How Capriotti's Uses Big Data for Franchisee Recruitment

We asked David Bloom, Chief Development Officer at Capriotti’s, how he is using big data and other technologies for franchisee recruitment. Here’s what he had to say.

The data available through today’s manifold third-party resources and related technologies is now required to inform and guide our decisions at every step of the lifecycle of our franchise owners. These decisions include franchise development, real estate and site selection, competitive and consumer trends, marketing messaging, media channel selection, marketing ROI analysis, and everything from menu and pricing management to employee productivity.

As a brand, Capriotti’s has invested and continues to invest heavily to ensure that we have access to all of the best internal and external data resources, technology platforms, and tools, along with third-party consultants and analysts. The day when a brand could manage and ensure its competitive advantage simply by leveraging internal resources, tools, and analytics are long gone.

To lead and ensure the future success of the business model and brand, we now need to align ourselves with the best thinkers, platforms, and analysts in each discipline that aligns with our business. Our commitment to providing the required financial resources, best-in-class personnel, and thought leadership within this area is foundational to the long-term success of our brand and our owners.

To be able to meet and exceed the standards mentioned above, Capriotti’s uses many platforms. For the real estate and development teams, we leverage Restaurant Trends competitive intelligence data, Piinpoint mapping to visualize trends for expansion and provide actionable insights, along with Birchwood demographics and site selection predictive indexing, and Mastercard consumer purchase data. Internally, we employ Service Management Group’s consumer surveys of our customer base to benchmark ourselves against the competition and our own brand standards.

We also use the full suite of NCR restaurant and data management tools and the full suite of FranConnect Sky franchise lifecycle management software. On the marketing and media analytics and consulting support side of the business, we employ a variety of PR firms to manage our social platforms and provide digital content and brand awareness. Capriotti’s also has three different digital marketing and media firms and platforms targeted toward specific audiences and media channels, SEO tools, and PPC ROI analytics.

Last, we use creative and media buying agencies, brand-building experts, and restaurant-specific consulting groups in the areas of design, menu management, operational efficiency, and benchmarking our financial performance.