Case Study: Launching a New Business

Peppers Market & Sandwich Shop, a locally-owned restaurant in Morrisville, opened in October 2009.  It was an immediate success, thanks in part to its close proximity to the Research Triangle Park, and also to its unique offering of fresh and healthy sandwiches that gave RTP employees a delicious alternative to the “fast food” sandwich shops.

Owners Jess and Missy Fowler originally came to FatCat Strategies in the spring of 2010 to have the Peppers menu recreated after the original design file was lost. But, after learning about all the services FatCat offers through it’s monthly marketing retainer service, the owners immediately signed a 3-month contract.

Jess and Missy’s situation was a perfect example of how FatCat can help growing businesses. The Fowler’s are very involved in the day-to-day operations of their business. Missy runs the front of the restaurant taking orders, checking customers out, and managing employees while Jess mans the kitchen making sandwiches, delivering catering orders, and keeping track of food supplies.

With both of them putting in time-and-a-half at the restaurant, it left no time to think about marketing efforts.  And that’s where FatCat came in…

The first thing we did was hold a focus group with some of Pepper’s customers. We discussed everything from restaurant décor, menu items, and ingredients to traffic flow and the location of the drink dispensers.  We then analyzed the data and presented recommendations for immediate improvements, as well as new long-term goals.

Our recommendations included:

As part of our flat monthly fee, we then helped Peppers implement our recommendations.