Win local customers with craveworthy marketing

Justin Ulrich
Tell me, is that flamethrower pretty cool? I’ve never seen someone that actually one. That is so cool.

Gregg Majewski
It’s incredible.

Justin Ulrich
Have you used it?

Gregg Majewski
Yeah, I have to keep it in here to make sure my kids don’t pitch it.

Justin Ulrich
Oh, my gosh. Yes.

Gregg Majewski
It’s great.

Justin Ulrich
That is pretty cool, man. So I got to tell you, I’ve seen a lot of content. Obviously, you guys have been hitting content pretty hard, especially recently. Lots of video, long form, short form, et cetera. 

But one of the pieces that really stuck to me and that made me want to bring you on as a guest is you were at a festival. I can’t remember which one it was, but you were behind the grill with your team. You’re the only leader that I’ve actually seen back there, cooking things up, showing people how to do things, serving the guests. That, to me, was really commendable.

Gregg Majewski
So I keep having people tell me that. And my assistant took that picture. I was mad at her for taking it, but it’s just how I do and what we do, and it’s something that I believe is important to do. If you’re going to actually lead your team, you actually have to know how to do what you ask them to do every day. 

And I love being in the kitchen. I love working the lines with them, and I love being able to understand what they go through every day. And working a festival like that is one of the hardest things in the world. It’s hot. You’re outside, you’re above fryers. And so I love being able to spend the time and take the hardest position and be the fry guy or the friar guy for the week and sort of lead from that position with them. 

So it’s just something that was installed in me in a young age. Take the worst job that other people don’t want to do if you’re going to help them and do that job.

Justin Ulrich
Yes, I am the same way. We volunteer once in a while, like once a quarter to go help clean up the church and everybody saves the bathrooms for last. I’m like, no, I’m going there first because no one’s going to do it. We’re going to do it anyway at the end. So why not just get the hard job done first and then have fun with the rest of the day? 

Very cool. So obviously you’ve got some great experience. Working many years at Jimmy John’s, I know that you told me the story of some pretty cool, innovative things that you led Jimmy John’s to do, but you also have a lot of brands underneath the umbrella of Craveworthy. 

So with all of these brands, all the experience you have, what do you think is the most impactful thing that someone could do from a local marketing standpoint?

Gregg Majewski
You actually have to be willing to give away your food and sample the product. Every restaurant is the same, so nothing makes your restaurant better than everybody else’s or anything down that line. It’s how you interact with your customers and how you get them to remember you’re there. 

And so one of the key functions on how we built Jimmy John’s was we sampled every day and we got a third of a sandwich into people’s mouths as they were walking by or into offices, letting them know that we were there, but we delivered. And you could have this product delivered, but it was something that resonated with me everywhere else. 

And everywhere else I’ve been, I’ve gone and made sure that we sample our product all the time. And it’s a cost. It’s a cost franchisees and operators don’t want to have because you’re giving away food, but you give away an office catering and you feed seven or eight people in an office, you should be able to see a seven or eight time return because they’re going to order at least once from you because you did that. 

Unless your food is horrible, then don’t sample. But if you believe in your product, you should be out there all the time trying to win people in because they will forget you. Unless you’re one of the big boys, and unless you’re one of the people that have huge marketing budgets, you have to be in front of them on a continual basis.

Justin Ulrich
Yeah, very cool. Yeah, we had Geoff Alexander was on the show a few episodes back and he talked about when new businesses come into town, the office building next door, whether it’s in the mall location. He always runs the food over. 

And whenever anyone asks him where’s a good place to go around here to eat during a busy season, holiday season, whatever it may be, they always say, hey, go check out Wow Bao just around the corner. It makes total sense.

Gregg Majewski
It changes everything. And it’s not just them. So we set up an old fashioned grid system in all of our restaurants, and we actually follow that grid and hit and continually sample every business that’s in it all the time. So it’s not like we one time sample. You’re going to get hit with samples multiple times throughout a couple of years or a year or however big your grid is. 

But we set up our five-minute sort of radius drive time, and that’s the grid that we set up. And then you go and hit every quad in that grid to make sure that every business or house gets something from you. And yes, again, it comes down to cost. But imagine mailing all those businesses all the time to have it thrown out. 

Go and hang your door, hanger on. Go and knock on the dorm, send it to a house. Walk the parks and the baseball fields and hand out free coupons and hey, come in and get. It’s the best way to build your business.

Justin Ulrich
Absolutely. Yeah. I can imagine if you’ve got little league games or basketball games nearby, everyone is right there. All you have to do is just get there with the food and just hand it out. I mean, you’re doing it at scale, getting it in people’s mouths. It’s an incredible idea. 

I imagine, too, one of the reasons you like to get behind the counter or behind the grill is that you also get a chance because your locations are kind of front and center like, I’ve been to Genghis Grill a ton. It used to be right around the corner from where I worked years ago in Denver. 

There’s interaction and engagement, right? With the customers, with the guests that are coming in. I imagine that you also like that because you’re able to see what the guests like, hear from them, what their experience is, and actually get feedback, like real-time.

Gregg Majewski
And it goes for any position. But wherever in your restaurant that you can’t have that interaction with your guests, what better way to find out what they like or don’t like or if they’ve had issues in the past and all that. Just by listening, you don’t have to ask them anything. Just be there and actually take that position, see how they interact. You can tell who’s frustrated, who’s mad about ticket times and all that. 

And then you can look at ways to fix it. So I always want to be in the position where I can see the things that are high or low and the things that we can better ourselves on or the usages that are going through, because you always hear from the staff, oh, that doesn’t move because they don’t like making it. But then you can actually hear that seven or eight people actually ask for it in a shift, and then you’re, hmm, does it not move or do we not push it?

Justin Ulrich
The one thing that I think you had told me at an event at Jimmy John’s, you were listening to the customers and they were wanting mayonnaise, and you provided mayonnaise, is that right? And it took off.

Gregg Majewski
They actually wanted bacon. So bacon was the number one thing that we were asked for. But we don’t have microwaves, so the technology wasn’t there, and we didn’t have grills or anything like that. So we had to wait for a good product that was precooked bacon to put on our sandwiches. And it was that and ranch were the two sticking points that we had to fight for. 

And customers would come in continually. Amanda, why can’t I get some ranch with this? And finally they rolled it out, and then you just saw they changed. It was the kick’n ranch is now gone and now it’s normal ranch or whatever they’re calling it. But I mean, we did it and we did it different, and it became a huge selling point where when they took it off the menu, people were actually now upset that they were missing now this kick’n ranch. 

Yeah, but you got to listen to your customers to make sure that you’re continually staying relevant. And some things that you have to add you may find stupid and not important. But to the consumer, giving them that sense of, hey, I can get this. It stops them from going to the competitor across the street that does have different sauces or something else. And we gave them the basics. It’s not like we gave them a world-renowned type item. We added ranch, for crying out loud.

Justin Ulrich
Yeah. I mean, it is incredible listening to your customers can do for your business. Right. Giving them the stuff that they want. Little pieces like that are going to be what keeps people coming back. 

What are some things that you think may be unique or new things that you’ve tried lately that have been really impactful?

Gregg Majewski
Right now, the biggest issue is price. So everybody is taking price to such extremes that people are now feeling it and they’re being very selective of where they’re going. So the Chipotle’s of the world and stuff like that obviously are in that top tier where you’re not replacing them out of your diet on a regular basis. If you went to Chipotle once a week, you’re still going to go to Chipotle once a week. That’s the only meal you’re going to eat out. 

The rest of us are now in this rotation of what am I getting for what we’re doing? And so it’s really important today to find what your value prop is for your customer base. And that doesn’t mean you have to be cheap. It’s what’s the value that you’re going to provide that customer day in and day out when they decide and you’re lucky enough for them to choose you. 

And so we spend a lot of time with all of our brands figuring out what that value is. Some stores it’s price, some stores it’s a level of service. Some store, it was adding delivery or catering or bundles to make ordering easier because of things that they needed. We’ve had to look at each brand to find out what our value prop is for our consumer to get them to come in on a more regular basis.

Justin Ulrich
What are some ways that you’re engaging with your consumers to find out what those value props are and how they actually stick or resonate? Are you doing focus groups?

Gregg Majewski
We do our surveys that we email to and we see what also is driving them in. We’ve tried different messaging, we’ve tried different discounts, we’ve tried bundles differently, and we’ve sort of done the testing to see what works and what doesn’t work. And again, in a company that’s a startup, you don’t have the huge budget to do huge focus groups and everything else. So you’ve got to find other ways to sort of throw something at it to see if it can work. 

And those are the things that we’ve sort of been playing with, is that, hey, stand there and watch them, ask them when they walk through, have that feedback in a restaurant and sort of just drive the results that you need to drive step by step to make them work. 

I wish I could say there’s a silver bullet for every problem, but right now, with the way the economy is and the way things are going, there’s no silver bullet for anything. You’ve got to be great at everything to be good in today’s times and customers are more fickle than they’ve ever been because there’s so many options. 

So if you screw up an order and it may sound like nothing but you forget onions in someone’s bowl, that’s a big deal to them. And if it happens more than once, you’re out, they’re going somewhere else. So you’ve got to be so consistent in what we’re doing because there’s no forgiving anymore because they have limited funds and they have plenty of choices to give those funds to.

Justin Ulrich
Yeah. And the choices aren’t. They’re different mediums. Right. You’ve got delivery like so many people are delivering now. It’s like they can order from anywhere. From anywhere.

Gregg Majewski
And you’re starting to see a pushback finally on third party, from the consumer, not the younger generation. The younger generation doesn’t understand how much more they’re paying for it. But the older generation that sort of started it and was following it is now looking at the sticker and going, oh, my God, I’m paying $150. But if I just went and picked it up, I’d be paying $70. Why am I doing this? 

So they’re getting back into some of their old habits. So you’re seeing those customers shift where this younger generation still don’t care. They just go ahead and they go ahead and deliver. McDonald’s, my kid, does it. Why would you go and have McDonald’s doordash? It’s stupid. Go down and get your dollar 99 cheeseburger and be home in 20 minutes.

Justin Ulrich
And eat the fries while they’re still good.

Gregg Majewski
Correct!

Justin Ulrich
Yeah. I know I’ve been in the Genghis Grill a ton. Do you guys deliver?

Gregg Majewski
So we do through third party, and we’re testing now our own delivery service in certain stores. So the number two delivered product in America is most people would never guess you got pizza as number one. Number two is Chinese food. 

And that’s the sort of connotation that everybody forgets that number two delivered long before DoorDash and a long before that was Chinese food. So there’s a market for that to be delivered. And if you deliver, you had to deliver it yourself back then. So why not function that and not charge all those markups and just charge a simple delivery fee and let your customers win? So that’s what we’re piloting right now.

Justin Ulrich
Very cool. So let me ask you this. For some of our locations that may be struggling or you’ve talked about prices, costs of things are high. People are also struggling to drive people through their doors because people are getting a little bit tighter with their wallets. What are maybe some suggestions that you can give folks that they could do today or sometime this week to help start turning that around?

Gregg Majewski
I wish there was. The biggest one is remind your customers why they were coming to you in the first place. And so your message has to be more than just discounts or dollars. You’ve got to be able to tell a story on why you want to come in. And there’s a connection with everyone. And every consumer has a connection with a restaurant. It’s pulling on the strings to know how to tell that story of why they should be choosing you. 

And that’s the toughest part of this industry. It always has been. But what’s changed in today’s time from others is if you’re truly genuine about your message and you truly just go out there and be, and have more videos and have your staff be more interactive and take those sort of gamuts and social media posts and stuff like that. And if you’re truly genuine, you’re going to win your fans because people reward sincerity and they remember why. 

And if you can make that at a local level, you can win even more. And so it’s going to the baseball games, it’s getting out in the community, it’s giving away the free books, free pizza or nine-inch pizza or free kids meal if you read so many books in a school. Those type of programs, as much as they are hard to set up, those things still will win you multiple guests and become a focal point in the community. 

And I’ll use Applebee’s as a perfect example. Applebee’s moved out of major markets. They went to submarkets. They went there because they could truly be the local restaurant in those markets. But then they went and started doing little league teams and kids programs and everything else. They became so ingrained in these communities that they became the place to go. 

But yet they couldn’t do that in the big cities because they didn’t have the same marketing budgets and everything else. But they have this now second life of a brand because they know what they are and they own that and they become that focal point and they do it better than anybody and just become ingrained in the culture of a community and the DNA of their society that they’re in.

Justin Ulrich
Yeah, 100%. When you’re able to embed yourself in the community, you also open the door to tell more stories like you’re talking about. Everybody has a smartphone. I know Shawn Walchef talks about this all the time, but it’s like, take out your phone and just start recording. Record you go into the Little League games, like record the high school, win, share stories, processes behind the scenes. 

That’s what people nowadays want to see because we have social media, it’s less about like, companies have to create this highly produced commercial and spend lots of media dollars to push it over the airwaves. Everyone now has the opportunity to be their own media company, and it’s just a matter of getting started and know creating the content and pushing it out there to get people to actually develop, connect with your brand and develop that loyalty.

Gregg Majewski
And make it sincere. So what Shawn does so well is that when he goes and does all this or shows his barbecue and all that, it’s sincere. He truly believes, and he’s doing it not just to build his brand, but he’s doing it because he wants people to see that what they do. And it comes off as cool, comes off as someone will stop and watch it because, oh, my God, look how they’re pulling the pork and stuff like that. It’s real. 

And it’s not that hyper fake or hyper gloss photo food porn shot that most big companies throw on the end of the ad. It’s real. And consumers today will reward real. And he’s right. Create your own sort of media platform and your social media thing. And I’m bad at it at times because when I’m in the restaurant, I want to be focused on the restaurant and I don’t want to have the camera and stuff like that sort of following me and having the interactions because I’m there to do something else. 

And I have to continually remind myself that that’s a good thing. But don’t make it about me. Make it about the restaurant that I’m in. Show some of the things they’re doing. It only needs to be 15 seconds. Quick little shot of the food on the grill coming off and the bowl being served and the staff member being happy that it was right and the consumer grabbing it to win. 

But you can do that on your smartphone any day. I mean, the technology is so great, but we don’t do it. We don’t invest in that. We don’t think it’s important because we have so many other things to do. But that’s how you’ll win today. He’s right. And it’s hard, though, because it’s a change of what you are.

Justin Ulrich
And it is, like you said, it’s an investment. It’s not something that you could just jump in and start seeing the returns right away.

Gregg Majewski
Yes. And you don’t know what’s going to hit. You don’t know if something you’re going to put resonates. You’ll never know. So you got to continue to put more and more stuff out. And then your consumer base and the people that share it are going to be the ones that decide what works or not. 

And once you get good at it, Shawn’s good at it. He knows what he’s going to post is going to be good and how to get it to go. But once you start seeing your customers liking things, you’ll then know, okay, I can do this or they like more of this, and then you can really go with it.

Justin Ulrich
Yeah, no, that’s great insight. I want to shift gears a little bit. When I was doing some digging into your background, I came across your partnership that you guys, I could tell through the way that you engage with folks, you’ve got a pretty big heart. You obviously don’t want to talk about it, right? 

You don’t want to push that as the persona, but you guys have a partnership that you have with the Organization for Autism Research. Is that something you want to talk a little bit about?

Gregg Majewski
So I believe that we all get to a point in life that you’re extremely lucky for what you have. And there’s so many people out there that can’t live the lives that I’ve been lucky enough to live or my family or people that are with me. And so I always want to go above and beyond for other things. 

And autism is something that I have two cousins that are both autistic, and I’ve seen them sort of struggle, and it makes me so sad when people are around them and don’t know how to interact with them. And, yeah, they get loud sometimes and, yeah, they may can’t communicate with you, but people are so damn mean when you’re not in your world and something alienates you. 

So this was something that was special to me because of that. And then we had this incredible customer that came into our store in Naperville, and he would come in and his family would drive 45 minutes or an hour to come in every couple of weeks to ring our gong. And so one day that individual was. The restaurant was closed. The pipe broke. We couldn’t be open. They drove and they called into the store just to see if anyone was there so the son could ring the gong. 

My manager covered in water and boots and not opened the door and let them in. And this kid sat there and rang the gong for ten or 15 minutes as loud as he could because there was no one in the restaurant. Yeah, they wrote a letter, and it got to me. And as soon as I read it, I knew instantly I wanted to do something special for the family, but more importantly, special for my manager because she went above and beyond. 

So I instantly decided that I was going to send both of them and their families on a trip to Disney World so they could have that and then created a partnership with them and their organization of choice to continually raise money for autism because they just deserve something special.

Justin Ulrich
Very cool. That is very cool, man. I kind of don’t want to go into the next segment because it’s too funny but because you’re such a good dude. I also got some insight from your team that you love Star wars. I was thinking, is he light side or dark side? And I’m like, he has to be. Has to be light side. So I wanted to. 

My kid is a BB8 Lego character. It’s awesome. But anyways, I wanted to kind of see what AI would crank out if you were Luke Skywalker.

Gregg Majewski
That’s pretty good.

Justin Ulrich
With those golden locks. Oh, my goodness. I was dying.

Gregg Majewski
I got hair. I haven’t had hair in a long time.

Justin Ulrich
It was great, man. It was fun to try to plug it in. It’s actually funny. It had some that were pretty dang close, but the lighting was so off. It looked too fake. But anyways, that was a lot of fun to work on that one for you. 

How should listeners follow you, follow your brand before we let you go?

Gregg Majewski
So I’m on LinkedIn, obviously. I post all the time on there. I’m also on Twitter and I wish I knew. I think it’s Gregg Majewski on both of them. I never keep them. We’re on Instagram. Follow us at craveworthybrands.com. 

But we’re continuing to sort of move the needle. And our goal with all of this is to change the restaurant industry, disrupt it in a good way, both for our staff, our teammates, and our customers, to make sure we give back, but also to just change the way that we do business because everything that we’re doing is changing today and we have to be in front of it day in and day out.

Justin Ulrich
Yeah. Very well said. Hey, I appreciate you being on the show. For those who are listening, make sure you follow Gregg. Follow Craveworthy Brands on social. Lots of content. They actually are leading from the front in terms of producing great long form and short form content. 

Stop by Genghis Grill. They’ve got BDs Mongolian Grill, Flat Top Grill, Wing It On!, Budlong, Dirty Dough, Krafted Burger Bar, and Soom Soom. That is a mouthful. You are leading a lot of brands, sir. Hats off to you. Thanks for joining us in the lab. 

Gregg Majewski
Thank you.

Justin Ulrich
If you learned something from today’s episode, don’t forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook @Evocalize. That’s Evocalize and on X at Evocalize. 

And remember, keep innovating and testing new things. You’ll never know what connects with your customers best unless you try. Until next time. Thanks for listening.