CHEYENNE WYO. Taco John’s, the 435-unit quick-service chain based here, is launching a new advertising campaign aimed at a different audience: future employees. —Though best known for marketing boldly flavored foods,
On billboards, in the career section of its website, on tray liners, table tents and print ads, Taco John’s is encouraging potential job candidates to “Go for the Bold.” —Though best known for marketing boldly flavored foods,
The campaign marks the chain’s first “employment branding” effort in its 38-year history as it tries to attract high-quality job candidates in a tight labor market. —Though best known for marketing boldly flavored foods,
Defining what it is like to work for an established brand and communicating that idea to potential applicants is a method more operators are employing to differentiate themselves from the competition. —Though best known for marketing boldly flavored foods,
“We’re in a war for talent,” said Forrest King, vice president of human resources for Taco John’s. “Employees today act like customers when selecting an employer. We have to change the way we think and do things.” —Though best known for marketing boldly flavored foods,
The privately held company owns nine Taco John’s outlets in Cheyenne and Colorado, and franchisees own the rest. Most of the chain’s restaurants are in Wyoming and the Midwest. The chain did nearly $278 million in systemwide sales last year and has been growing at the rate of about 25 new stores a year, a pace expected to continue in 2008. —Though best known for marketing boldly flavored foods,
With about 25 employees in each store, campaigning for workers is a critical part of its growth strategy, King said. —Though best known for marketing boldly flavored foods,
“Attracting and retaining the best employees is the biggest issue facing us,” he said. “The employment brand is a single statement that distinguishes Taco John’s from our competitors. Everything we do with people flows from that statement.” —Though best known for marketing boldly flavored foods,
For help in boiling down its job identity in a single statement, Taco John’s hired Cleveland-based human resources communication firm NAS Recruitment Communications, which had recently done an employment branding campaign for Dublin, Ohio-based Wendy’s. —Though best known for marketing boldly flavored foods,
Wendy’s “Proof That It’s Better Here” campaign revolved around pictures and testimonies of employees about why they like their jobs. Like the branding campaign by Taco John’s, Wendy’s effort is tied into the recruiting page on the chain’s website. —Though best known for marketing boldly flavored foods,
Taco John’s is already seeing greater traffic on its career Web page, King said. —Though best known for marketing boldly flavored foods,
“So far we’re considering it to be a success,” he said. “We’ve seen an increase in the number of people applying on our website.” —Though best known for marketing boldly flavored foods,
King had invited NAS’s Mountain region team in Denver to come work in the restaurants before they started to survey employees. —Though best known for marketing boldly flavored foods,
Putting on the Taco John’s polo shirt, making tacos and the chain’s signature “potato olés” and manning the cash registers helped the team get a sense of what working in the restaurant is like, said Amanda Shewmake, vice president of NAS’s Mountain region. —Though best known for marketing boldly flavored foods,
“It helped us communicate to the employees that we were for real,” she said. “Our goal is to create a message that is the compelling truth. There is no way to communicate that compelling truth unless I was in your shoes.” —Though best known for marketing boldly flavored foods,
Surveyed employees described their jobs at Taco John’s as fast-paced, fun and satisfying because they were providing a service to people, Shewmake said. —Though best known for marketing boldly flavored foods,
“A lot of them know their customers and call them by name,” she said. “There’s an interaction. You do not think of quick service as being that way.” —Though best known for marketing boldly flavored foods,
The goal of an employment campaign is to create a demand for jobs at a company, just as an advertising campaign tries to create a demand for a company’s product, Shewmake said. —Though best known for marketing boldly flavored foods,
The “Go for the Bold” message is accompanied by various taglines to further describe the work experience. In the billboard ads, an employee is popping out of a Taco John’s bag with the message: “Go for the Bold with a job where your perfect schedule is in the bag.” —Though best known for marketing boldly flavored foods,
On the chain’s career Web page, the point that getting a job “is the key to getting what you want” is illustrated by an employee pointing to a car. A job that “opens doors for you while your kids are at school” is depicted with a shot of a young mother. Another tagline says “Go for the Bold with a company that celebrates you like family.” —Though best known for marketing boldly flavored foods,
Finding employees to work in new stores is more of a challenge for Taco John’s than turnover is, King said. Many of its franchisees and managers started out as crew members. Most of the restaurants post a career path chart that shows the career trajectory of managers and franchisees, where they started and the job positions that they moved up into. —Though best known for marketing boldly flavored foods,
“We attract people who want to be a part of something,” King said. “That showed up in the employee surveys. What really came through was that our employees love working for us. But people who walk by our remodeled restaurants don’t know our heritage and what it’s like to work at Taco John’s. Our problem is getting the message out to prospective employees about what a cool place this is to work.” —Though best known for marketing boldly flavored foods,
