Thomas Prather left Starbucks to join Smashburger as CMO earlier this year, attracted to the potential to revamp the 17 year-old brand. His challenge in the new role: to help give the brand its swagger back.
“It’s a marketer’s dream. If I can take a brand that has been ignored and bring it back to a brand that is on people’s minds,” says Prather. “We have such a great backstory. Our founder Tom Ryan was a food scientist. Everything in our DNA was done really intentionally and we have this opportunity to bring back these highlights of what made Smashburger special when it started.”
Just before Prather came on board, the company had done a study on the brand. The research found that Smashburger’s products won on unbranded tastings but that the brand lacked recognition.
“When we listed brands people didn’t know what Smashburger was and then they didn’t believe that the burger they tasted was a brand they didn’t know,” explains Prather. “They said, ‘Why don’t I know about this brand if it is so delicious? It’s better than Five Guys or Shake Shack.’”
For people that did know the brand, the brand expression was unclear. “We had a bunch of different series of updates along the way so if you toured the country, we have 30 different expressions of the brand out there,” says Prather. “If you were on Long Island, you wouldn’t know if it was a national chain or a local brand. We were a bit apologetic and there was nothing we should have been apologizing for. The food is terrific and always has been and that hasn’t changed but the brand had lost its swagger.”
So the company set out to launch a rebrand, which has recently been rolling out over the last month. The new look is inspired by music and an irreverence found in the music scene. “Our food is meticulously crafted to be destroyed,” explains Prather. “Some of our language is definitely not what you think of as safe for a corporation. There’s an edge and confidence. The colors are bolder. It’s meant for you to notice really quickly.”
Prior to joining Smashburger, Prather spent eleven years at Starbucks where he was most recently vice president of marketing. Brand Innovators caught up with Prather from his office in Denver to discuss rebrand, menu innovation and building loyalty. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Can you talk about the new brand identity?
The new identity is bold. It’s meant to be iconic, building for what we want in the future. We have these different concepts – the rock-and-roll concept, an indie concept. It’s between these two concepts because music is such a vibe. You’ll see rhythm and movement. The stylized aspect has a patty that sits around it. Then music reverbs off that patty like it’s wearing headphones. The indie side of it is we’re not as polished as a customer would think of a Shake Shack. We’re not as homey and folksy as you think of a Five Guys. We’re more like the food truck that does everything perfectly that only a small group of people know about. We keep that indie local irreverent vibe.
Can you tell me about the new menu innovations?
We had more chicken than we had burgers on the menu so we weren’t communicating who we were and what we were good at. That menu wasn’t serving us well from a growing brand perspective. And it wasn’t helping the kitchen to have that much variety. We simplified the menu overall and got really intentional about all the recipes and ingredients. We had to focus on smashburgers and make sure we had a couple really wow moments.
We introduce the Bacon Smashburger – which is really super flavorful. The bacon matches the flavor of the burgers so as not to overwhelm the flavor of the burger. We upgraded the Truffle Mushroom Burger. We started making Truffle Mayo by hand instead of using pre-made, which had gotten muted over time. We changed the formulation for the Smash sauce. We changed the flavor balance and the seasoning on the burgers and on our chicken tenders.
We are looking at what customers were asking us for. We have a Scorching Chicken line and now we have a line of Scorching sides. We introduced a Chicken Smash Burger as well. No one has a ground chicken burger out of the market. We had a lovely turkey burger but it’s not differentiated. Coming up with this ground chicken burger – which is dark meat marinated flavorful chicken gives the person in the party an alternative to beef beyond our great veggie burger. You can have that Jalapeno Burger with the chicken patty instead and it’s delicious, it’s still a Smashburger.
How are you rolling out the new brand look?
It’s been inside out. We start with inside our restaurants because we can affect the menu boards easily. We will have new paper goods by the end of the year. Our exterior signage will be slower depending on the sites but we have a plan for at least getting some of the branding up with window decals and things like that and then on social, web and our app.
We were able to change those quickly. The app launched right after we launched the new menu. We were able to reskin that from the beginning with the new look and feel and it’s much more dynamic right out of the gate. We have some more things coming on how we express ourselves in social. We’re working with a few different content houses to help us have a more irreverent voice. It’s not silly, it’s confident. We want to entertain people of course, too. We want our content to be something they want to see and want to share.
Who are your customers?
Our customers are Millennials and Gen Z. They’re a little bit more male than female. They’re likely to have kids. They’re a little bit more independent and free thinkers. They want value for their money, not value meaning cheap. They look at is it worth the price I’m paying and is it convenient for me and fits in with my day. We have a really good sweet spot there where we have super high quality food that’s made fresh to order. It’s comparable to what you get at a similar fast casual place.
What are your plans for the loyalty program?
Our loyalty program is the heart of us building a digital footprint which nowadays is super important as a way we can reach our customers one-to-one. I wasn’t going to invest in growing the loyalty program until we had a great user experience. Most loyalty members were interacting with us either through the app or through the website. We went quiet for the summer and stopped talking about our loyalty program except for in the restaurant itself and making sure we were asking customers if they were members. It is so easy to download the app and sign in and that gets you membership right away. Then our new app allows you to reorder your last order and put multiple gift cards in.
I really see the app experience as the heart of our loyalty program. What we’re going to do is look at how we reward people to keep them engaged. It’s going to be a combination of reminders with push notifications – of course clever and cheeky like “Aren’t you hungry yet? It’s 11 o’clock.” Then we can do specific offers. For example, Mondays and Tuesdays are slower for us so we can do something on Tuesdays either with an offer or with bonus reward points. I see it as a really rich territory. That’s one of my priorities, to grow brand visibility and grow our digital ecosystem which will make us feel way bigger than we are.
How have your past experiences at Starbucks helped prepare you for this role?
Starbucks was such great training for me of really knowing your brand, what your brand’s about and then knowing your customer what your customer is interested in. When we were designing the new brand identity I said, “I know we don’t have brand recognition the way Starbucks has but I want us to be the green dot. I want that iconic look and feel for us.” Starbucks helped me think boldly and think 10 years down the line, what this restaurant can be in the minds of consumers. I want them to know we’re about smash burgers. I want them to know they will always get the best quality from us. I want them to know that we’re interested in engaging in a dialogue with them.
Also understanding and knowing your restaurant team members and what role they play. I speak directly to store managers and say, “We’re all behind you. We’re all here to help you.” We simplified the menu so it’s easier for the kitchen to execute with excellence. It’s about setting them up for success at every step of the way. I want them to be proud of the brand as well because they’re going to be great ambassadors.
