Chili’s bolsters value message with ‘3 for Me’Chili’s bolsters value message with ‘3 for Me’

Chili’s Grill & Bar launched its new “3 for Me” deal with that start of its fiscal year in July, and executives thus far said they are pleased with the value promotion’s impact.

“We're reawakening consumers to the value and quality Chili's has to offer,” said Wyman Roberts, CEO and president of Dallas-based parent Brinker International Inc., in a Thursday earnings call.

Introduced July 5, Chili’s “3 for Me” promotion features a salad, a classic burger and a mini molten-chocolate dessert for $10.

The promotion is “built on a flexible platform that enables us to continually bring new news to consumers to keep our value propositions fresh and relevant,” said Roberts, who in a June investors’ day presentation had said Brinker would be enhancing its value positioning as it faced economic headwinds.

“There's definitely an anxious consumer out there that's looking for value propositions,” Roberts said Thursday.

“Our learning from 2016 was that we … had basically too few eggs in one basket,” he said. “And this year, we're going with multiple approaches to addressing the consumer across a variety of needs.”

In addition to the new value messages, Chili’s has launched a new higher-end, add-on-cost burger platform, tapped into the broad retail-oriented Plenti loyalty rewards program and added media weight to its new ad campaign that highlights its casual-dining roots in its founding in 1975.

“We know this campaign resonates with Boomers,” Roberts said, adding that “it's also compelling to the Millennial audience who embraced the visuals and music of the 70s as a more authentic and carefree time.” The company is also advertising its lunch offerings and dinner deals.

The multi-faceted approach should allow for customer messaging on numerous levels, he said. “It's not just going to be, ‘Hey, let's lower prices and go get them that way,’” Roberts aid. “It's going to be a combined effort on better execution, better innovation, a strong value proposition, communicating the new messages that break through; all of those things are going to be necessary. “

Chili’s also is highlighting its technological offerings, including the rollout of its new Olo platform for to-go orders, which Roberts said were “the fastest-growing piece of our business.”

Roberts said he was little concerned with competitors cribbing the “3 for Me” platform.

“It's about who can execute and who's got the resources,” he told analysts. “I think that's a big part of who's going to win in the future and we have the resources. We've shown our willingness to invest in things like technology and in innovation, and we're going to continue to do that. So that's how we plan to stay ahead. It's not just rely on one promotional idea like ‘3 for Me.’”

Brinker International on Thursday reported net income in the fourth quarter ended June 29 was up 8.9 percent to $62.3 million, or $1.11 per share, from $57.2 million, or 92 cents a share, in the same period last year. Revenue rose 15.4 percent to $881.7 million from $764.1 million in last year’s quarter.

Chili’s domestic systemwide same-store sales were down 1.8 percent in the fourth quarter, with domestic franchise same-store sales down 2.1 percent. Company-owned same-store sales were down 1.8 percent with a traffic decrease of 4.1 percent. Maggiano’s Little Italy same-store sales were down 1.7 percent in the quarter with traffic down 1 percent.

Roberts said Brinker is prepared to meet anticipated challenges in the economy in the year ahead.

“We don't think it's going to be a rosy environment necessarily. It's still going to be some tough sledding we think,” he said. “But we're up for it.”

As of June 29, Brinker owned, operated and franchised 1,660 restaurants, including 1,609 Chili's and 51 Maggiano’s.

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