Brand in-house to create a marquee program

The longstanding stereotyping of school lunch frustrated Brock Smith when he became director of child nutrition services for the Vista Unified School District. Though the Vista, Calif., schools worked hard to prepare tasty meals, students still shied away.

But one day, while watching a commercial, Smith realized that maybe Vista’s food wasn’t the problem. “We needed to change the perception,” he says. So with the help of a local marketing firm, Smith launched the school district’s very own brand, the WaveCrest Cafe. Complete with a website and a video series, WaveCrest Cafe has spurred sales of 1,600 additional breakfast meals and 360 more lunch meals per day.

Operators like Smith are finding value in launching in-house branding and marketing programs, in spite of the costs. While Smith spends about $5,000 a month on marketing efforts like online videos, the increased sales from school meals yield more than $35,000 per academic year. Smith expects those numbers to rise as students mentally replace “school lunch” with WaveCrest Cafe. “I think the big benefit is to change perceptions over time,”
he says.

Brent Craig, director of nutrition services for Colorado’s Douglas County School District, agrees. Embracing branding has been key in selling to students, he says. At first, that meant established names like Subway, Domino’s and Chick-fil-A.

But most of those deals were too costly, so the district created its own brands, such as Chef Doug’s Burrito Co., a Chipotle knockoff station that won students’ attention. These concepts might not be as popular as national chains, Craig says, but they’re ultimately more budget-friendly since schools are avoiding franchise fees.

Dubbing himself “the BBQ Doctor” snagged the media spotlight for one senior living operation. Owner Chris Sides explains that the Suwanee, Ga.-based Senior Solutions Management Group launched the brand after striking out in other marketing arenas. He purchased a pit to cook for residents and their families, spawning charity fundraisers, cookbooks, drive-thru events and even a stint on the competitive circuit. It drummed up so much media attention as an in-house brand—and was so successful—that Sides says SSMG has to decline catering opportunities. “This was never meant to be a commercial thing for us,” he says.

Of course, not everything works. Craig says that despite the success of Chef Doug’s Burrito Co., similar concepts for hamburgers and pizza “never got off the ground.” And while both Craig and Smith have considered expanding their winning brands outside of their districts, they both find it intimidating to compete with the private sector.

But all three operators are pleased with the results of their marketing programs. Smith says he believed from the outset that putting money into marketing would help increase participation in the school lunch program. “And guess what? It did. Dramatically,” he says.