It’s challenging for any beverage director to keep up with changing trends and consumer preferences. And when you’re responsible for a national chain concept that specializes in fondue, it can be even harder to develop and roll out a drink program that’s vibrant and relevant.
So how does The Melting Pot do it? The chain’s National Beverage Director Paul Brown turns to creative limited-time offers and promotions based on trends and consumer demographics.
Founded in 1975 and operated by Tampa, FL-based Front Burner Brands, The Melting Pot now includes 142 locations. The chain had long emphasized its fine wines as part of the fondue dining experience in the U.S.
But more recently it, began to shift its focus on spirits, says Brown, who joined Melting Pot in 2011. He previously served as food and beverage controller and beverage director at The Sheraton Sand Key Resort in Clearwater Beach, FL.
Top competition
One of The Melting Pot’s most successful LTOs was the “Top Cocktail” contest from summer 2014. The program used a format similar to reality TV competitions such as The Voice to engage consumers by having them vote for the winner. Five craft cocktails, each using a different base spirit and representing a wide variety of flavor profiles and drink styles, were developed and put up for a fan vote, Brown says.
The contenders, priced at about $8 each (prices vary by location), included the Sassy Senorita (Avión Silver tequila, pomegranate juice, fresh lime, muddled blueberries and Sprite); The Baller (Fireball Cinnamon whisky, muddled cherry and orange and ginger ale); Tiki Girl (Hendrick’s gin, Monin South Seas Blend syrup, pineapple juice and ginger ale); Zen Master (muddled cucumber and fresh lemon with Stoli Razberi and Sprite); and Sailor Jerry (Sailor Jerry spiced rum, Stoli Vanil vodka, Monin blackberry syrup, cranberry juice, topped with ginger beer and Angostura bitters).
Consumers could vote for their favorite selections on The Melting Pot website, or via cellular texts.
“The idea came to me one night around 3 a.m.,” Brown recalls. “I was texting it to my team, because I wanted to make sure I got everything down before I fell back asleep. The next morning I wasn’t quite sure what I had come up with―whether it would still be good in the light of day―but it got the thumbs up.”
Executing the program was a joint effort between Melting Pot’s in-house marketing team and the agency Patrick Henry Creative Promotions. To encourage people to vote, the restaurant entered participants into a chance to win a $250 Melting Pot gift card and other prizes; 20 winners were picked at random.
The winning cocktail, the Sassy Senorita, received 45,000 votes and joined Melting Pot’s 2014 core menu. “The contest was fun, and very successful,” Brown says. “We had over 100,000 page views on the voting site.”
What’s more, the contest aspect of the program enabled The Melting Pot to collect consumer emails for future digital marketing efforts.
Top Cocktail was a key part of The Melting Pot’s larger LTO shift at towards spirits, Brown adds. The efforts have resulted in a lift in sales in the category.
Winning Over Whiskey women
Nearly three quarters (70%) of The Melting Pot’s guests are women, something the chain keeps in mind when designing LTOs. A good example is its Women and Whiskey program, which ran Sept. 16 through Nov. 22 in 2014.
“It could have just been a whiskey program, but we wanted to make this one for our [core demographic of women],” says Brown. “You’ve always got to know who your main guests are” and appeal to them
Whiskey has been the fastest-growing spirits category during the past few years, thanks in large part to more women developing a thirst for brown spirits, Brown explains.
“People naturally associate whiskey as a drink of choice for men,” he continues. “But its appeal to women, as well as Millennials, is what’s driving its current popularity.”
The program showcased whiskey in several ways. For one, guests could customize their own flights ($9.95) from a number of brown spirits, including bourbon, Scotch, flavored whiskies and Irish expressions.
The LTO also featured five whiskey cocktails ($8.95 each, $5.95 during happy hour and other special events), such as The Alabama ’33 (Clyde May’s Alabama Style whiskey, apple juice, orange, ginger beer and spice) and Saloon Sour (Maker’s Mark bourbon, Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur, fresh lemon juice, peach syrup and Sprite).
The programs other whisky cocktails included the Kentucky Stone Sour (Evan Williams Single Barrel bourbon, blackberries and fresh lemon juice, topped with Dreaming Tree Crush red wine); Buck Be a Lady (Jameson Irish whiskey, muddled strawberries, Angostura bitters and ginger beer); and Preservation League (Monkey Shoulder Scotch, Cointreau, apricot preserves and fresh citrus juices).
Ladies Night Out
The whiskey cocktails and customizable flights expanded The Melting Pot’s menu options, but the Women and Whiskey program was also about engaging with customers―both online and in-store.
To educate guests who wanted to learn more about the spirit, The Melting Pot had whiskey brand ambassadors―a growing number of whom are female―give presentations at several locations. The chain posted a number of these presentations on YouTube as educational, branded videos.
Another online promotion for the program was a social media quiz that asked “What Kind of Whiskey Woman Are You?” By answering a series of questions, quiz-takers could deduce what whiskey they would most enjoy.
The program also paired the brown spirit with special versions of The Melting Pot’s signature fondues. These included chocolate, bacon, and cheddar fondues that used whiskey as an ingredient ($7.95). For example, the sweet, smooth Monkey Shoulder blended bourbon proved an ideal mixing whiskey for these dishes, Brown says, especially for the caramel and white chocolate fondues.
When guests come into The Melting Pot to partake in a promotion like Women and Whiskey, “It’s a real event,” Brown says. “It’s important for these concepts to work with our demo. We’ve got such loyal followers.”
Further, he says, “We work well with the brands, and together we’re really good at creating ladies’ nights out.” Indeed, whiskey sales at the chain rose 135% during the Women and Whiskey program.
The success inspired Brown to add a whiskey cocktail called The Whiskey Thistle ($7.95) with Jameson’s, lemon juice, white peach syrup and muddled raspberries, onto the core menu. “It is selling very well nationally,” says Brown, who will consider additional whiskey cocktails for future menu changes.
Skinny Sipping
The Melting Pot’s Skinny Dipping promotion of low-calorie menu items, which ran January through March 31 in 2013, was another successful LTO targeting women. The food options included three salads with less than 150 calories each; three fondue-style entrees at under 220 calories each; and a dark-chocolate dessert fondue with bananas, pineapple chunks and strawberries for dipping, at 322 calories a serving.
Skinny Dipping cocktails included the Fresh Berry Fizz (92 calories) with lemon vodka, blackberries and fresh-squeezed lemon juice, topped with club soda; Crisp Citrus Crunch (105 calories) with orange-vanilla vodka and muddled orange and mint; Mango Coconut Marteenie (158 calories) with mango-coconut vodka, white cranberry juice and fresh lemon juice; and Pretty in Pop (106 calories) with vodka, cranberry juice, muddled cucumber slices and fresh lime juice, topped with club soda.
The drinks were made with Voli, a light vodka brand co-owned by the musicians Pitbull and Fergie. The two globally popular entertainers were essentially brand ambassadors for The Melting Pot during the duration of the program.
That 2013 program built off the success of the 2012 Skinny Cocktail beverage LTO. This included six light cocktails using Voli, as well as vodka and wine from Skinnygirl, the low-calorie brand founded by reality TV star Bethenny Frankel and now owned by Beam.
“That was a fun program that got a lot of brand ambassadors in the public eye, doing stuff outside the four walls,” Brown recalls. “This has been the most successful program that we’ve run to date.”
Low-cal alcoholic beverages don’t work for every operator, however. “I think that skinny cocktails have varying degrees of success,” Brown says. “A lot of people in the industry have said that they’ve had no success with them.” But The Melting Pot’s clientele evidently supports the concept.
While The Melting Pot did not offer a light-cocktail LTO in 2014 to avoid repetition, it expects to run more low-cal options on the core menu in the future, Brown says. And beginning this year, the business will start printing calorie counts on its menus.
Summer pairing promo
Though the majority of The Melting Pot’s customers are women, Brown doesn’t want to neglect the male guests. So he strives to create some LTO programs with wide appeal. “We’re cognizant that different people have different taste profiles,” he says. “One thing doesn’t work for all.”
The chain’s Dip into Summer program this past summer offered seasonal dishes such as BBQ Brisket Cheddar fondue ($8.95), along with light white wines for the hot weather, and a shandy flight ($7.95). The flight combined Sam Adams Summer Ale with a trio of different house lemonades: Black Cherry Blush, Ruby Red Crush and Lively Lemon, each in 7-oz. servings. The shandies were also available individually as 12-oz. pours.
The Dip into Summer cocktail menu featured the Summertime Sipper (pictured as feature image), made with watermelon, cucumber, Malibu rum and fresh lime juice ($7.95). “All of those beverages had specific food pairings to go with them,” Brown explains.
For instance, the Black Cherry Blush shandy was suggested with a milk chocolate fondue. The Ruby Red Crush went with a seafood boil LTO ($24.95) of Pacific white shrimp, scallops, lobster and shrimp ravioli, andouille sausage and crab claws simmered in an Old Bay seasoned broth and served with red potatoes and corn on the cob.
These pairings were promoted primarily through The Melting Pot’s servers, he adds, “so much so that on top of their normal training, they received five extra weeks of training for this program.”
To help motivate servers into pushing the pairings, The Melting Pot held an internal contest. Servers who successfully sold customers on pairings were entered into a drawing for a Visa gift card.
The Dip into Summer LTO was scheduled to run from May 12 through July 31, but the program was so successful at some locations that they extended it into August. Dip into Summer helped contribute to The Melting Pot’s increase in sales and guests, Brown says, and will be “the yardstick for measuring success” of future LTOs.
Custom Craft
To capitalize on the craft beer boom, The Melting Pot’s Craft Your Own Fondue program allowed guests to choose a craft beer to be mixed into their fondues. The chain rolled out the LTO at test locations during fall 2015. After positive feedback and strong sales, the restaurant will bring it back this May.
The chain also tied in a “local” emphasis, which is key with craft, by allowing its franchises to offer beers from area breweries. This also meant a great variety of beer styles could go into the fondues―amber ales, IPAs, pale ales, stouts and so on.
“As an avid IPA drinker, I can say that you really could taste the hops” when the beer style is used in a fondue, Brown says.
The program also enables The Melting Pot to provide a value-add to customers. Because its fondue recipes didn’t call for a full beer, servers would offer leftover beer to guests, making for a natural pairing with the fondue.
Wine and Beer Fondue Pairings
The Melting Pot selects wines and beers that are ideal matches for its fondue dishes all year round. Brown has a few guidelines for perfect pairings.
Crisper, more acidic wines generally pair nicely with cheese fondues, Brown says. The acid provides balance for the richness of cheese. Styles that work particularly well include sauvignon blanc, pinot grigio, unoaked chardonnay and some pinot noirs.
As for chocolate fondues, look for wine partners that display notes of deep red fruits. The wine should have sufficient structure and light-to-medium tannins to match the milk and dark chocolate fondues, Brown says, such as merlots and red blends.
Beer in general makes for excellent pairings with cheese fondue, he adds. Brown currently prefers well-balanced pale ales with a pronounced malt character and low hoppiness. These food-friendly brews can provide great balance to the flavors and richness of cheese in a fondue, he notes.
Does Brown ever worry about coming up with fresh concepts for drink promotions and LTOs?
“I used to worry about where I would get that next idea,” he admits. “Not anymore.”
Because Brown taps into trends in pop culture and the food/beverage industry, he is not long without inspiration. And the success of Women and Whiskey showed him possibilities of combining beverage and food in The Melting Pot’s LTOs. “I’ll be talking with our chefs about that next idea,” he notes.
Caption
As part of its Dip into Summer program this past summer, The Melting Pot offered a shandy flight including Sam Adams Summer Ale with a trio of different house lemonades.
The Melting Pot’s national beverage director Paul Brown looks to consumer demographic, food and beverage and pop culture trends to keeps the chain’s drink program current and vibrant.
The fondue restaurant’s Dip into Summer program included a seafood boil entree of shrimp, scallops, lobster and shrimp ravioli, andouille sausage and crab claws; servers recommended pairing the dish with the Ruby Red Crush shandy.
Kyle Swartz is the associate editor of Cheers Magazine. Reach him at kswartz@epgacceleration.com or follow him on Twitter @kswartzz
