Why Retail Food Group is going digital and not looking back
One only has to look at the shiny new electronic menu boards popping up in Donut King and Michel’s Patisserie to know that a digital shift is afoot.
Retail Food Group, a leading quick service restaurant (QSR) which owns and manages more than 1,200 franchise stores for both brands, among others -- revealed that their new digital retail signage has been drawing in more customers, and facilitating better service for existing ones.
“At the Retail Food Group, we aspire to maintain our brands’ relevance to the tech savvy retail customer of today and tomorrow.We are keenly focused on the intelligent use of retail technology to increase brand awareness, attract customers and communicate what we have to offer with the minimum of lag,” said RFG IT Manager Mark Hannan, in a recent interview with QSR.
Hannan said Retail Food Group made the jump to digital after it adopted xchangemedia, a proprietary system from Task Retail Technology.
“Task Retail’s digital signage solution, xchangemedia, provides the Retail Food Group with the means to effectively deliver compelling product messages to customers while utilizing a quick and far-reaching communication delivery source,” explained Hannan.
When asked how something as simple as digital signage impacts their business operations, the veteran IT manager observed that xchangemedia has improved retail service and even reduced costs at some flagship stores. “xchangemedia boasts features such as centralised management, dynamic pricing and live content changes which have already had a positive impact on our Donut King and Michel’s Patisserie brands, while at the same time eliminating the printing costs of brand signage and rate fliers.”
The ease with which RFG could change in-store menu boards via digital programming has also made the company more nimble to fast-changing trends. “This solution provides turnkey marketing to stores and when integrated with TASK Retail’s POS offering gives the Retail Food Group the ability to make timely changes in consumer messaging in response to changing consumer and environmental factors,” said Hannan.
Aside from Retail Food Group, a growing number of QSRs and establishments have been installing digital signage systems like xchangemedia to boost their in-store marketing.
“xchangemedia is currently installed in some of Australia's largest clubs and casinos, places like Mounties and Dooleys. We are also installed at large QSR chains such as Red Robins burger works, Chicken Express, Michel's Patisserie and Donut King and pub bistro environments such as Terrey Hills Tavern, Roksia Hotel and Taren Point Hotel,” said Dean Houden, CMO of Task Retail Technology (TRT), the company behind xchangemedia.
“Digital media is a value add across many market segments and the opportunity to display interactive high def product differentiation appeals to any type of outlet,” said Houden on the increasing appeal of digital signage systems.
Less cluttered digital sign boards, Houden explains, allow QSR’s and establishments to highlight their new promotions in one glance, which will increase usage.
“I find sometimes when visiting a ‘non digital’ store, that there is print POS everywhere. The issue with this is it creates store front ‘clutter’ and confuses the customer. With so much to look at, and little time to decide, customers are likely to stick to what they know best and buy every time. This creates an issue when organisations want to release new products or display new offers as the customer becomes blind to it,” said Houden.
“Going digital and leveraging the latest tools in technology highlights an organisation’s ability to adapt with the times. It simplifies offers management and creates targeted offers at a central point within a store, re-educating the customer via offers that ‘pop’ with movement and high def imagery and in turn, influence the customer to spend on new and compelling offers,” he added.
“Something as simple as adding steam from a coffee cup or condensation dripping from an ice cold coke bottle can take an image to an experience. Updating dynamic offers and menus across an unlimited amount of outlets in a matter of minutes allows organisations to influence the buyer behaviour in real time and not only modernises the store front but creates a dynamic environment for the customer to spend within,” he said further.
On a more holistic level, digital signage will ultimately streamline the marketing of new and existing products, leading to higher revenues and lower costs in the long run, claims Houden.
“Digital platforms allow QSR's to work with cutting edge software companies like TRT and deliver marketing incentives unheard of in the industry before. Within a competitive market place, an evolving media platform allows QSR's to create competitive differentiation and increase brand awareness,” said Houden.
“Implementing digital signage prepares QSR's for future growth, decreases new product time to market, allows for dynamic product offering (upselling for example), decreases print costs, controls marketing messages across all outlets, ensures product price management and so much more,” he said.
“Going digital with an innovative product like TRT's xchangemedia allows organisations to implement live social media feeds within the store (such as twitter and Facebook), self service ‘touch’ applications, integrated loyalty and weather-based product offering and switching. The majority of this is new functionality and has been driven by our customers and delivered within the last 6 months,” he said further.
