Enhanced Email Program on the Menu for Wolfgang Puck

The Wolfgang Puck family of companies had a great set of ingredients for email marketing, but they didn’t work if they weren’t blended in the right way.

Wolfgang Puck is comprised of three separate companies: Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining, which operates restaurants internationally; Wolfgang Puck Catering, which caters for events such as the Academy Awards, the Grammys and large fundraisers; and Wolfgang Puck Worldwide, which operates casual restaurants and sells licensed products such as broths and cookware.

Each brand was maintaining its own separate database of email addresses and purchase histories, and they couldn’t be easily shared. The company recently worked with Listrak to consolidate those files and create more cross sell opportunities.

The brands all have distinct audiences. “Someone may be familiar with our grocery store products, but never have dined in one of our restaurants,” says Stephanie Davis, director of brand communications for the Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group. “We wanted to speak with them separately, but collectively.”

The goal was to create profiles of the various audiences and target email campaigns to them. Wolfgang Puck did away with direct mail about give years ago, largely because of cost but also because the ability to target and track behavior and measure the ROI wasn’t high enough, notes Davis.

Wolfgang Puck is encouraging email sign-ups on the company’s home page as well as on social media sites. “There is definitely cross-over between the audiences,” says Davis. “We have customers who enjoy all the brands—they go to Spago but also enjoy frozen pizza.”

At present, the company is publishing only one quarterly email newsletter. The first issue mailed in January, and is incorporating video in an effort to encourage readers to click through for more information.

Individual email campaigns are also being run for specific events, such as a summer wine series featuring different winemakers at the WP24 Ritz Carton Los Angeles. In the fall, an email campaign will roll out to promote a new line of bottled sauces.

One interesting impact of the new email database system, created with Listrak, is the ability to target by users’ travel preferences. “A lot of our frequent diners travel across the country—maybe they live in Los Angeles but go to Atlantic City to gamble,” says Davis. “We want to target he aspects of their life that they care about.”

When someone opts-in to the database, they receive a four-part email
welcome series introducing the world of Wolfgang Puck. The content isn’t broken down by company name, because that wouldn’t really be meaningful to readers. Rather, it is broken down by how consumers would experience the products, such as in their home or in the restaurants. The welcome series has an average open rate of 15%, and clickthrough rates of 3.5%.

As for the future, Wolfgang Puck will continue to grow its email database with efforts such as a national recipe contest using the company’s line of soup stocks and broths. The contest, which was promoted via social media, grew the file by 15,000 names in just one month. The prize was to be celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck’s sous chef for a day.