EDINA, Minn. – Dairy Queen is launching an ad
campaign next week that will focus on the company’s burgers, fries and chicken
strips, a deliberate effort to build traffic beyond those seeking just an ice
cream treat, Advertising Age reports.
The chain will be launching a new tagline,
"Fan food. Not fast food," which replaces its previous tagline,
"So Good It's RiDQulous.”
"Our objective is to reconnect
emotionally with our consumers," said Barry Westrum, executive vice
president of marketing at American Dairy Queen Corp. "Ours is a fierce
category, frequency is at a premium, and we really see the opportunity for our
business to grow by taking these existing customers that have such strong feelings
to get them to come back that much more frequently."
According to Westrum, 56% of DQ customers are
light users, visiting only once per month, yet they represent 29% of total
visits. "If we can get light users to visit one time more per month, it would
have a significant impact on our business," he said.
DQ is going after customers who frequent
Burger King and Wendy’s for meals, but who are likely to visit DQ for dessert.
"What makes DQ so special is all the
treats, [but it's] not considered for everyday usage," said Jeff King, CEO
at Barkley, the agency creating the new ad campaign. "The genesis behind
the tagline was to both enter the consideration set [for meals] and differentiate
at the same time. By distinguishing fan food, not fast food, it definitely gets
us in the consideration set."
Dairy Queen has 37.2% U.S. market share of
the frozen dessert category, which totaled $2.4 billion last year. At the end
of 2012, it had roughly 4,465 locations. Baskin-Robbins is the number two chain
in the category, with 2,400 units that generated $509 million in sales last
year, for 7.8% market share.