Nicholas Ezyk 2 May 2014 FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

FIVE GUYS
BRAND POSITIONING PACKET

Gloom+Gijinka GG001
compiled by Nicholas Ezyk
2 May 2014






internal information:
identifier ezyk2
project ADV150 SP14
assignment no. 1+2, combined
supervisor Quinn Qin


Nicholas Ezyk 2 May 2014 FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

BRAND Five Guys

TEN BRAND FACTS [all facts on this page are presented in ascending order of importance, 5/10-1]
Five Guys currently has 1000 locations in three countries (as of 2011), with another 1500 currently
in development. The majority are franchised.
Five Guys locations have no freezers, as everything is fresh on-site.
Five Guys has their potatoes out in the open because in their formative years, they didnt have the
room to stow them in the back.
As of 2011, five new franchises were opening every week.
In each Five Guys location, there is a sign up that shows where exactly the potatoes being served
came from.
Five Guys is the 26th largest fast food franchise in the United States.
The chain as a whole had over one billion dollars in revenue in 2012, with each store averaging
about $1.05 million in annual sales.
Apart from continual expansion in North America, Five Guys is looking to expand into Western
Europe as well.
Between 2010 and 2012, Five Guys has grown by a staggering 62%, making them far and away
the fastest-growing fast food chain in the United States.
In spite of these massive gains, Five Guys has almost no national marketing, relying almost
exclusively on word of mouth.

DEMOGRAPHIC 18-49yo, male
Respond favorably to outward displays of price (this sandwich is only a dollar!)
Additionally prized by advertisers for their large amounts of disposable income.
Comprises a large segment of the demographic landscape.
Financially independent, save for college students and certain other young adults.
Typically respond well to celebrity tie-ins and other large promotional stunts.
Attracted toward spectacle at the lower end of the age range.
Attracted toward nostalgia at the upper end of the age range.
Upward mobility is on the mind of many of them
Much more motivated by impulse than most market segments.
Prized by advertisers for their limited brand loyalty.

COMPETITOR FACTS
Five Guys sits in an unfilled niche (the gourmet burger fast food chain) in most markets.
As a result, it faces competition on several fronts.
Its service format is much like a quickservice chain; however, its prices are slightly higher than
most fast food franchises (e.g., Wendys, Culvers).
However, its prices are slightly lower than sitdown chains with similar portions (e.g., Applebees,
Ruby Tuesdays).
In addition, it faces challenges in certain markets from entrenched local chains with great brand
loyalty in their markets (e.g., In-n-Out in California, Steak n Shake in the Midwest, Portillos in the
Chicago area).
Nicholas Ezyk 2 May 2014 FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

CREATIVE BRIEF
prepared by Nicholas Ezyk, 05.02.2014

Client Five Guys
Job GG001 Five Guys national advertising rollout campaign
Delivery 09.11.2014 Budget $420,000.00


PRODUCT OVERVIEW A newly national gourmet burger chain whose emphasis on freshness gives it
cult-like brand loyalty.

POSITIONING+COMPETITION From a single store in Arlington, VA in 1986, Five Guys has exploded to
1200 franchises in the US, UK, and Canada, with a 62 percent growth in the past two years. Combining
Five Guys strong brand loyalty with a cohesive national campaign could place it in the same league of
popularity as McDonalds or Subway. Its position as a quick-service gourmet burger chain distinguishes it
in many markets; however, equally brand loyal gourmet burger chains serve certain regional markets, like
In-N-Out Burger on the West Coast and Steak n Shake in the Midwest. Its price point is situated just
below popular national sitdown chains like Applebees and Ruby Tuesday, but just above large-scale fast
food chains like Wendys and Burger King. As a result, Five Guys needs to focus on separating its brand
perception from all these competitors at once to truly position itself as a market leader.

DEMOGRAPHICS Targeting an 18-49 year old, middle to upper middle class, male demographic is the
quickest path to entrenching brand loyalty, as many in this demographic range have limited brand loyalty.
Our target demographic has plenty of disposable income and enjoy dining out. Younger members of this
segment are attracted to spectacle and bombast, while older members resonate with nostalgia. These two
emotions can be sparked through tie-ins with celebrities and advertisements with a large internal scale.

CONCERNS+PERCEPTION Five Guys has spectacular brand loyalty, excellent popular perception, and
strong word-of-mouth. As a result, currently covered markets will likely carry a strong built-in customer
base. Marketing should focus on bringing non- and irregular customers into the restaurant.

STATEMENT To solidify Five Guys positioning as a pinnacle of quality, a national campaign will be built
around the slogan It Doesnt Get Much Better Than This. We want consumers to perceive Five Guys as
in a class of its own, separated from the rest by sheer quality.

OUR APPROACH Atypical and new promotion formats like guerrilla marketing and social media
targeting will present our brand as unique and relevant to younger consumers, while strong traditional
marketing outlets will appeal to older consumers more tied to old media formats like TV and radio.

TONE A confrontational, sly, and self-aware tone connects well with the 18-49 year old male
demographic. This will work well with our new media-styled approach. Our central message means we
can experiment with many different styles of advertising and still keep a cohesive brand focus.

Nicholas Ezyk 2 May 2014 FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

SAMPLE AD 182 dpi for printing on A4 (8.5x11) paper full size at https://i.imgur.com/tbt1z57.jpg


Nicholas Ezyk 2 May 2014 FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY




BRANDED ENTERTAINMENT CONCEPT Integrating Five Guys with a branded entertainment venture
would greatly amplify the effects of a national marketing campaign. A great focus for dining establishments
is product integration in television shows on major networks. CBS seems most receptive to this,
considering the successful Microsoft placements on programs like Hawaii Five-O and NCIS: Los Angeles.
Brand integrations for dining establishments are a winning strategy due to their positioning as a necessary
good (everyone needs to eat, after all), and a season-long placement on a major television program would
give millions of North Americans a look at Five Guys, some for the first time, some for the millionth time.

In terms of targeting by income, Five Guys price point seems better focused on higher-income
households, middle class but not quite upper middle class. According to data recently released by
Nielsen, the television program with the highest median income among its viewers is ABCs Modern
Family; viewers average a household annual salary of $81,100. NBCs Parks and Recreation is just behind,
averaging a household annual salary of $81,000. Leading income candidates on the other two major
networks are CBSs The Amazing Race and FOXs The Mindy Project, with average household annual
salaries of $75,700 and $73,800 respectively. Of these four, Parks and Recreation has the youngest
demographic skew, which serves well for the 18-49 year old male demographic that our advertising
campaign plans on targeting. It is a relatively popular sitcom for its timeslot with an established fanbase,
its sixth season just completed, and a seventh likely debuting later this year.

A Five Guys-themed branded entertainment could be accomplished both subtly and unsubtly, dependent
on the context that we would want to fill. More overt product placement has been done successfully (e.g.,
the running theme of product integration in NBCs 30 Rock) in the past, but in the grand majority of
cases, excessively obvious product placement has been universally derided in the media, such as
Subways nearly minute-long placement in an episode of Hawaii Five-O, featuring no less than six Subway
logos visible on screen at any given moment in the placement. Consumers dislike this form of product
integration, as it blurs the line between television programming and television advertising to an
unacceptable extent in the eyes of the public. Hence, a good product placement will be subtle; for
instance, many television shows have one brand of computer used, the result of product placements by
companies like Apple and Dell. Five Guys could be inserted into a show like Parks and Recreation in
many ways--recurrent appearances of its storefront in establishing shots, prominent positioning of the its
cups on the desks of people with beverages, or a one-off appearance in an episode where its branding is
integrated into the plot of the show itself.

Nicholas Ezyk 2 May 2014 FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

EVENT SPONSORSHIP CONCEPT Brand sponsorships on music festivals and tours have paid off very
handsomely for their promoters (e.g. Vans Warped Tour, individual stage sponsorships at music festivals
like Summerfest in Milwaukee and Lollapalooza in Chicago). To truly push Five Guys as a brand, a truly
unique marketing strategy would be a popup show, a musical act with minimal promotion and ad hoc
construction. A single stage with one performer at a time would be set up, with a kitchen setup nearby to
serve up Five Guys delicious burgers and fries at a discounted rate. Drinks may or may not be served,
dependent on additional cost concerns and the availability of liquor licenses in the area targeted.

This event sponsorship would take advantage of guerrilla, non-marketed marketing, like the sudden
release of Beyoncs self-titled studio album last December, a release with absolutely no hype
beforehand that still led to one million copies sold in its first week. However, viral marketing doesnt
necessarily require no advance marketing in other forms. Social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and
Instagram have been used to great success in the past by firms that participate in viral marketing
strategies. Anticipation and discussion through a minimalist, subtle marketing strategy. For instance, the
placement of cryptic construction photos on the accounts of local Twitter users with good pull (e.g.,
college and professional athletes with 5 or 6-figure follower counts) in a short time frame before the event
would reach a demographic perfect for a successful viral event--tech-savvy social media users, college
age and older, likely with expensive smartphones and a great demand for live entertainment.

As a logistical example, a great location for a pilot demonstration of this project would be in Daley Plaza in
Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the largest cultural gathering points in the center of a 2.7 million resident city
and an easy access point for travel, sitting blocks away from eight metro lines, eleven commuter rail lines,
and many buses and trolleys. The location itself is iconic and easily identifiable both by city residents and
by outsiders. It has a vibrant outdoor ambience with its large array of fountains and giant Picasso
sculpture and has been featured in films from The Blues Brothers to The Dark Knight. As a result, the
space has been very successfully in the past to host all varieties of public gatherings and special events.
A performance from the mid-afternoon into the early evening on a Friday in June or July would be the
optimal timeframe to host such an event, as you get a doubly advantageous combination of businessmen
ending their workweek and tourists and suburbanites hitting the city for the weekend.

Over a six-hour period (a standard time to acquire a performance permit from a major metro area), three
headline performers could put on an hour set a piece, with many opportunities in between for DJs, local
acts, and promotional material for Five Guys itself. Having a series of shorter headliners allow for a larger
group of people to be targeted; as an example, you could choose to target a young general demographic
through a popular Top 40 artist like Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, an artist popular with 30 and 40
somethings like Steve Winwood, and an artist with viral appeal on the internet like Action Bronson. In the
same sphere of influence would sit a shaded area where delicious Five Guys food would be served to
hungry patrons, allowing them to watch the show from the comfort of their seats while having a great meal
and, more importantly, getting a unique positive brand impression that will stay in their minds and put the
thought of Five Guys in their head every time they go on lunch break.