CASE STUDY: How Sizzler and Y&R Thailand achieved 'Royal' results

Background
Sizzler is a well-known brand in Thailand and its good value meals and strong brand image meant it had no problem driving traffic to its restaurants. However, high inflation and rapidly rising costs of premium ingredients were pushing up prices more steeply than at other restaurants.

Aim
Increasing prices in a restaurant is not always the best way to attract more customers and improve brand perceptions. The challenge for Sizzler was to increase the price without jeopardising the market measurement performance or brand perceptions.

Execution
Instead of cutting down size and quality, Sizzler decided to make the dining experience more precious so people were happy to pay more. It’s year-long campaign centred around the key message of ‘The art of eating, the art of living’, with the strategic objective to build the platform for ‘premiumisation’.

The brand association became the ‘The Royal Project’, a mid-20th century initaitive that saw the King of Thailand educate hill-tribes to switch from cultivating opium fields to using the land for farming, tea, and other products that could benefit the country. These ‘Royal Project’ areas now grow environmentally conscious organic produce, which helps sustain the hill-tribes communities in the areas of the projects.

The first phase of the campaign focused on ingredients and saw Sizzler source their salad bar ingredients from the various 'Royal Project'. It also saw the development of a TVC to tell the story of refinement and ‘premiumising’ the Sizzler brand perception. PR enhanced brand awareness and brand engagement under the ‘The art of eating, the art of living’ brand message and talked in more detail about the quality origin of the ingredients, also raising awareness of the Royal Project.  In-store POP was used as support media that helped emphasize the campaign message and also promoted new PR activities, new sales promotion campaigns and promotion menus.

The focus of the mssage in the second phase, executed in a TV and in print, moved to the preparation of the vegetables. Sizzler also ramped up its CSR activity, working on specific projects with the hill-tribes and helping to raise awareness of their work as well as continuing to support other charitable causes throughout Thailand. 

Results
The ‘The Art of eating, the art of living’ campaign was successful in all its objectives. The number of visitors and the price per head both increased, driving higher revenue for the company and exceeding its target whilst improving the positioning and brand image of Sizzler.

From the campaign launch in January 2011, the spend per head rose consistently throughout each quarter. The average growth in spend per head from 2007-2010 had previously been around 2.5 per cent but in 2011 it grew 8.9 per cent. The campaign also generated a 17.6 per cent increase in sales volume compared with 2010.