Featuring actual employees, or even executives, in marketing materials can be a risky gambit for chains. Just ask the team cleaning up the damage from the much-publicized resignation of Papa John’s founder John Schnatter and reports of his alleged widespread misbehavior that includes using racial slurs as well as inappropriate sexual conduct.
But showcasing real employees in marketing campaigns and across social media can give consumers a connection to the company, increasing trust and that all-important sense of brand transparency.
“It’s definitely a risk. There’s no doubt about it,” says Scott Iverson, vice president of marketing for Toppers Pizza, a quick-service pizza chain that’s been featuring employees across its marketing channels for several years. “We just feel the benefit outweighs the potential risk.”
Here are some of the ways operators are shining a spotlight on their employees in their marketing while doing their best to avoid getting burned.
Wisconsin-based Toppers Pizza, an 80-unit chain, positions itself as the local pizza place when it enters new markets, especially when its going against major players in the segment such as Domino’s and Pizza Hut.
Showing real employees and calling out their store locations in print and digital advertising, as well as on packaging, signals that “These are the local people who are taking care of you and serving you,” Iverson says.
Franchisees help select and vet workers who would be featured, choosing longtime employees who are “great people with great values,” he says. Selected employees sign waivers, allowing the company to use their names and likenesses across all channels. (Toppers keeps employees up to date on where their images will appear, so the workers can share the ads across their social media.)
And, while they haven’t had to use it yet, the chain has a crisis PR procedure for the leadership and executive teams in place to handle a featured employee doing something to tarnish the brand’s reputation, he says.
A new prototype for pan-Asian fast-casual Pei Wei incorporates employees into the design. The Las Colinas, Texas, unit, for example, features an “Iron Chef”-style wall mural that includes the store’s general manager, says Brandon Solano, chief marketing officer for the 200-unit brand. The move is part of a broader effort in the new store to emphasize Pei Wei’s fresh, authentic cooking style. “What are we saying about our brand?” Solano says the design team asked. “What do we want people to know, think and feel?”
Fogo de Chao is known for its gauchos, who walk the floor serving up unlimited portions of 15 kinds of meat. So it was a natural extension of the fine-dining brand to feature them, as well as other employees, in advertising efforts, says Chief Marketing Officer Janet Gieselman. “We have men and women of all backgrounds at Fogo, which is displayed through the creative you’ll find on our website and in our marketing materials worldwide,” Gieselman says of the photos and videos. “The focus has always been to highlight our Brazilian roots and the diversity of our staff, many of whom are Brazilian.”
It’s an approach that appears to resonate with diners, she says: “One of the things we love is when our guests recognize a server or gaucho they have seen in marketing materials and say a quick hello. It is a nice nod to our staff and gives them a boost of confidence.”
Buffalo Wings & Rings recently invited all employees to participate in a competition to develop a “one-of-a-kind” wing sauce recipe. The first-time event garnered 30 entries, as well as media attention for the Ohio-based casual-dining chain. A local radio station selected the winner—a charred jalapeno and garlic concoction—which will be featured as an LTO later this month. The winning employee’s name will be featured on the menu and his picture will appear in a social media campaign, says Diane Matheson, vice president of marketing. The winner also received a $250 prize.
“People want to see the person behind the brand, and that it’s not just some corporate entity doing things,” Matheson says. “It makes it real and it makes it personal. There’s a story behind the sauce.”