Noodles & Company

brand / strategy / creative

A beloved and rapidly expanding fast casual restaurant chain needed aggressive brand reinvigoration, right in the middle of the Atkins low carb diet craze.

NEED

The brand had become stagnant. Expansion into new markets coupled with the headwind caused by the unprecedented public and media attention on low carb diets exposed vulnerabilities in the brand’s consumer promise.

APPROACH

Believing that celebrating the good is more powerful than apologizing for (or trying to hide) the bad, we redefined the brand positioning to focus on core equities of the food and experience, and empowered the consumer with nutritional information to elevate our dialogue and relationship with them. A series of campaigns brought the strategy to life and drove positive same store sales including; Fresh Sauté & Grill, Sneaking good stuff into your diet since 1995, a Nutritional micro-site and Asparagus Queen, a social engagement-driven launch of a seasonal LTO.

Work done while Rich Miller was VP of Marketing at the company. Creative by Sukle Advertising & Design.