Jen Gulvik of Houlihan’s Restaurants, Inc.

Jen Gulvik is VP-Marketing and Creative Director for Houlihan’s Restaurants, Inc., overseeing the marketing and in-house creative for Houlihan’s and the company’s two upscale-casual restaurant concepts. Jen joined Houlihan’s in 2002 to lead a total brand repositioning for the company, making its dated brand relevant once again and re-imagining everything from food & beverage to in-store music to the look-and-feel of training and recruiting material for its 100+ restaurants.

Prior to joining Houlihan’s, Jen led the total brand creation for a start-up telecommunications company that fueled its growth to regional super player throughout the South and Midwest by the end of her four-year tenure. Jen spent six years at Oscar Mayer Foods, earning a Kraft-General Foods Marketing Creativity Award for her work on its NFL promotion. She has been recognized with numerous other awards, including Best Restaurant Promotion of 2007 by Nation’s Restaurant News; features in Communication Arts and Archive Magazines; and Ingram’s 2008 40 Under Forty award for business and community leadership in Kansas City where she resides.

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WOMM-U: Day Two Case Study: Houlihan’s Restaurant

The final session of the conference featured a case study on Houlihan’s Restaurants, presented by Jen Gulvik, VP Marketing, Houlihan’s Restaurants, Inc.

In the past few years Houlihan’s has undergone a tremendous transformation. Spreading the word about this has been an interesting challenge. They’re not a national advertiser. While they are in some major markets, they don’t have the budget that many of their competitors do.

The task was to see if they could turn their customers into a marketing force. In the past many of their restaurants had established e-mail lists, it was one-way only. However they do receive a large amount of customer feedback, and this is increasing. She thinks this matches the trend of customers taking control of their brand experiences.

At a WOMMA event a year ago, Jen realized that they’re in an industry (food & beverage) that is heavily talked about. Why not take advantage of that?

First step was to determine who their brand lovers were. They created and sent out a survey. Some quick metrics: 114,949 sent, 18,695 received. From there they began to build out a program, an advisory group. This group would advise them on menu choices and other brand assets. They also developed a program for the HouliFAN’s.

The primary communication channel with the advisory group is the HQ, a password protected site that allows Houlihan’s to provide information to the fans. It also allows them to participate in coversations and get feedback.

One of the first things they did was ask the advisory group, what would you do? Early on they saw an issue related to the removal of fajitas from the menu, or as Jen said, a fajita-freakout.

Once the site was established with the advisory group, it expanded to the entire fan-base, the HouliFANs.

Soon afterwards they rolled out a new menu and used their fans and the site to spread the word. They found that 35% of the fans had spread WOM about the menu.

The program is still new and growing but they’ve been thrilled with the response and feedback they’ve received.

Jen Gulvik of Houlihan’s Restaurants, Inc.

On the agenda

WOMM-U: Day Two Case Study: Houlihan’s Restaurant

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