Moe's Knows

A recent outing with some buddies in the daily struggle to avoid eating dining hall food led us to Moe’s Southwest Grill.  At Moe’s, a place where I have only eaten a few times before, I expected to be shouted at upon entry to the restaurant (Welcome To Moe’s!!) and I expected to get a decent meal at a good value; what I hadn’t expected was to find inspiration for a Marketing2015 blog post. Taking marketing this semester has certainly lead to a greater overall personal awareness of marketing efforts being put in front of consumers everyday and finding this cup was an example of that.

Almost all competition in any industry is based on one of two factors: price, or quality, and for that reason most marketing campaigns aim to convince consumers of their product’s superiority in one of these two aspects. This cup breaks from that typical formula and instead uses a campaign of functionality to promote the catering side of their business. There are many methods used to promote products such as product line extensions (using a current brand name to enter an new market,) sub-branding (combining a corporate brand with new brand to distinguish a new part of the product line,) brand extension (using a current brand name to enter a different product class,) and co-branding (combining of two brand names on a single product.) This campaign is a particularly good example of brand extension because Moe’s is able to promote a new service, using existing products, directly to customers who have already shown interest in the product just by being at Moe’s in the first place. For these same reasons, this also an example of market modification, which is defined as using existing products to find new customers and/or increase use and use situations among existing customers.

Expanding from their traditional revenue stream that is their brick and mortar retail locations to also include offsite event catering allows them to begin to gain market share in an $8 billion per year industry.¹ Being profitable in the catering industry is largely due to a company’s ability to keep costs at a minimum. Given that Moe’s already knows all of its price points on food costs and other overhead, and that they sell an inherently cheap-to-produce product, they will likely have an opportunity to see a healthy return on investment for any capital they allocate to this side of their business.

What really caught my attention was the sheer simplicity and brilliance of the marketing effort used here to put the line for a name on the cup. Not only does this raise awareness of the catering business to those in the restaurant for a single meal, it also allows for those who use these cups at a catered event to have a nametag of sorts and to tell their drink from others in the vicinity. In a world of over thinking and high complexity, this ad stuck out to me for the fact that it is neither over thought nor complex.  

Works Cited:

Wood, L. (2011, June 17). Research and Markets: 2011 Report on the $7 Billion US Catering Services Industry. Retrieved April 10, 2015, from http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/17/idUS178751 17-Jun-2011 BW20110617