Through the Masters in Branding program at the School of Visual Arts, I, along with another four members of the class, was assigned developing a new marketing campaign for Shake Shack.

ChallengING GOAL

To maintain the current industry-wide growth trajectory while increasing same-store sales and to deliver on the brand’s core promise of “boundless hospitality” while employing technology to drive efficiency and profitability.

From 2017, we have seen the regression in same-store sales by at least 1.6%. During our research, we found that industry-wide, the same-store sales had fallen nearly every month. Shake Shack has continued growing, but in their prospective market (fast casual burger), there’s little room to grow. Hence, for Shake Shack to expand, others have to shrink. With Shake Shack’s current shift from manual to digital, our team decided to take a different approach from focusing on technology alone to an integrated approach of technology + humanity. Therefore, we proposed a philanthropic campaign based on the brand’s mission called “ShackTogether” to further disrupt the burger chain industry.

Why did we make a Philanthropic move?

Shake Shack’s motto is to “Stand For Something Good®”; and they keep hospitality at the core of their brand. Moreover, our research showed that millennial consumers have massive spending power (from $600B to $1.4T in 2020) and are more likely to purchase from companies that support solutions to specific social causes.

As David Aaker wrote, “it’s not enough to have a value statement, brands must advance a cause that will resonate with employees, customers, and investors.” A company alone can’t change the world; people can.

Duration

1 week