Jeremiah's Italian Ice Connects with Customers and Drives Growth at the Local Level
Unlike some other franchises with a long history and thousands of locations nationwide, Jeremiah’s Italian Ice must dedicate extra effort to developing brand awareness among its customers. Director of Brand Marketing Devin Schneider joined the company 15 years ago when it had three stores in central Florida. It has since grown to more than 160 locations across several states while steadily building its customer base.
Jeremiah’s growth has often come through engaging with customers at the grassroots level and establishing relationships with schools and community organizations. It has also used social media to attract and connect with its audience and recently launched its first digital marketing campaign. The increased awareness and customer count has allowed the franchise to grow and offer greater support and development for its franchisees.
In this Q&A, Schneider provides his thoughts on how Jeremiah’s has marketed and grown the brand over the years and the franchise’s approach to building a connection with its customers.
How does Jeremiah's Italian Ice handle local marketing initiatives to drive awareness at the grassroots level?
We’ve always considered community engagement and partnerships to be foundational to the success of Jeremiah’s. It has been a pillar of our business to create generous, meaningful relationships with schools, educational facilities, places of worship, and chambers of commerce, to make sure that we could bring our tasty frozen treats outside just our four walls. As we began franchising, it was vital that we develop specific training materials and guidelines for our new franchisees to educate them on ways they should involve themselves and the brand in the community. Remaining true to our core values, we’ve developed a long list of programs and resources for our franchisees to empower them to connect with community partners and drive awareness of their Jeremiah’s store at the local level. Some examples are executing Ice Nights with local schools, becoming a vendor at local festivals, and working with summer camps to offer discount vouchers.
What role does social media play for Jeremiah's, and what platforms have been most successful?
The Jeremiah’s brand is bold, beautiful, vibrant, and overall really fun, so we’re able to get really creative with our social content. Given how colorful our treats are, the product on its own lends itself so well to social media, but we also make sure our brand voice comes through, as well. It’s especially important to us that our content comes across genuinely to our followers even when we’re tying it to viral trends.
Instagram and Facebook are currently our most successful social channels. We utilize a social platform called SOCi that allows us to take brand-level content, such as new product releases, nationwide events or discounts, and develop monthly content that we can push down to our franchisees’ feeds on Facebook and Instagram. This tool makes it easy to achieve consistency across our entire system’s social media. We also encourage our franchisees to create more localized content that resonates with their regional audiences, so we certainly support them promoting things like neighborhood and community events on their feeds, too.
In what ways does your brand utilize digital marketing channels to engage with its audience?
We just launched our first digital marketing campaigns this year that is focused on our “Batter Up!” brownie batter series of treats. We launched that program in August and we’re already seeing fantastic returns, even though it’s still early.
We also just added a new Tadpole Mini-sized treat to the menu and we’re testing a national digital advertising campaign that will give the brand a reach and voice we’ve never previously had. We are primarily focused on Google Performance Max, so that’s putting us in all the Google properties, and we were able to create some great high-production video content to support the tactic. We are looking forward to continuing rolling out more campaigns in the digital marketing space.
How does Jeremiah’s support franchisees with marketing resources to ensure consistency and effectiveness across locations?
We primarily look to technology to make our tools and brand assets accessible to our entire franchise system. The SOCi platform has been an excellent tool for us and our franchise owners. It has allowed us to ensure our brand message remains consistent across all the social media platforms our owners utilize. The platform also has features that allow us to review and understand customer engagement and sentiment on social, which has been helpful and influences the type of content we continue to produce.
We also have a brand templating and digital asset management platform for our franchisees to review close to 1,000 different assets that they can use to develop their own digital marketing creative. It’s an effective tool that empowers franchisees to market themselves and the Jeremiah’s brand locally in their markets.
What is an example of a marketing effort you have applied to your brand that has helped existing franchise owners?
We are very proud of our loyalty program called the “J-List”, which recently broke the one million registered user mark. The J-List is a powerful tool that helps drive incremental sales and frequency with our most loyal guests, and we’re averaging at more than 6,000 users per location. We currently average about 28 percent participation rate, which means more than one-quarter of the guests that walk into our locations are using their loyalty app that day. We continue to invest in our J-List loyalty app through incremental developments and module additions, while continuing to elevate the value of this narrowcast marketing channel. Our franchisees also have access to granular guest behavior data on the Punchh (J-List) dashboard.
What are some of the biggest challenges unique to your franchise?
At the macro level, there’s always a new sweet treat concept popping up, so our biggest challenge is remaining differentiated. We know our product is unique and different, but what really makes us stand out is the flavorful experiences our guests associate with our brand. With nearly 30 years of experience under our belts, we’ve perfected Italian Ice, soft ice cream, and Jelatis, so now we’re able to build on that base and develop even more creations to suit everyone’s flavor preferences and keep them coming back for more.
We also recognize how the current economic situation has impacted the restaurant industry, especially our category in quick service desserts. We know that the American consumer is dining out less and the snack and dessert categories will be disproportionately impacted by these economic changes. We try to do our part in making sure Jeremiah’s is an affordable dessert option. Our recent launch of our new Tadpole Mini treat size speaks to this increased focus on providing menu offerings for any appetite or budget.
How does Jeremiah's support franchise owners, especially franchisees with no prior experience in the industry?
With a passion for the brand and a keen sense of business acumen, we’re confident owners can be successful without prior experience in the quick service restaurant industry. That said, we have a ton of tools, guides, resources, and assets to equip our franchisees with a roadmap to success. Prior to their opening, we bring them to our training facilities to give them in-store, on-the-clock experience in operating a Jeremiah’s store. We have area representatives that serve as local market experts that can provide guidance on operations, real estate selection, and so much more.
We also host workshops and create training videos with guidance on how new franchisees can forge partnerships in their communities that will create mutually beneficial relationships with key organizations. That community focus is integral to our values and brand’s success. We have a new store marketing manager that helps new franchisees through a marketing strategy 90 days prior to opening. It’s a robust, multi-faceted strategy focused on ramping up excitement before, during, and after a new store opening, and creating a foundation for a successful business.
How does Jeremiah's foster community among franchisees?
The first thing is developing a culture of inclusion and open communication. We have an intranet communications platform that all our franchisees have access to, along with some Google groups that tap into the power of peer-to-peer thinking and collaboration.
We also host monthly virtual meetups, as well as Frog Squad Forums where our CEO, Michael Keller, shares important brand updates and information. We will open the floor for franchisees to ask questions and create a dialogue among the corporate team and each other. Further, we have peer-to-peer workshops and encourage cross collaboration between owners in neighboring markets. We even have our area representatives host franchisee get-togethers a few times a year to engage with one another.
We host our annual Frog Squad Summit in which we invite our operators and franchisees to come to Orlando discuss and learn more about the franchise. We provide brand updates and share upcoming initiatives to generate excitement for the year ahead and celebrate successes from the year prior.
What are you most proud of in your work with the franchise?
I’m so proud of the growth of Jeremiah’s and its evolution into a franchise system. When I joined the brand 15 years ago when there were only three stores in central Florida, and it’s been incredible to see it grow to more than 160 locations across several states. I’ve had the fortune of being a part of curating the brand’s image and identity since then and it’s been an honor to oversee all design and brand touch points, from marketing and social media to store designs and more. Since I joined the brand as a one-man department, I’ve developed a team, with an in-house creative department, and I’m so incredibly proud to see the quality and output of that team.
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