November 22, 2024 • 34 mins
A deep dive into the evolving restaurant industry landscape, exploring how innovative brands like Crave Worthy are adapting to Gen Z preferences through international cuisine, digital marketing strategies, cross-brand loyalty, and authentic brand storytelling.
Guest: Gregg Majewski of Crave Worthy Brands
#RestaurantInnovation #FoodTrends #GenZMarketing
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📈 Learn More ~ Restaurant Power Index featuring the top 50 brands' performance in consumer sentiment based on 12 performance markers in food, service, and overall brand consumer sentiment. The RPI features historical and current sentiment analysis for key brands based on the overall market sentiment data. Subscribe for weekly reports on the top brands in the restaurant industry. https://www.savor.fm/restaurant-power-index
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Guest: Gregg Majewski of Crave Worthy Brands
#RestaurantInnovation #FoodTrends #GenZMarketing
🫶 Subscribe NOW - Unlock a world of knowledge, innovation, and growth from the largest podcast network in food service! - https://savorfm.substack.com/
📈 Learn More ~ Restaurant Power Index featuring the top 50 brands' performance in consumer sentiment based on 12 performance markers in food, service, and overall brand consumer sentiment. The RPI features historical and current sentiment analysis for key brands based on the overall market sentiment data. Subscribe for weekly reports on the top brands in the restaurant industry. https://www.savor.fm/restaurant-power-index
Follow on X: Savor_fm
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to another episode of Rock My Restaurant. We're
going to look at gen Z today, the most fickle
and unusual restaurant consumer out there. It's going to be
a good one. Shelly, how are you.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I'm doing good, Paul great, Great to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
You guys probably don't realize Shelley is our co host
and she of course runs Devour. We always drop a
little bit of love for Devour. You guys should check
it out. Go where it's a Devour go. You learn
a lot more about what they're doing in the space
of online ordering and gaming and really one of the
things that is happening right now. I'm sure Shelle you
(00:37):
saw the news on McDonald yesterday.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I've thought for sure we'd be talking about that.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
I'll tell you that that's huge. We're gonna have to
probably drop a little bit after we get our guests
on today because that is huge news, and I think
it really aligns well with what we're talking about today,
which is how do you approach this next generation audience.
So it's going to be a good one. You guys
don't want to miss it. Stay tuned right here.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Turn up the volume and subscribe now to Rock my restaurant.
The podcast setting your Brand on Fire for you come
into you Live every week. Branding, marketing, innovative text, don't
get left behind.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
The future is now all right, Shelley, We're back here.
Let's get into it. We are going to have our
guests come on today, and that is he's a friend
of the show. He's been on a couple of our
other podcasts. And that's mister Greg Majuski coming in from
Crave Worthy Brands. How are you, Greg, I'm good. How
are you all excellent? Hey, I like your new studio
(01:39):
by the way, thank you.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
We it's actually I can I can change it for
what I'm doing, which is sort of cool.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
That's Hey, this is your I love to see brands
getting into content creation. To me, that's like one of
the I've been I've been spouting that to the you know,
to the hilltops for a decade, saying brands need to
become content creators. I'm so glad that you're doing it
because I think you can start to lead the way
with other brands. It's a great way to talk to
(02:07):
your employees, but it's also a great way to talk
to guests, you know, and customers.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
I mean we use it for all the above, but
I mean the podcast, the selling your franchise, story telling
people who you are just looking way more professional, and
then you clipping them off for all the new.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Seacres, don't you Yeah? Push it? Well, listen, this is
to me. That's one of my pet and Peeves is
a lot of content out there is a little grubby
and people just don't take the time to really produce
really quality product. Because now gen Z has all the
options in the world to look at content, so they're
(02:47):
they're not going to be pulling through, you know, stuff
that looks like it's shot in the bedroom. You know,
They're really looking for people who look like they know
what they're talking about, which is I think the good
thing that you're doing there. I'm going to put Shelley
up on top there and you up there as well.
So Shelley, let's get into it with Greg. I want
to kind of lead off the first question because the
(03:08):
reason we ask Greg on the show. I'm thumbing through
LinkedIn the other day and i see Greg's post and
he's talking about this international thing and I'm like, wait
a minute, what else is he doing? How many more
brands can this guy be involved in. So first news
I want to break into is the deal that you
guys are making around international brand expansion. What does that
(03:31):
look like? Tell me a little bit more about it.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
I mean, it was one of the greatest things that
could possibly have happened and shows what Craverorthy is slowly becoming.
And I'm I guess not slowly becoming, because we had
ap group come to us and ask us to be
their partners in bringing brands from across the world to
the US in North America and opening them up as
(03:53):
the master franchise in these markets. Obviously that can go
to a much bigger state and we can end up
joint ventures with the brands and everything else. But it
gave us an opportunity and a sort of a pat
on the back, I would say, or even more of
a you know, hey, you're doing actually what you should
be doing with the shared services and all this, that
(04:14):
this was an opportunity to bring some amazing brands to
the US. And my partners on this deal are incredible.
They're the bank, they're the backers, and now we're going
to start bringing a couple of brands in And obviously
we wouldn't not have made that announcement. If we're not
close to a brand or already signed a brand, we're
just not ready to announce which one that is yet.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
You know, we've seen a handful of international brands make
it in the United States. You would look at I
would say Nando's, you know, to a certain extent. You
could even look at Cafe Neiro in Boston. There's a
lot of international brands that have kind of made their
way through and they're continuing to grind into the US.
My question is, now, do you think that the restaurant
(04:58):
industry globally is at a case where they see just
huge opportunity here or do you feel like they think
they can come in and do a better job in
the competitive landscape.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
No. I mean, after talking to the brands, they truly
think this is a huge opportunity. The world has become
much more of a melting pot, as we all know,
and the taste buds and the taste preferences of the
American population has evolved. We're not just burgers and fries anymore.
We're moving into the ethnic foods and everything else, and
the spice levels and all that. So they truly feel
(05:33):
this is an opportunity to come in and have a
growth vehicle in these markets. I mean, you can look
at Pepper Lunch, you you know who has started to
all that. You know, he's done an absolutely incredible job
of building this brand that's already gigantic across the world
now into the US, and the partners that we will
(05:54):
have on these deals going forward are also at that scale.
The first brand that we're going to bring in is
six hundred and it's in China already. WHOA, okay hello,
So they will not be small partnerships.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
So that could be that could be very interesting because
what you're talking about is, first of all, the landscape
of if you look at fast casual, even QSR to
a certain extent, is I would say, is fairly competitive
right now. There are there is room, don't get me wrong,
there's room for growth. And there's definitely some trends that
(06:28):
we're watching around gen Z that show that they're ready
for you know, new culinary, They're ready for new styles
and concepts, and I think that is the biggest factor, Shelley.
When you I know, with Devour, you guys are building
a lot around the gaming community that being mostly gen Z,
(06:49):
they get into of course, all of the things, everything
from collectibles. We kind of teased a little bit about
what McDonald's is doing. We might we may have a
chance to talk about that later. But when you look
at the gaming component and where you guys have been
able to leapfrog a lot of I think early adoption platforms.
Do you feel like, is it still gaming social? Where
(07:12):
are the gen Z? Where is the gen Z audience
kind of migrating to right now?
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah, in terms of engagement, gaming is huge social. Of course,
that's where they live their lives connect We've mentioned a
few times, you know, maybe our generations it was you
hung out at the mall. You know, for them, it's
they hang out a social from a gaming perspective, really,
you know, people think about gaming of just spending hours
(07:37):
doing doing something repetitive or or you know, being engrossed
in it. But it also is that sense of community.
They're going to gaming because they can also have a
sense of connection and bonding and and so that's a
that's an important thing for gen Z.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
I was looking at the gaming charts the other day
and there was a list of the top five hundred games.
These are Web two games, so you know, the typical
epic game store kind of listing, and then there was
a cross reference of restaurant brands that were involved in
different games. I was surprised at how many restaurant brands
(08:15):
were actually plugged into web two gaming as it is today.
Do you feel like that trend is going to continue
right now? Definitely?
Speaker 2 (08:25):
I mean roadblocks you know what Jeff Alexander with Wilbil
did there. Of course, the Chipotle Roll your Burrito experience,
Fortnite and the Fortnite Creative. There have been a number
of brands that have taken advantage of that as well.
So I think it's only going to expand as it's
easier and easier to create either experiences. You don't want
(08:46):
to do it just to do it, but if you
create an experience that can draw in your target customer base,
then it's a great way to reach that demographic.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Yeah, so, Greg, You've got a variety of brands here
connected in what's the total number of brands that you
guys have now fifteen?
Speaker 4 (09:04):
With all the ghost kitchens and virtual brands that we own.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Let me bring that. I think I've got your website up.
I want to show it for some of our viewers.
Of course our audio side of things. So legacy brands
genghis BDS, Flattop emerging, the wing it on the budlong
and that's Southern Chicken. I haven't seen this one. Where
is this as long as Chicago? Okay?
Speaker 4 (09:30):
Chicago drafted is Chicago, Zumzoom is LA and has a
couple of stores in New York.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Dirty Dough is obviously across the country. Cree is New Jersey.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
How Chicken take over as Columbus, Tayim is New York base.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Try to And then these are the virtual brands right yep.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
And then not on there is obviously the global deal
and the two brands that will announce next week.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
So Greg, when you look at the number of brands
that you guys have and now with international brands, how
does that translate? First of all, kind of give me
a scope of the size of the team. Do you
have individual teams for each brand? Is there, you know,
like an overlord marketing person, an overlord operations person? How
does it? What's the setup look like?
Speaker 4 (10:19):
So we do the overlord marketing ops all that training position.
So we take high end people are very very skilled individuals,
and they're the ones over their departments across all brands. Okay,
and then we put brand specific people in each individual
brand with the goal of hiring someone now that could
(10:40):
become the brand president one day, but right now as
the director of the brand, and you know, as we grow,
hopefully they can grow with us. So as the brand
gets to a point where they need a brand president,
they become brand president and they go up with us.
And we do that because the end goal is obviously
to spin something out or sell individual brands, we have
(11:01):
to build the team across the board that can be
able to do that. Yeah, but the ideas in the
generation and where we're going comes from the shared service platform.
So marketing, HR, accounting ops, legal purchasing is all living
at the Graveworthy level.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
I like the you know, well, and there's a synergy
probably that kind of connects the dots between the difference,
so you can get strengths out of something that's working
with another brand blended in. Have you found when you
because operating like that is is a bit unique. What
is like some of the key takeaways that you've found
operating like that that have said, oh this this was
(11:44):
really a good example of how these synergies affect another
restaurant concept.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
I mean we learn it on the training side every day.
I mean, how you train someone doesn't really change. A
restaurant's the same. And I know I heard people's egos
all the time when I say there's no difference in
our business, but we do the same thing and how
you open a restaurant or how you provide service or
how you do this and that it's always the same.
(12:11):
And so we've set up a blueprint that are all
of our brands operate the same way. We just plug
in a different branding or food item. And that has
been so unique and different that it allows us to
scale at a such faster pace than others. We're not
recreating the wheel every time.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
We do it right, yeah, which is I think that
gets you to market faster, you know, with the number
of concepts and how to break down some of these
as far as the data. When you look at trying
to enter markets, because you're in a lot of different
individual markets, you don't necessarily have you know, like some
of the big brands where they have marketing funds, they're
trying to target certain areas. So being able to jump
(12:50):
from you know, a Boston to a Dallas to et cetera.
And you don't have density. What is the model that
you guys use to be able to get the work out?
What's what's kind of the format?
Speaker 4 (13:02):
So, I mean, we always want social media and that
generation to do most of it. So we're using on
digital ads and everything else. We're geo fencing, we're doing miles.
We're about to partner with a new service that would
tell me who's going into my competitors. And we started
we ran a test campaign where instead of going in
and taking restaurant as my competitors, we went after who's
(13:23):
going into the grocery stores with their IP addresses and
stuff like that and pinging them because they're truly everyone's
customer base. So we went back to the basics on
how we did it, and we've seen a sales increase
because of it because we're broadening our net compared to
just the old way. Hey let me get KFC's customers,
(13:44):
let me get your potlet customers, you know, let me
get everyone's customers that go to the grocery store and
go after them. Then for the youth, we went after
the trendy spots, so we ping, we geofensed high schools
and colleges and stuff like that to try to get
those influencers to be our customer base instead of going
after again, who goes to McDonald's down the street. And
(14:09):
so we've expanded our net for the first time, and
Ginghis was the test subject for that, and we were
down about fifteen percent and now we're up five.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Okay, turn rate, Jen, that's that's huge. That's a big swing.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
It was a huge swing, and we got new and
returning customers that just forgot about us. Because then this
company will give us the data the credit card usage
and stuff like that and how the countitor and we're
seeing people that were passed. So we went way more
into the data behind our customers than I've ever had
(14:47):
in my life.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
I think that what you're hitting on is is almost
granular to a certain extent, being able to drill down
like that into localized markets because local store marketing is
very difficult because it's very you know, it's kind of
man on the street, a lot of heavy lifting kind
of scenarios to really make a difference. One thing that
I've heard quite a bit, and Shelley has taught me
(15:10):
that this in just watching the devour community is these
communities that are being built around brands. There's a handful
of brands that have it that has a real rabid community,
whether it's on social if they're activated in something you know,
in real life, et cetera. Are you guys doing anything
like that?
Speaker 4 (15:32):
So we're we'll be rolling out Craigworthy Kitchen, which we've
been in the process of doing all year, which will
be our one loyalty for all brands. Okay, So we
have a much bigger platform to market to and across
the board, and with our virtual brands and our ghost
kitchens or whatever they're going to be called in today's time,
(15:52):
our virtual brands will be We're proud of them. So
when you go to the Ginghis web page, for example,
you'll actually be you'll see what other Craveworthy Kitchen brands
you can order from that establishment. We're not running from
that anymore, okay. And we'll allow loyalty to be built
across the board from all our brands together. And yes,
that may cause an issue one day when I want
(16:14):
to sell, but I can make Craveworthy household name. So
you know that, Oh I've never seen that restaurant before. Oh,
it's a Craveworthy kitchen. I'm a huge fan of Genghis.
I'm gonna go ahead and give him a try, okay,
and sort of the let us entertaining model in the
fact that, hey, let's not be a shameful of what
we are, go all in on who we are, and
that's how we're going to build our sort of cult following.
(16:35):
And then I've thought about the games and the other
things that we can do. But to compete on the
national stage today, I have to put all of my
stores as one to have any sense of competing against others.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Yeah, Shelley, have you seen this work? Like what Greg's
talking about is is kind of an overarching loyalty platform.
Have you seen that work in the web three space
where whether it's a gaming that I mean, there's interoperability
right now within games trying to I should say, you know,
where you can move assets from one to another in points, loyalty, rewards,
(17:13):
et cetera. Have you seen that actually become real?
Speaker 2 (17:18):
You know, it's interesting that you're bringing that up and
where Greg is going with that. When we had Alejandro
on the former Activision, he was talking a lot about
the one loyalty versus fragmented. I think across so many industries,
whether it's gaming or restaurant, we have been so fragmented
(17:38):
on that and we have app overload right at app fatigue.
What Greg is describing here of being able to create
crave worthy as that brand that is what you're familiar with,
and you like one thing that you have experienced from them,
You're going to try the others and it makes sense
let us entertain yous obviously killed it that and you know,
(18:01):
so that's a great model.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
So Greg, you're you're using a variety of you know,
social as a platform. I was looking at a lot
of your different social media accounts for many of the brands,
kind of watching how you're integrating, how the engagement is occurring.
Have you, guys, been able to define one particular or
two particular platforms or strategies when it comes to social
(18:28):
and digital content that you've been surprised at that says
this is really working. Anything that sticks.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
Out for you guys right now, I mean the ones
that we every time we think we have it figured out,
the next one that we do doesn't work. Yes, So
it's it's truly a What we've learned is video and
imagery and being true to what your brand is are
the most popular. If you're a little brash and a
(18:56):
little especially on TikTok and stuff like that. If you
can be a brad, call it out, have a lot
of fun, you're going to get traction. That seems to work.
If you just put up a simple picture of your food,
they scrow by and what be, It's no big deal.
You gotta have some fun with it on Instagram.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Now that that, in our eyes is skewing older.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
And we the still imagery, the rotation of your food
and putting stuff like that still gets clicks and likes.
But again it's an older customer base. Yeah, and then
you got Facebook, which why would you even pay for
an ad? You know, I mean because you're dealing with
grandma and grandpa in the restaurant age. That doesn't make
(19:37):
a lot of sense to spend money on even though
you still need them as customers. You can go and
get them through your email campaigns and stuff like that
that they exact a years. But video has been the highlight.
Anytime we post something live in the store, talk about
an employee, or you know, show the food breaking apart
in dirty Dough, it is a perfect example. When you
see a cookie spreading and someone eating it then and
(19:59):
you get a little kid the image and going oh
and her eyes lighting up and you can see that
light up. That's the ones that have always gone and
been shared and passed on more and more.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Yeah, Yeah, I was looking at I think we're trying
to get the dirty dough guys on the show, and
I was looking at just the concept behind. You know,
when you look at dessert type brands, some of those
do really well. I mean there's been Sprinkles, There's been
many in the past that have done really phenomenal and
then you look at the yeah, there you go, and
(20:30):
then the the donut brands that have kind of they evolved,
but they're usually very regional. Do you think that is
going to be the concept for your brands? Is kind
of that regional approach outside the legacy. I know Genghis
was Dallas Space, but you know they had a lot
of other, you know markets. What are your thoughts on that.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
I don't it's too early to tell because I don't
know what the consumer is going to pick us at
my next brand. And I said all the time, when
you're in this industry, you you always think you have
the greatest food and the greatest this, and the branding
is awesome and you could, but yet it may not
resonate with the consumer today and I use raising canes
as a perfect example. There was absolutely nothing really special
(21:16):
about chicken tenders, coal, saw fries, and bread, you know,
but for whatever reason, that resonated with the consumer and
it's now a cult following. Yeah, you wouldn't have bet
on that when you first saw it. You would have
been like, I don't know, maybe, but then it goes
and does what it does the consumers. What's going to
be the next thing?
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Yeah, because there's a lot of there's a lot of
chicken brands and you're right, you're hitting it on the head,
you know.
Speaker 4 (21:42):
And for whatever reason, they resonated, and it was simple
consumer got it. They moved on and you can look
at Crumble. Crumble came out at the right time. Their
sales were through the roof, first one, first to market.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Not everybody loves the food.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
I think there's a better product, but their sales are
going to continue to drop and ours will continue to
go up. Where we're almost in that harmony phase. And
you got to remember you're a dessert brand. Dessert brands
aren't going to be one point five million dollar AUVs.
They're never going to happen long term unless you add
other product mixes. And so we've got to be the
best of what we are and make sure my franchisese
(22:18):
make money at that typical dessert segment, which you know
ford to seven hundred thousand dollars. We've got to make
sure they're profitable.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
I was looking at the wing it on and I
didn't know this is that you guys have won, you know,
best Buffalo Sauce in America. A small brand like this
gets best buff Buffalo Sauce. Who did the award?
Speaker 4 (22:44):
So it was the Buffalo Wing competition out in Buffalo,
So the home of the Wings. We've competed against every
great Buffalo sauce. I was out there and we not
only want it, we wanted three years in a row.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Here.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
Our medium sauce one first first, came in second this
past last year, and our Hot sauce came in first.
So we took two awards home in the last two years.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
And so, oh man, there's so much you could do
with that brand. It's like that. Have you ever watched
that video hot Ones.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
Yep, I mean there's so much spin it off, but
I mean we were taking and again that's part of
what we do here is we take such great pride
in our food that we know our food is always
better than our competitors. Yeah, it's great to win an award,
but now I've got to get the marketing to get
(23:34):
the consumer to realize that there's a reason why you
should try us over the others. We're also the only
wing brand that hambreads our chicken tenders to order, you know,
so we handbread them, they sit, and all that. We
take the components of the other restaurants that we've done
and made bring it on now the best overall that
we could. We've got to educate the consumer around that,
(23:56):
and it takes time, and the new stores as they're
opening will better and better because of that.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Yeah, what do you Okay? So I want to hit
both of you with with kind of the trends for
twenty five because we've been our guests in November December.
We're asking about trends for twenty twenty five, what you're seeing,
and this particularly would would go toward your brands there.
I'll start with you, Greg, when when you look at
concepts right now. Obviously you've seen kind of the light
(24:24):
around the international brand expansion here in the US, so
that's clearly going to be something that we're going to
see more of. But what are you finding out there
right now? Because you have such a reach that you
think is really going to start to percolate in twenty
twenty five.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
So I mean, based on what we've acquired just this year,
I think food is going to be the hottest one.
Continuation of Mediterranean, Indian, Chinese, all that are going to
be the biggest pluses that's going to be for the
next couple of years. The palette in America, like I said,
has changed. The other one is comfort food, So the
dis and that type of stuff, the snacking is not
(25:02):
going to go away.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
So you know dirty dough.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
I have another brand that will announced next week that's
in that segment that goes after something else, And those
are the things that we're going to move forward. And
because there's that sweet spot and the American population, as
much as we're on the diet shots and everything else,
still splurge on their suitees. So we think that's an
area that we can move on. I love it diet shots.
(25:29):
I've seen that's kind of a thing. Here in South Florida.
We're seeing like these little pop up stands. Now they've
got the little.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Buggies at the events. It's crazy and the lines are
long at some of these events. I was just at
a we were at a wine vent in Palmage County
and they had a lot of food trucks and that
was one of them. So very very intriguing. What about you, Shelly,
what do you think from both a tech standpoint, what
we're seeing in this new generation of consumers. Where do
(25:57):
you see twenty twenty five in terms of top things
to watch?
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Yeah, I think one thing we're going to probably continue
to see is this cross the experiments and the cross
brand collaborations. You have Burger King, Walmart, uh again, the
McDonald's doodles that was just announced yesterday. And you know
that expansion and the continuation of either well established brands
(26:24):
cross collaborating for experiences and reach, especially when they compliment
each other and in one way or another and can
reach a demographic they may be struggling with. You know,
tech side, Uber there was the the Uber Eats Instacart collab.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
You know this year.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
What's it going to look like to continue to to
to target, to partner and collaborate to reach a demographic
that rather than building the tech or going there yourself.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Yeah, for sure. Well and that both those kind of
line up I think very closely with a lot of
concepts that have been building. But I think, Greg, you
have the perfect model for cross collabs, you know, because
you have multi brand. If you were to insert in
you know, one collab or two whatever it might be,
and then try to figure out a match up with
(27:19):
you know, maybe not all brands. There could be a
handful that could cross collab. Are you guys looking at
doing any of that right now with other whether it's
content creators, brand developers, games, anything that is playing out
for you guys.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
I mean, we're we're working on a deal for Dirty Dough.
They're obviously the sweet spot to be able to go
across the board and we'll see and again having musicians
and artists and all that that again, it's something that
that brand speaks to. So those are the collabs that
were after. We'll have a couple come out next year
(27:56):
for that. We're also going to use Dirty Doe as
our dessert.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
And my other brands.
Speaker 4 (28:01):
So we're going to have a pre done cookie that
is a dirty dough cookie that we're not going to
be you know, say it's a dirty dough cookie in
our restaurants, but allow people to consume other options throughout
the United States and expand that footprint.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Yeah, that's good. I think this is back to your point, Shelley.
I think you're right there. There is a lot of
these collabs. I was were you surprised at the at
the collab with McDonald's and what Doodles is doing.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Yeah, it's a little little surprised. Although Doodles has you know,
crossed over into mainstream from uh there, it's still an
edecase though, I think.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Very much so.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
And I was surprised that a brand the size of
McDonald's did it even even it seems a little bit
more even all in than what Starbucks did with Odyssey, honestly, Yeah,
a little more front, front and center.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
We're going to do a full podcast on that, guys.
So we'll definitely come back to you guys with a
full report on the McDonald's. We have a lot of
insider data on that. We actually presented to McDonald's, a
lot of stuff around this topic of Web three integrations
and what those look like. I think Pudgie Penguin's is next.
(29:18):
Greg's over there, What the hell's a pudgie Penguin? But
I'm you'll learn it's like the cabbage Patch dolls, you know,
if you think about the kids. But it's going to
be interesting to watch all this. Greg. Last tip for
you for leaders takeaway right now. If you're building a
restaurant brand, you get a chance to talk to all
(29:40):
these people that have built a brand or they're in
the midst of building one. What's the first thing that
you say to an up and coming restaurant operator that's
maybe building a brand or wanting to get one going
that you says, this is the These are a couple
of things that you really need to focus on to
get going.
Speaker 4 (29:58):
I mean, if you're getting started, it's obviously your food
that always has to be king. That's the easiest one,
but it's the most important one. Is stay true to
who you are and what your brand is at the beginning.
Don't deviate every time that the sales doesn't happen, and
this and that it takes a long long time to
get to the endline and You've got to stay true
to who you are at the beginning, and yes you
(30:19):
make little tweaks and stuff like that, but in that
first couple of years, don't go and blow everything up
because you haven't hit it right. Continue to fine tune
the messaging because if you believe the product, the space,
the decor, and the overall brand is right, it takes
a long long time to get the traction that you
need to be successful.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
I know you came back from our FDC and we
were talking about this just at the beginning of the episode,
and you look at investment right now in the restaurant space.
You know, a lot of private money has started to
pull back from the space. We're seeing fewer funds. We
are seeing some you know, some big wins, but they've
(30:57):
been wins that have been developing for almost a decade.
You know, if you look at the Kava, you know, Superstar,
When do you think there's an opportunity here for startup
brands still in this space, you know, to get going,
to find money and take off. Absolutely, I think.
Speaker 4 (31:17):
The market is right for those next brands, those emerging brands.
I truly think the American population is a little sick
of the status quo. Okay, And so that's why Kava
and raising canes and all these have jumped to such
huge numbers so fast. And when you look at the
growth of a restaurant company, those are fast times. They're
(31:40):
moving at an incredible pace. But it's because America is
looking for something different. So yes, I do think I
think the big PE groups are going to sit on
the sideline a little bit longer before they go all
in on an emerging brand or a startup. When you
get going, I think you're going to have the old
fashioned layer of investor back where you had a family
(32:02):
office or an angel that helped you get to from
here to here, and then the PE is going to.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Come back more in their normal slot. So that's old
school here in the light. Yeah, that's the old school
away feel.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
I think everything always copes back. I think that's where
we're going to be for the next couple of years.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
So that means what do they call that? What is
that one called the schedule D where you can raise
up to a million I think without going out. Yeah. Yeah,
So that's how a lot of those early brands started,
you know, doing a little spin out like that and
then eventually going into an angel or a family office
like you're you're mentioning there. Very cool. We have been
here with mister Greg Majuski coming over from Crave Worthy Brands. Greg,
(32:44):
thanks so much for coming in today. We appreciate you
stopping in. It's been a joy. Thank you. All Right,
So Shelly, let's get into it. Greg. I know has
probably got to head out, but I want to kind
of precursor the topic on McDonald's. We are going to
try to get to that here on this show. Shelley
and I may do a special episode for that in
terms of breaking it down for you guys, to give
(33:05):
you some insights to what McDonald's did with doodles. And
the reason this is important is because of the connection
not only to web three, but brand Ip, which is
something we talk about on this show a lot. So
are you digging into the whole McDonald's dell right now, Shelley.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
I.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Will be over the weekend even more. I think it
was really interesting that it's not just brand Ip that
they're doing that, They're also doing the digital aspect to
it as well, and so I'll be peeling the layers
back on it over the weekend.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
For sure. It's going to be good, all right, Well,
listen guys. If you're not tuned in to Rock my
Restaurant here on YouTube, make sure and subscribe right now.
That's one of the best places to catch us. But
if you are listening to the version of this show
on the audio podcast side on Spotify or on Apple podcast,
come over to YouTube, give us a like and a subscribe.
(34:01):
Over there, it's just savre FM. You'll find us and
we'll catch you next time. Right here, unrock my Restaurant
Welcome back to another episode of Rock My Restaurant. We're
going to look at gen Z today, the most fickle
and unusual restaurant consumer out there. It's going to be
a good one. Shelly, how are you.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I'm doing good, Paul great, Great to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
You guys probably don't realize Shelley is our co host
and she of course runs Devour. We always drop a
little bit of love for Devour. You guys should check
it out. Go where it's a Devour go. You learn
a lot more about what they're doing in the space
of online ordering and gaming and really one of the
things that is happening right now. I'm sure Shelle you
(00:37):
saw the news on McDonald yesterday.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I've thought for sure we'd be talking about that.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
I'll tell you that that's huge. We're gonna have to
probably drop a little bit after we get our guests
on today because that is huge news, and I think
it really aligns well with what we're talking about today,
which is how do you approach this next generation audience.
So it's going to be a good one. You guys
don't want to miss it. Stay tuned right here.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Turn up the volume and subscribe now to Rock my restaurant.
The podcast setting your Brand on Fire for you come
into you Live every week. Branding, marketing, innovative text, don't
get left behind.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
The future is now all right, Shelley, We're back here.
Let's get into it. We are going to have our
guests come on today, and that is he's a friend
of the show. He's been on a couple of our
other podcasts. And that's mister Greg Majuski coming in from
Crave Worthy Brands. How are you, Greg, I'm good. How
are you all excellent? Hey, I like your new studio
(01:39):
by the way, thank you.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
We it's actually I can I can change it for
what I'm doing, which is sort of cool.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
That's Hey, this is your I love to see brands
getting into content creation. To me, that's like one of
the I've been I've been spouting that to the you know,
to the hilltops for a decade, saying brands need to
become content creators. I'm so glad that you're doing it
because I think you can start to lead the way
with other brands. It's a great way to talk to
(02:07):
your employees, but it's also a great way to talk
to guests, you know, and customers.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
I mean we use it for all the above, but
I mean the podcast, the selling your franchise, story telling
people who you are just looking way more professional, and
then you clipping them off for all the new.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Seacres, don't you Yeah? Push it? Well, listen, this is
to me. That's one of my pet and Peeves is
a lot of content out there is a little grubby
and people just don't take the time to really produce
really quality product. Because now gen Z has all the
options in the world to look at content, so they're
(02:47):
they're not going to be pulling through, you know, stuff
that looks like it's shot in the bedroom. You know,
They're really looking for people who look like they know
what they're talking about, which is I think the good
thing that you're doing there. I'm going to put Shelley
up on top there and you up there as well.
So Shelley, let's get into it with Greg. I want
to kind of lead off the first question because the
(03:08):
reason we ask Greg on the show. I'm thumbing through
LinkedIn the other day and i see Greg's post and
he's talking about this international thing and I'm like, wait
a minute, what else is he doing? How many more
brands can this guy be involved in. So first news
I want to break into is the deal that you
guys are making around international brand expansion. What does that
(03:31):
look like? Tell me a little bit more about it.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
I mean, it was one of the greatest things that
could possibly have happened and shows what Craverorthy is slowly becoming.
And I'm I guess not slowly becoming, because we had
ap group come to us and ask us to be
their partners in bringing brands from across the world to
the US in North America and opening them up as
(03:53):
the master franchise in these markets. Obviously that can go
to a much bigger state and we can end up
joint ventures with the brands and everything else. But it
gave us an opportunity and a sort of a pat
on the back, I would say, or even more of
a you know, hey, you're doing actually what you should
be doing with the shared services and all this, that
(04:14):
this was an opportunity to bring some amazing brands to
the US. And my partners on this deal are incredible.
They're the bank, they're the backers, and now we're going
to start bringing a couple of brands in And obviously
we wouldn't not have made that announcement. If we're not
close to a brand or already signed a brand, we're
just not ready to announce which one that is yet.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
You know, we've seen a handful of international brands make
it in the United States. You would look at I
would say Nando's, you know, to a certain extent. You
could even look at Cafe Neiro in Boston. There's a
lot of international brands that have kind of made their
way through and they're continuing to grind into the US.
My question is, now, do you think that the restaurant
(04:58):
industry globally is at a case where they see just
huge opportunity here or do you feel like they think
they can come in and do a better job in
the competitive landscape.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
No. I mean, after talking to the brands, they truly
think this is a huge opportunity. The world has become
much more of a melting pot, as we all know,
and the taste buds and the taste preferences of the
American population has evolved. We're not just burgers and fries anymore.
We're moving into the ethnic foods and everything else, and
the spice levels and all that. So they truly feel
(05:33):
this is an opportunity to come in and have a
growth vehicle in these markets. I mean, you can look
at Pepper Lunch, you you know who has started to
all that. You know, he's done an absolutely incredible job
of building this brand that's already gigantic across the world
now into the US, and the partners that we will
(05:54):
have on these deals going forward are also at that scale.
The first brand that we're going to bring in is
six hundred and it's in China already. WHOA, okay hello,
So they will not be small partnerships.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
So that could be that could be very interesting because
what you're talking about is, first of all, the landscape
of if you look at fast casual, even QSR to
a certain extent, is I would say, is fairly competitive
right now. There are there is room, don't get me wrong,
there's room for growth. And there's definitely some trends that
(06:28):
we're watching around gen Z that show that they're ready
for you know, new culinary, They're ready for new styles
and concepts, and I think that is the biggest factor, Shelley.
When you I know, with Devour, you guys are building
a lot around the gaming community that being mostly gen Z,
(06:49):
they get into of course, all of the things, everything
from collectibles. We kind of teased a little bit about
what McDonald's is doing. We might we may have a
chance to talk about that later. But when you look
at the gaming component and where you guys have been
able to leapfrog a lot of I think early adoption platforms.
Do you feel like, is it still gaming social? Where
(07:12):
are the gen Z? Where is the gen Z audience
kind of migrating to right now?
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah, in terms of engagement, gaming is huge social. Of course,
that's where they live their lives connect We've mentioned a
few times, you know, maybe our generations it was you
hung out at the mall. You know, for them, it's
they hang out a social from a gaming perspective, really,
you know, people think about gaming of just spending hours
(07:37):
doing doing something repetitive or or you know, being engrossed
in it. But it also is that sense of community.
They're going to gaming because they can also have a
sense of connection and bonding and and so that's a
that's an important thing for gen Z.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
I was looking at the gaming charts the other day
and there was a list of the top five hundred games.
These are Web two games, so you know, the typical
epic game store kind of listing, and then there was
a cross reference of restaurant brands that were involved in
different games. I was surprised at how many restaurant brands
(08:15):
were actually plugged into web two gaming as it is today.
Do you feel like that trend is going to continue
right now? Definitely?
Speaker 2 (08:25):
I mean roadblocks you know what Jeff Alexander with Wilbil
did there. Of course, the Chipotle Roll your Burrito experience,
Fortnite and the Fortnite Creative. There have been a number
of brands that have taken advantage of that as well.
So I think it's only going to expand as it's
easier and easier to create either experiences. You don't want
(08:46):
to do it just to do it, but if you
create an experience that can draw in your target customer base,
then it's a great way to reach that demographic.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Yeah, so, Greg, You've got a variety of brands here
connected in what's the total number of brands that you
guys have now fifteen?
Speaker 4 (09:04):
With all the ghost kitchens and virtual brands that we own.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Let me bring that. I think I've got your website up.
I want to show it for some of our viewers.
Of course our audio side of things. So legacy brands
genghis BDS, Flattop emerging, the wing it on the budlong
and that's Southern Chicken. I haven't seen this one. Where
is this as long as Chicago? Okay?
Speaker 4 (09:30):
Chicago drafted is Chicago, Zumzoom is LA and has a
couple of stores in New York.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Dirty Dough is obviously across the country. Cree is New Jersey.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
How Chicken take over as Columbus, Tayim is New York base.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Try to And then these are the virtual brands right yep.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
And then not on there is obviously the global deal
and the two brands that will announce next week.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
So Greg, when you look at the number of brands
that you guys have and now with international brands, how
does that translate? First of all, kind of give me
a scope of the size of the team. Do you
have individual teams for each brand? Is there, you know,
like an overlord marketing person, an overlord operations person? How
does it? What's the setup look like?
Speaker 4 (10:19):
So we do the overlord marketing ops all that training position.
So we take high end people are very very skilled individuals,
and they're the ones over their departments across all brands. Okay,
and then we put brand specific people in each individual
brand with the goal of hiring someone now that could
(10:40):
become the brand president one day, but right now as
the director of the brand, and you know, as we grow,
hopefully they can grow with us. So as the brand
gets to a point where they need a brand president,
they become brand president and they go up with us.
And we do that because the end goal is obviously
to spin something out or sell individual brands, we have
(11:01):
to build the team across the board that can be
able to do that. Yeah, but the ideas in the
generation and where we're going comes from the shared service platform.
So marketing, HR, accounting ops, legal purchasing is all living
at the Graveworthy level.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
I like the you know, well, and there's a synergy
probably that kind of connects the dots between the difference,
so you can get strengths out of something that's working
with another brand blended in. Have you found when you
because operating like that is is a bit unique. What
is like some of the key takeaways that you've found
operating like that that have said, oh this this was
(11:44):
really a good example of how these synergies affect another
restaurant concept.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
I mean we learn it on the training side every day.
I mean, how you train someone doesn't really change. A
restaurant's the same. And I know I heard people's egos
all the time when I say there's no difference in
our business, but we do the same thing and how
you open a restaurant or how you provide service or
how you do this and that it's always the same.
(12:11):
And so we've set up a blueprint that are all
of our brands operate the same way. We just plug
in a different branding or food item. And that has
been so unique and different that it allows us to
scale at a such faster pace than others. We're not
recreating the wheel every time.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
We do it right, yeah, which is I think that
gets you to market faster, you know, with the number
of concepts and how to break down some of these
as far as the data. When you look at trying
to enter markets, because you're in a lot of different
individual markets, you don't necessarily have you know, like some
of the big brands where they have marketing funds, they're
trying to target certain areas. So being able to jump
(12:50):
from you know, a Boston to a Dallas to et cetera.
And you don't have density. What is the model that
you guys use to be able to get the work out?
What's what's kind of the format?
Speaker 4 (13:02):
So, I mean, we always want social media and that
generation to do most of it. So we're using on
digital ads and everything else. We're geo fencing, we're doing miles.
We're about to partner with a new service that would
tell me who's going into my competitors. And we started
we ran a test campaign where instead of going in
and taking restaurant as my competitors, we went after who's
(13:23):
going into the grocery stores with their IP addresses and
stuff like that and pinging them because they're truly everyone's
customer base. So we went back to the basics on
how we did it, and we've seen a sales increase
because of it because we're broadening our net compared to
just the old way. Hey let me get KFC's customers,
(13:44):
let me get your potlet customers, you know, let me
get everyone's customers that go to the grocery store and
go after them. Then for the youth, we went after
the trendy spots, so we ping, we geofensed high schools
and colleges and stuff like that to try to get
those influencers to be our customer base instead of going
after again, who goes to McDonald's down the street. And
(14:09):
so we've expanded our net for the first time, and
Ginghis was the test subject for that, and we were
down about fifteen percent and now we're up five.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Okay, turn rate, Jen, that's that's huge. That's a big swing.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
It was a huge swing, and we got new and
returning customers that just forgot about us. Because then this
company will give us the data the credit card usage
and stuff like that and how the countitor and we're
seeing people that were passed. So we went way more
into the data behind our customers than I've ever had
(14:47):
in my life.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
I think that what you're hitting on is is almost
granular to a certain extent, being able to drill down
like that into localized markets because local store marketing is
very difficult because it's very you know, it's kind of
man on the street, a lot of heavy lifting kind
of scenarios to really make a difference. One thing that
I've heard quite a bit, and Shelley has taught me
(15:10):
that this in just watching the devour community is these
communities that are being built around brands. There's a handful
of brands that have it that has a real rabid community,
whether it's on social if they're activated in something you know,
in real life, et cetera. Are you guys doing anything
like that?
Speaker 4 (15:32):
So we're we'll be rolling out Craigworthy Kitchen, which we've
been in the process of doing all year, which will
be our one loyalty for all brands. Okay, So we
have a much bigger platform to market to and across
the board, and with our virtual brands and our ghost
kitchens or whatever they're going to be called in today's time,
(15:52):
our virtual brands will be We're proud of them. So
when you go to the Ginghis web page, for example,
you'll actually be you'll see what other Craveworthy Kitchen brands
you can order from that establishment. We're not running from
that anymore, okay. And we'll allow loyalty to be built
across the board from all our brands together. And yes,
that may cause an issue one day when I want
(16:14):
to sell, but I can make Craveworthy household name. So
you know that, Oh I've never seen that restaurant before. Oh,
it's a Craveworthy kitchen. I'm a huge fan of Genghis.
I'm gonna go ahead and give him a try, okay,
and sort of the let us entertaining model in the
fact that, hey, let's not be a shameful of what
we are, go all in on who we are, and
that's how we're going to build our sort of cult following.
(16:35):
And then I've thought about the games and the other
things that we can do. But to compete on the
national stage today, I have to put all of my
stores as one to have any sense of competing against others.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Yeah, Shelley, have you seen this work? Like what Greg's
talking about is is kind of an overarching loyalty platform.
Have you seen that work in the web three space
where whether it's a gaming that I mean, there's interoperability
right now within games trying to I should say, you know,
where you can move assets from one to another in points, loyalty, rewards,
(17:13):
et cetera. Have you seen that actually become real?
Speaker 2 (17:18):
You know, it's interesting that you're bringing that up and
where Greg is going with that. When we had Alejandro
on the former Activision, he was talking a lot about
the one loyalty versus fragmented. I think across so many industries,
whether it's gaming or restaurant, we have been so fragmented
(17:38):
on that and we have app overload right at app fatigue.
What Greg is describing here of being able to create
crave worthy as that brand that is what you're familiar with,
and you like one thing that you have experienced from them,
You're going to try the others and it makes sense
let us entertain yous obviously killed it that and you know,
(18:01):
so that's a great model.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
So Greg, you're you're using a variety of you know,
social as a platform. I was looking at a lot
of your different social media accounts for many of the brands,
kind of watching how you're integrating, how the engagement is occurring.
Have you, guys, been able to define one particular or
two particular platforms or strategies when it comes to social
(18:28):
and digital content that you've been surprised at that says
this is really working. Anything that sticks.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
Out for you guys right now, I mean the ones
that we every time we think we have it figured out,
the next one that we do doesn't work. Yes, So
it's it's truly a What we've learned is video and
imagery and being true to what your brand is are
the most popular. If you're a little brash and a
(18:56):
little especially on TikTok and stuff like that. If you
can be a brad, call it out, have a lot
of fun, you're going to get traction. That seems to work.
If you just put up a simple picture of your food,
they scrow by and what be, It's no big deal.
You gotta have some fun with it on Instagram.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Now that that, in our eyes is skewing older.
Speaker 4 (19:17):
And we the still imagery, the rotation of your food
and putting stuff like that still gets clicks and likes.
But again it's an older customer base. Yeah, and then
you got Facebook, which why would you even pay for
an ad? You know, I mean because you're dealing with
grandma and grandpa in the restaurant age. That doesn't make
(19:37):
a lot of sense to spend money on even though
you still need them as customers. You can go and
get them through your email campaigns and stuff like that
that they exact a years. But video has been the highlight.
Anytime we post something live in the store, talk about
an employee, or you know, show the food breaking apart
in dirty Dough, it is a perfect example. When you
see a cookie spreading and someone eating it then and
(19:59):
you get a little kid the image and going oh
and her eyes lighting up and you can see that
light up. That's the ones that have always gone and
been shared and passed on more and more.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Yeah, Yeah, I was looking at I think we're trying
to get the dirty dough guys on the show, and
I was looking at just the concept behind. You know,
when you look at dessert type brands, some of those
do really well. I mean there's been Sprinkles, There's been
many in the past that have done really phenomenal and
then you look at the yeah, there you go, and
(20:30):
then the the donut brands that have kind of they evolved,
but they're usually very regional. Do you think that is
going to be the concept for your brands? Is kind
of that regional approach outside the legacy. I know Genghis
was Dallas Space, but you know they had a lot
of other, you know markets. What are your thoughts on that.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
I don't it's too early to tell because I don't
know what the consumer is going to pick us at
my next brand. And I said all the time, when
you're in this industry, you you always think you have
the greatest food and the greatest this, and the branding
is awesome and you could, but yet it may not
resonate with the consumer today and I use raising canes
as a perfect example. There was absolutely nothing really special
(21:16):
about chicken tenders, coal, saw fries, and bread, you know,
but for whatever reason, that resonated with the consumer and
it's now a cult following. Yeah, you wouldn't have bet
on that when you first saw it. You would have
been like, I don't know, maybe, but then it goes
and does what it does the consumers. What's going to
be the next thing?
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Yeah, because there's a lot of there's a lot of
chicken brands and you're right, you're hitting it on the head,
you know.
Speaker 4 (21:42):
And for whatever reason, they resonated, and it was simple
consumer got it. They moved on and you can look
at Crumble. Crumble came out at the right time. Their
sales were through the roof, first one, first to market.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Not everybody loves the food.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
I think there's a better product, but their sales are
going to continue to drop and ours will continue to
go up. Where we're almost in that harmony phase. And
you got to remember you're a dessert brand. Dessert brands
aren't going to be one point five million dollar AUVs.
They're never going to happen long term unless you add
other product mixes. And so we've got to be the
best of what we are and make sure my franchisese
(22:18):
make money at that typical dessert segment, which you know
ford to seven hundred thousand dollars. We've got to make
sure they're profitable.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
I was looking at the wing it on and I
didn't know this is that you guys have won, you know,
best Buffalo Sauce in America. A small brand like this
gets best buff Buffalo Sauce. Who did the award?
Speaker 4 (22:44):
So it was the Buffalo Wing competition out in Buffalo,
So the home of the Wings. We've competed against every
great Buffalo sauce. I was out there and we not
only want it, we wanted three years in a row.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
Here.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
Our medium sauce one first first, came in second this
past last year, and our Hot sauce came in first.
So we took two awards home in the last two years.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
And so, oh man, there's so much you could do
with that brand. It's like that. Have you ever watched
that video hot Ones.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
Yep, I mean there's so much spin it off, but
I mean we were taking and again that's part of
what we do here is we take such great pride
in our food that we know our food is always
better than our competitors. Yeah, it's great to win an award,
but now I've got to get the marketing to get
(23:34):
the consumer to realize that there's a reason why you
should try us over the others. We're also the only
wing brand that hambreads our chicken tenders to order, you know,
so we handbread them, they sit, and all that. We
take the components of the other restaurants that we've done
and made bring it on now the best overall that
we could. We've got to educate the consumer around that,
(23:56):
and it takes time, and the new stores as they're
opening will better and better because of that.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Yeah, what do you Okay? So I want to hit
both of you with with kind of the trends for
twenty five because we've been our guests in November December.
We're asking about trends for twenty twenty five, what you're seeing,
and this particularly would would go toward your brands there.
I'll start with you, Greg, when when you look at
concepts right now. Obviously you've seen kind of the light
(24:24):
around the international brand expansion here in the US, so
that's clearly going to be something that we're going to
see more of. But what are you finding out there
right now? Because you have such a reach that you
think is really going to start to percolate in twenty
twenty five.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
So I mean, based on what we've acquired just this year,
I think food is going to be the hottest one.
Continuation of Mediterranean, Indian, Chinese, all that are going to
be the biggest pluses that's going to be for the
next couple of years. The palette in America, like I said,
has changed. The other one is comfort food, So the
dis and that type of stuff, the snacking is not
(25:02):
going to go away.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
So you know dirty dough.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
I have another brand that will announced next week that's
in that segment that goes after something else, And those
are the things that we're going to move forward. And
because there's that sweet spot and the American population, as
much as we're on the diet shots and everything else,
still splurge on their suitees. So we think that's an
area that we can move on. I love it diet shots.
(25:29):
I've seen that's kind of a thing. Here in South Florida.
We're seeing like these little pop up stands. Now they've
got the little.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Buggies at the events. It's crazy and the lines are
long at some of these events. I was just at
a we were at a wine vent in Palmage County
and they had a lot of food trucks and that
was one of them. So very very intriguing. What about you, Shelly,
what do you think from both a tech standpoint, what
we're seeing in this new generation of consumers. Where do
(25:57):
you see twenty twenty five in terms of top things
to watch?
Speaker 2 (26:02):
Yeah, I think one thing we're going to probably continue
to see is this cross the experiments and the cross
brand collaborations. You have Burger King, Walmart, uh again, the
McDonald's doodles that was just announced yesterday. And you know
that expansion and the continuation of either well established brands
(26:24):
cross collaborating for experiences and reach, especially when they compliment
each other and in one way or another and can
reach a demographic they may be struggling with. You know,
tech side, Uber there was the the Uber Eats Instacart collab.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
You know this year.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
What's it going to look like to continue to to
to target, to partner and collaborate to reach a demographic
that rather than building the tech or going there yourself.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Yeah, for sure. Well and that both those kind of
line up I think very closely with a lot of
concepts that have been building. But I think, Greg, you
have the perfect model for cross collabs, you know, because
you have multi brand. If you were to insert in
you know, one collab or two whatever it might be,
and then try to figure out a match up with
(27:19):
you know, maybe not all brands. There could be a
handful that could cross collab. Are you guys looking at
doing any of that right now with other whether it's
content creators, brand developers, games, anything that is playing out
for you guys.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
I mean, we're we're working on a deal for Dirty Dough.
They're obviously the sweet spot to be able to go
across the board and we'll see and again having musicians
and artists and all that that again, it's something that
that brand speaks to. So those are the collabs that
were after. We'll have a couple come out next year
(27:56):
for that. We're also going to use Dirty Doe as
our dessert.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
And my other brands.
Speaker 4 (28:01):
So we're going to have a pre done cookie that
is a dirty dough cookie that we're not going to
be you know, say it's a dirty dough cookie in
our restaurants, but allow people to consume other options throughout
the United States and expand that footprint.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Yeah, that's good. I think this is back to your point, Shelley.
I think you're right there. There is a lot of
these collabs. I was were you surprised at the at
the collab with McDonald's and what Doodles is doing.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Yeah, it's a little little surprised. Although Doodles has you know,
crossed over into mainstream from uh there, it's still an
edecase though, I think.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Very much so.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
And I was surprised that a brand the size of
McDonald's did it even even it seems a little bit
more even all in than what Starbucks did with Odyssey, honestly, Yeah,
a little more front, front and center.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
We're going to do a full podcast on that, guys.
So we'll definitely come back to you guys with a
full report on the McDonald's. We have a lot of
insider data on that. We actually presented to McDonald's, a
lot of stuff around this topic of Web three integrations
and what those look like. I think Pudgie Penguin's is next.
(29:18):
Greg's over there, What the hell's a pudgie Penguin? But
I'm you'll learn it's like the cabbage Patch dolls, you know,
if you think about the kids. But it's going to
be interesting to watch all this. Greg. Last tip for
you for leaders takeaway right now. If you're building a
restaurant brand, you get a chance to talk to all
(29:40):
these people that have built a brand or they're in
the midst of building one. What's the first thing that
you say to an up and coming restaurant operator that's
maybe building a brand or wanting to get one going
that you says, this is the These are a couple
of things that you really need to focus on to
get going.
Speaker 4 (29:58):
I mean, if you're getting started, it's obviously your food
that always has to be king. That's the easiest one,
but it's the most important one. Is stay true to
who you are and what your brand is at the beginning.
Don't deviate every time that the sales doesn't happen, and
this and that it takes a long long time to
get to the endline and You've got to stay true
to who you are at the beginning, and yes you
(30:19):
make little tweaks and stuff like that, but in that
first couple of years, don't go and blow everything up
because you haven't hit it right. Continue to fine tune
the messaging because if you believe the product, the space,
the decor, and the overall brand is right, it takes
a long long time to get the traction that you
need to be successful.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
I know you came back from our FDC and we
were talking about this just at the beginning of the episode,
and you look at investment right now in the restaurant space.
You know, a lot of private money has started to
pull back from the space. We're seeing fewer funds. We
are seeing some you know, some big wins, but they've
(30:57):
been wins that have been developing for almost a decade.
You know, if you look at the Kava, you know, Superstar,
When do you think there's an opportunity here for startup
brands still in this space, you know, to get going,
to find money and take off. Absolutely, I think.
Speaker 4 (31:17):
The market is right for those next brands, those emerging brands.
I truly think the American population is a little sick
of the status quo. Okay, And so that's why Kava
and raising canes and all these have jumped to such
huge numbers so fast. And when you look at the
growth of a restaurant company, those are fast times. They're
(31:40):
moving at an incredible pace. But it's because America is
looking for something different. So yes, I do think I
think the big PE groups are going to sit on
the sideline a little bit longer before they go all
in on an emerging brand or a startup. When you
get going, I think you're going to have the old
fashioned layer of investor back where you had a family
(32:02):
office or an angel that helped you get to from
here to here, and then the PE is going to.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Come back more in their normal slot. So that's old
school here in the light. Yeah, that's the old school
away feel.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
I think everything always copes back. I think that's where
we're going to be for the next couple of years.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
So that means what do they call that? What is
that one called the schedule D where you can raise
up to a million I think without going out. Yeah. Yeah,
So that's how a lot of those early brands started,
you know, doing a little spin out like that and
then eventually going into an angel or a family office
like you're you're mentioning there. Very cool. We have been
here with mister Greg Majuski coming over from Crave Worthy Brands. Greg,
(32:44):
thanks so much for coming in today. We appreciate you
stopping in. It's been a joy. Thank you. All Right,
So Shelly, let's get into it. Greg. I know has
probably got to head out, but I want to kind
of precursor the topic on McDonald's. We are going to
try to get to that here on this show. Shelley
and I may do a special episode for that in
terms of breaking it down for you guys, to give
(33:05):
you some insights to what McDonald's did with doodles. And
the reason this is important is because of the connection
not only to web three, but brand Ip, which is
something we talk about on this show a lot. So
are you digging into the whole McDonald's dell right now, Shelley.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
I.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Will be over the weekend even more. I think it
was really interesting that it's not just brand Ip that
they're doing that, They're also doing the digital aspect to
it as well, and so I'll be peeling the layers
back on it over the weekend.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
For sure. It's going to be good, all right, Well,
listen guys. If you're not tuned in to Rock my
Restaurant here on YouTube, make sure and subscribe right now.
That's one of the best places to catch us. But
if you are listening to the version of this show
on the audio podcast side on Spotify or on Apple podcast,
come over to YouTube, give us a like and a subscribe.
(34:01):
Over there, it's just savre FM. You'll find us and
we'll catch you next time. Right here, unrock my Restaurant
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