Modern Market: According to a corporate email to Restaurant Dive, Modern Market Eatery will launch its first drive-thru location in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Friday.
The restaurant will feature a drive-thru, dine-in, delivery, and the whole menu of the brand, including the eight new items from its winter menu that were introduced on November 1.
The company-owned store is the first of many drive-thrus that the chain plans to open. It is the third Modern Market in the Colorado Springs market.
Dive Insight:
With more than 30 locations, Modern Market is a vigorous franchiser. Last year, it inked a deal for 41 locations spread over 11 additional markets. Co-founder and president of Modern Market Rob McColgan recently stated to Restaurant Dive that he anticipates more than 71 Modern Market locations to be open or in development in the next six years.
According to a statement from McColgan, drive-thru sites are anticipated to “handle the increasing volume of take-out orders.” According to Chris Cheek, Chief Development Officer of Modern Market, in an email to Restaurant Dive, the drive-thru uses a conventional setup with a speaker box, digital menu boards, and an order confirmation screen.
Where to start
According to our observations, most senior leaders know that marketing needs to modernise, but they may not be entirely confident of the details. All too frequently, people concentrate on a small number of projects or skills and then become angry when the anticipated benefits don’t materialise.
Because of this, it’s imperative to understand precisely what a modern marketing model entails (Exhibit 1). Even though leaders are familiar with these components, we have found that their clear organisation into a cohesive model helps them better understand how to measure each piece and how it should integrate with the others.
Mindsets: Thinking like a modern marketer
Three changes in perspective are required before launching a modern marketing transformation to facilitate change. (See the sidebar “Modern marketer: Rebecca Messina” for further thoughts from the former CMO of Beam Suntory and Uber.)
Unifier Mindset
Marketing executives must collaborate with several departments inside the firm, such as sales, product innovation, finance, technology, and human resources, to propel growth.
Our study demonstrates that leaders who work as “unifiers,” that is, who treat their peers in the C-suite as equal partners, and who are CMOs or chief growth officers or chief customer officers, create more growth than those who don’t.
Unifier CMOs ensure that other C-suite executives understand marketing’s clearly defined job, speak the same language as them, and explain how marketing can help satisfy their needs.
Customer-centric mindset
Of course, prioritising clients is hardly a novel concept. Today’s marketers, however, are armed with clear proof that satisfying consumer requirements generates value and gives them a competitive edge. To attain customer-centricity, modern marketers must also be mindful of the scale and complexity of problems they must overcome.
They entail making promises on several aspects: a design-thinking strategy for resolving unmet demands and consumer pain points, a centralised data platform with a unified view of customers drawn from all potential touchpoints.
Return on investment (ROI) mindset
It is now feasible and required for marketers to take responsibility for providing value across all channels, thanks to the development of digital channels and advancements in analytics and data science. Everyone must act as though the money they are spending is their own to have an ROI mindset.
This entails carefully monitoring investments, establishing criteria to spot those not producing value, and fostering an environment of responsibility wherein underperforming ventures are discarded.
Modern Market Bets on Better for You
This fast-casual idea has updated its production line and décor to better position itself for franchising.
In 2009, Rob McColgan co-founded the Modern Market restaurant in Boulder, Colorado, to address a gap in the fast-casual industry. Most proposals concentrated on items like burgers and burritos, which are treats you might like occasionally but aren’t necessarily meals you should eat frequently.
“My goal was to assist in constructing a restaurant that offered food that I looked forward to daily,” McColgan states. “That meant having a menu that was wide enough to accommodate a whole family or a group of coworkers, high-quality, expertly sourced products, and food that was affordable, delicious, and healthful enough to be enjoyed often. I wasn’t aware of any other large-scale concepts that were meeting those requirements at the time.
Finding the Right Franchisees
Now that Modern Market has a new decor and a kitchen tailored to the modern restaurant setting, its focus is on making its franchise programme successful.
McColgan claims that the company’s thirty restaurants are profitable in various market segments, such as heavy residential, suburban, and urban. Additionally, the business is open to expanding into new regions and is currently in contact with prospective franchise partners nationwide.
Aside from prior experience in the field, the organisation is looking for partners who genuinely share its vision. Maintaining a healthy restaurant is more complex than operating a typical fast-casual.
A prospective franchisee is probably not a good fit for Modern Market if they aren’t willing to spend a little extra on ingredients, equipment, and training.
