Cracker Barrel Old Country Store
Background: Out-of-home, directional advertising is the primary promotional strategy for the Cracker Barrel brand with 574 roadside restaurants in 41 states. Managing a 1,500+ outdoor board portfolio today is a complex assignment amidst demand for highly visible, high-quality boards. There has been a proliferation of new units and board owners in some regions and consolidation in others; non-uniform pricing, posting and maintenance issues; and lack of centralized data to help manage national acquisitions, purchasing and renewals.
Challenge: Establish a small regional chain as a dominant national player in one of the most hostile environments in America – the interstate system.
Insights: Buntin realized early that for the out-of-home strategy to work across such a large volume of postings, key board locations had to be identified, acquired and renewed on a store-by-store basis, based on strictly adhered-to proprietary metrics and performance characteristics.
Opportunity: Build a unique outdoor management system that steers interstate and local commuters via outdoor messaging that delivers brand promise and locations. By employing GeoTrak®, our proprietary insights and planning management system, along with mapping techniques, Buntin Out-of-Home Media is able to manage Cracker Barrel’s entire outdoor program with real time client access. Maintenance, contracts, images, quality scoring, and desired upgrades are all available through this web-based system. The data collected and stored in GeoTrak® through hyper-accurate field intelligence, is used to create long-term market plans for each restaurant location.
Results: Cracker Barrel has been named “America’s Favorite Family Restaurant” by Restaurants & Institutions magazine for the past 17 consectutive years. The 2006 campaign won the 2007 American Business Awards for Best Outdoor Advertising Campaign.
Outdoor has helped drive growth of the brand from less than 20 locations to 574 in 41 states and revenues of $2.6 billion. Most remarkable, virtually all of this growth has taken place in expansion markets outside of Tennessee where the original Cracker Barrel Old Country Store locations were established.