-friendly restaurant, however they are trying to attract an older, wealthier clientele as well. Carrabba’s is appealing to this group with monthly 4 course Italian wine dinners through email campaigns and TV commercials. GOALS AND STRATEGIES | CARRABBA’S 7
- 8. Olive Garden’s present clienteleis middle-to- upper class families and upper-class seniors. In an effort to expand into new markets, Olive Garden is utilizing Facebook to reach Baby Boomers by promoting quick and affordable lunch specials for the working individual. GOALS AND STRATEGIES | OLIVE GARDEN Olive Garden has an average check-per-person of $16.50. Lately, there has been a focus on attracting a more “financially constrained” consumer. Lower-price-point menu items, buy-one-take-one entrée deals and a “Kids eat for $1!” email campaign have been implemented in an effort to penetrate this market. 8
- 9. SOCIAL MEDIA METRICS •Strength: the likelihood that a brand is being talked about on the social web • Sentiment: the ratio of generally positive to generally negative comments being made • Passion: the likelihood that people talking about the brand on the social web will continue to do so • Reach: the number of unique individuals talking about the brand divided by the number of mentions When assessing the digital health of a brand, there are 4 particular metrics that are particularly helpful. Using SocialMention, it is possible to search any brand, product, etc. and see how often people are talking about that particular keyword, how they feel about it, how likely they are to keep talking about it, etc.The following terms explain each metric and their importance to the SocialMention report. 9
- 10. CARRABBA’S ITALIAN GRILL 33% Strength 6:1 Sentiment 26% Passion 37% Reach UniqueAuthors 59 Positive Comments 13 Neutral Comments 58 Negative Comments 2 OLIVE GARDEN SOCIAL MEDIA METRICS 67% Strength 6:1 Sentiment 23% Passion 58% Reach Unique Authors 128 Positive Comments 34 Neutral Comments 130 Negative Comments 7 When comparing SocialMention reports, it is clear that Olive Garden has a much larger presence in social conversation that Carrabba’s. However, this is to be expected as the Olive Garden chain is almost 4 times larger than Carrabba’s.The most interesting numbers from the above tables are the passion percentages—users are 26% likely to talk about Carrabba’s continually, and only 24% likely to continue talking about Olive Garden. Perhaps this is because the Carrabba’s customer base is generally younger (and more active on social media) than the customer base of Olive Garden. **these numbers are aggregate averages of data collected over a 4 week period. 10
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- 12. The Carrabba’s Facebookpage features bright, beautiful, food-centric images, customer service responses, and various company status updates. Carrabba’s does an outstanding job of sharing a balanced assortment of post-types: encouragement for customer engagement, promotional ads, general brand awareness, as well as capitalizing on a few pop-culture moments.The page is polished and posts are appropriate for the intended audience. All branding on the page is good quality and up to date. Carrabba’s posts once every 10-14 days, which seems to be a slower-than-appropriate cadence. However, Carrabba’s responds to consumer engagement with their posts quickly with a personal, warm tone. FACEBOOK | CARRABBA’S 12
- 13. Olive Garden’s Facebookpage features images of steamy, fresh, delicious looking pasta dishes, humorous gifs, and calls to action (“place a catering order,” “share,” “comment below”).The cadence of Olive Garden’s posts is too quick, flooding the timelines of followers, resulting in engagement disproportionate to number of followers.While the posts are beautiful and promote daily deals, limited-time-only specials and company updates, the captions are often not appropriate for this platform, or for their older, wealthier client base. FACEBOOK | OLIVE GARDEN 13
- 14. Carrabba’sTwitter page features thesame cover photo that can be found on Facebook. Carrabba’sTwitter engagement seems to consist almost entirely of customer service engagement, with an estimated average response time of less than 3 hours. While Twitter is a powerful tool for customer service, Carrabba’s is not utilizing the full potential of this platform. TWITTER | CARRABBA’S 14
- 15. Olive Garden’sTwitter pageis visually consistent with other Olive Garden social accounts.Tweet-style varies widely and beautifully takes advantage of several Twitter features like pinned tweets, polls, contests, and GIF & video support. Olive Garden shares content that is appropriate for this platform’s typical age demographic, and also appeals to the newer ”financially constrained” consumer that Olive Garden is trying to reach. TWITTER | OLIVE GARDEN 15
- 16. Carrabba’s Instagram features dazzlingpictures of delicious looking food and wine, without a “sales-y” tone. Most of the pictures on the page appear to be professionally shot and are aesthetically pleasing.The page also features links to blog posts with recipes and links toYouTube videos on wine education. Posts include appropriate hashtags, have a regular cadence and often drive traffic back to other content. During a 4 week research period, Carrabba’s Instagram followers grew by 3%— more than any other platform for either restaurant chain. INSTAGRAM | CARRABBA’S 16
- 17. Olive Garden’s Instagramaccount has a mix of professional images and what appears to be user-generated content. Posts have a very high cadence and often feature humorous, cheeky or promotional captions.Although the captions are an obvious attempt at being socially relevant and invoking social conversation, they often miss the mark and come off as not age-appropriate for Olive Garden’s audience. INSTAGRAM | OLIVE GARDEN 17
- 18. Carrabba’s opt-in emailnewsletter was sent out 6 times during the research period—an appropriate cadence of one email per week with one time-sensitive promotion and oneValentine’s Day promotional email.The emails look polished and are visually consistent with Carrabba’s social media presence. Each email contains an aesthetically pleasing balance of words and copy, and only appropriate calls to action. EMAIL | CARRABBA’S 18
- 19. Olive Garden hasan opt-in email newsletter that includes time- sensitive promotional deals, holiday reminders, and general awareness campaigns.The emails themselves are very simple with an audience- appropriate tone, which differs from the tone of other digital platforms. Over the course of a 4 week research period, Olive Garden sent out 12 emails (avg 3/week)—a seemingly high cadence for the busy, money-strapped baby boomers they are intended to target. One-third of the emails contained words like “Hurry!” and “For a limited time!” in the subject lines.While a sense of urgency surrounding promotions can be helpful, using this tactic too often can make a consumer feel as though they can get a good deal at any time, thus put off visiting an Olive Garden, and instead visiting a restaurant with promotions that feel more exclusive. EMAIL | OLIVE GARDEN 19
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- 21. CARRABBA’S ITALIAN GRILL Carrabba’shas sign in the front of the store on the sidewalk encouraging visitors to download the Carrabba’s app.There is also a sticker on the front door and table tents encouraging the app download and further description of the app’s capabilities. Olive Garden has Ziosk machines (tabletop ordering tablets). On this machine, users are able to download games to play, browse the dessert menu, order another drink, pay their bill and enter their email address for rewards points. OLIVE GARDEN Because Carrabba’s in-store digital engagement encourages users to download an app they can access at any time, and the Ziosk machines only offer in-store engagement, Carrabba’s is the clear “vincitore!” in this category. IN-STORE ENGAGEMENT 21
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- 23. VALENTINE’S DAY |CARRABBA’S Carrabba’sValentine’s Day campaign can be described as simple but powerful. The campaign was visually consistent over all mediums, contained beautiful and emotion-eliciting images, and a very simple call to action:“Say ’I love you’ the Italian way.” In addition to pre-holiday digital promotions, the campaign also included an in-store promotion for digital engagement on every table. 23
- 24. Olive Garden’sValentine’s DayCampaign was less polished and less extensive.The only mentions of the holiday are found on the chain’s Instagram—which featured a platform-appropriate, though poorly executed, Boomerang—and an email that features a new dish. Olive Garden missed the mark on what could have been a fun campaign for an extremely industry- relevant holiday. VALENTINE’S DAY | OLIVE GARDEN 24
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- 26. VINCITORE: CARRABBA’S ITALIAN GRILL Aftercomparing Facebook,Twitter, Instagram, Email campaigns and in-store engagement, it is clear that Carrabba’s Italian Grill has a polished, audience appropriate social presence that correctly and efficiently utilizes several different social platforms. Olive Garden, though a larger and longer standing restaurant chain, has not developed a consistent or appropriate social presence for the channels they engage with or their target audience. It is assumed that as Carrabba’s grows as a restaurant chain, their digital presence will grow as well—in followers and sophistication. Should Olive Garden wish to compete in the digital space with Carrabba’s, it is recommended that a new vision be created, mapped out and executed for their social media presence. 26