Blue Ox Dining Group

Marketing

&

Communication

101

Basic philosophy and core principles

At Blue Ox Dining Group we believe in creating experiences for our guests. Each of our concepts has a simple statement about exactly what type of experiences we’re shooting for. Ourcommunication strategy will align our messaging with those experiences.

We believe in these things:

- Inviting a guest to an event is always better than talking about ourselves.

- Asking a guest a question is always better than blurting out information.

- Simple and clean design is better than busy and cluttered

- We don’t need to cram every bit of information into every message. Go for good design over information

- Events. Events. Events.

- We rarely use price as a lure. Experiences are the attraction.

- We are local, one of a kind, unique to Tulsa, Oklahoma. We tell that story in our design, our messaging, our content, etc

- People will tell their friends about us if we give them something to remember

Our Goal

Our goal is to increase revenue at our locations by increasing the number of people who choose to business with us. We achieve this by building relationships with our guests through delightful and inspiring interactions online, in the media, and in person. Simply, we want our communications to matter, to hit people where they are, to motivate them towards us.

How do we do it?

Failing to plan is planning to fail.

– Alan Lakein

Yep, this doesn’t just happen by accident. There’s a plan. Here’s how it works.

Travel Guides

Here’s where we start. Each month, we’ll fill out a Travel Guide for each place. What’s a Travel Guide? That’s what we’re calling our monthly marketing worksheet because we couldn’t think of a more clever name for it.

This document will be a comprehensive plan for that establishment for the month in question. It will serve as the complete summary of everything we’re communicating and the ways we plan to communicate. Sounds easy enough, right? This document will then inform our implementation plan and our assignment of marketing related tasks.

Travel Guides will be given to the manager at each of our locations for their own reference.

Implementation

So this is a group effort. Actual execution of the plan requires front line staff, managers, executive team and contracted marketing folks. Here’s the breakdown.

Front line staff:

Front line staff will be asked to help with the marketing plan in several ways. They are…

- one on one interactions with guests - recommendation to happy guests that they

rate us online

- physical implementation of some things o sandwich boards o chalkboard o table tent placement o marquee o in store signage placement

- creation of special items o sandwiches/pizzas/desserts of the

week, month, etc. o coffee drinks o bar drinks

Managers:

- communication of specials to executive team

- one on one interactions with guests - holding front line staff accountable for

their part - communication of feedback from

guests/exec team to front line staff

Executive Team:

- communication of info to contracted marketing team

- holding managers accountable for their part

- preparation of some marketing materials and digital content

- making sure information is accurate - communication of feedback from guests to

the managers

Contracted Marketing:

- following the digital media plan o social media content is up to date,

accurate, engaging - following the bought media plan

o purchased advertisements are quality and accurate

- following the on-site print plan o oversee the design of print materials

- follow the earned media plan o oversee the creation of

events/campaigns o communicate with the media

regarding the details of the events/campaigns

Some rules.

Why rules!?!

Because they help us to protect people’s time and emotions.

1. Executive team communicates with contracted marketing. We can’t have 20 different people giving work to our contracted agencies. They won’t know how to prioritize and will likely disappoint you. If front line staff or managers want something promoted, they should engage the executive team.

2. Allow two weeks for everything. We can’t live in the world of last second ideas. If you need something printed, designed, promoted on social media, etc., give proper notice.