Lee,
I think you are dead on about the general lack of marketing to date, but things are changing. I think as the summer approaches, you will see more evidence of this.
Evidence:
1) Reservations are now being taken. This should alleviate some of the frustration of folks waiting to get in.
2) Kid's menus offering $5.25 meals during the week. The value proposition is much more compelling given many patrons are cost conscious parents with kids who can't afford to eat here very often. Lower menus prices for kids should increase the frequency of visits given the greater affordability of the RAIN experience.
3) Greater mall advertising. The marketing budget has been increased to include greater mall advertising--co-sponsoring events with the mall, mall employee discounts, printing coupons on the back of receipts of mall stores, etc..
4) Loyalty programs and kids and adults clubs. These things will include mailers and newsletters, discounts, promotions, and a dedicated web site to promote customer interaction. The membership benefits will also include preferred seating cards and other perks. Basically, this is designed to get folks to have RAIN in mind as to encourage more frequent repeat visits.
5) Outreach programs. These are done by RAIN's representatives visiting schools and other venues where there are tons of kids. These are great forms of word of mouth advertising.
6) Be-back coupons--i.e. 20% off next visit good for 60 days. This gets people to come back more frequently.
7) Lunch menus for weekdays. Food items will be reasonably priced and portions smaller, so that people can get in and out faster. This is especially designed for mall units where there is a big weekday lunch crowd and office buildings. If you can convince people to come in, be entertained and have a great, reasonably priced meal in under an hour, that's a great value proposition.
8) Group sales. This includes greater focus on getting birthdays, corporate and club events to have the event at RAIN. Special employees have been hired to get this rolling, and the benefits will likely be realized sometime later in the year.
I got this from other sources, but confirmed with RAIN investor relations.
Hope it helps, ShugNite
Little more info from someone who attending shareholder meeting:
Annual meeting
by: daveo135 6264 of 6264 I was at the annual meeting this morning. Here are some observations:
1. Much smaller attendence overall
2. Much less evidence of investment pros at the meeting
3. Increasing shareholder value was the main topic they presented
4. Announced signing a lease for the Anaheim Disney, to open in
in mid-2001
5. They are deliberately slowing the expansion rate which will
help the EPS. They stated they don't want to open locations
just to open more...they stated quality of execution is more
important than just numbers of locations.
6. They still are not sure where SSS will stablize
7. All units are profitable except Adventura which is break-even.
Overall, I'm more positive than I was prior to the meeting. Finally, the board seems to have gotten the message of stockholder value. |
