Snap Kitchen is giving itself a physical makeover, honing the marketing of its healthful prepared meals and adding a layer of digital convenience, CEO David Kirchhoff told Nation’s Restaurant News.
“We’re doing a lot to gussy up the look and feel,” Kirchhoff said.
“The company is kind of pressing down on the accelerator on multiple fronts,” he said. “A lot of this comes on the heels of the company’s first foray outside of Texas, which was in July of last year in Chicago. That’s now at eight stores.”
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Fitness Food Holdings Inc., the parent of 43-unit Snap Kitchen, is based in Austin, Texas.
In February, Snap Kitchen launched in Philadelphia, and now has six units in that market: four downtown and two on the Main Line. The chain also has locations in the Texas cities of Austin, Dallas and Houston.
The six Philadelphia Snap Kitchen locations have opened with the new design, which tones down the bright oranges and greens of the original Snap Kitchen founded in 2010, said Kirchhoff, who joined the company last August after 14 years at Weight Watchers.
Move the slider above to see Snap Kitchen's design before and after.
In addition, the packaging design has moved from color-coding of size to colors that signify proteins, with red for meat, yellow for poultry, blue for seafood and green for vegetarian. Packages also streamlined the labels and nutritional content, and provided a larger type size for convenience, he said.
“We had the opportunity to really clean things up,” Kirchhoff said of the labeling and branding of the units.
The elements were developed with the New York office of design firm Pentagram, and include shop redesigns, a modernized logo and new packaging.
Snap Kitchen’s new chief marketing officer Tressie Lieberman has developed a "Revolution in Not Cooking" campaign for the brand. Lieberman joined the company in February from her prior position as vice president of digital innovation at Taco Bell.
The campaign includes targeted billboards, bike-share racks, transit advertising, and digital and social media.
Marketing targets customers who are short on time but have a deep interest in healthful meals, Kirchhoff said. It reflects Snap Kitchen’s bestsellers from among 25 different entrees and salads, which include bison quinoa hash, chicken enchiladas and lamb lasagna.
“The magic we bring to it is taking the recipes and making what originally decadent and making them healthy,” Kirchhoff said.
“We’re in the business of selling made-from-scratch entrees from our central kitchens, and we think there are tons of innovation that can be done,” he said.
Some new items will be introduced in early June, he added.
In addition, the company has hired a team to craft the brand’s digital footprint, including front-end and back-end software development.
“We are placing some pretty big bets on digital,” Kirchhoff said.
“The three pillars of the company are: taste, health and convenience. We see digital as something that can be a huge driver of convenience and take even more friction out of what is already a fairly simple process.”
Kirchhoff foresees a smartphone app by late summer, parts of which are already in test, that will allow customers to manage meal plans, including perhaps ordering an entire week’s worth of meals with one button for menu-planning functionality.
Loyalty aspects are currently in test, and possible delivery functions are being considered, Kirchhoff said. “As we develop our app, we want to develop functionality for either having it ready in-store — a la Starbucks' model — or handing that order over to a delivery partner who can take it to your front door,” he explained.
One thing that has changed less is the real estate strategy, which remains focused on health-conscious Millennials and more affluent urban and suburban customers.
Units can be as small as 1,100 square feet. “It lends itself to areas that have density,” he said.
The company also has a five-store agreement with Whole Foods Market Inc.
“We’re both looking to see how it’s going,” Kirchhoff said. “We started in Chicago, in February, with one unit and followed by four more in April. It’s still early days, but the initial indication is really, really positive and strong.”
The partnership involved eight to 12 feet of grocery cooler space in the Whole Foods prepared foods section, with a Snap Kitchen kiosk staffed to answer questions.
Snap Kitchen was named a Nation’s Restaurant News Hot Concept winner in 2014. It has grown with a 2013 investment from private-equity firm L Catterton.
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