Client Feature: Tropical Smoothie Cafe
OVERVIEW
Tropical Smoothie Cafe (TSC) is a franchise quick-service restaurant (QSR) serving smoothies and nutritious food. What began as a single location on a beach in Destin, Florida, has grown into a lifestyle brand for people looking for better-for-you alternatives to fast food. With more than 1,150 locations nationwide, Tropical Smoothie Cafe is one of the fastest growing franchises in the country.
Tropical Smoothie Cafe asked For Momentum to revise their charitable giving partnership and consumer-facing cause marketing strategies to better align with their growing company and geographic footprint.
STRATEGY AND ACTIONS
For Momentum began our work with an immersion into Tropical Smoothie Cafe’s brand, values, marketing assets and nonprofit relationship history, as well as interviews with key brand, marketing, communications, HR and franchisee stakeholders. Additionally, we conducted a marketplace scan of other comparable QSR-nonprofit partnerships and leveraged For Momentum’s proprietary market research on social impact trends to inform our recommendations. This process enabled For Momentum to develop a strategic vision for the type of partner Tropical Smoothie Cafe should engage.
For Momentum recommended the development of a broader platform and giving strategy to further build brand awareness and integrate long-term CSR engagements locally and nationally, in addition to choosing a nonprofit partner to launch this new platform. We subsequently developed an initial shortlist of nonprofit organizations based on Tropical Smoothie Cafe leadership and franchisee stakeholder insights, and the company’s brand, vision and values.
RESULTS
For Momentum developed a set of criteria for partner consideration such as national recognition, marketing benefits based on investment, presence in local Tropical Smoothie Cafe communities for employee engagement opportunities, storytelling assets, etc.
Following the development of a shortlist of nonprofit candidates, we narrowed down to three and conducted interviews with each to assess their alignment, benefits and additional considerations important to Tropical Smoothie Cafe. From our assessment, Tropical Smoothie Cafe chose to move forward with No Kid Hungry, the national campaign run by Share Our Strength, a nonprofit working to solve problems of hunger and poverty in the United States and around the world. For Momentum further supported Tropical Smoothie Cafe through contract negotiation and facilitation.
Since the inception of the partnership, Tropical Smoothie Cafe has raised more than $2.4M for No Kid Hungry. Contributing elements include 99% franchisee engagement and $1 from every Sunrise Smoothie® going directly to No Kid Hungry.
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