When Sarah Hillifer first started her role as manager of national sales promotions at A&W in 2014, the company was distributing around 30 million coupons through Canada Post with no real understanding of how and why they were working. But A&W knew one thing: there are certain times that some coupons worked better than others. Hillifer set her sights on trying to understand why.
Working with Canada Post, and using A&W’s market research, Hillifer profiled different markets to determine who lived where, grouped similar guests together, and sent them all uniquely identified coupons. From there, she determined which groups were the highest redeemers A&W should continue sending coupons to, who it should cross off the list, and what groups it should add to the distribution plan.
With the data in hand, Hillifer worked with A&W franchisees to distribute fewer coupons and use that money to invest in TV instead. The core groups that A&W distributed to more than doubled A&W’s redemption rate, and helped grow same-store sales even with fewer coupons in the marketplace. “This has created a huge shift in our business and has allowed us to be more mindful of how we spend our marketing dollars,” says Hillifer, who first joined A&W in 2011.
Tom Newitt, senior director of marketing and brand communications at A&W, says for someone under 30, Hillifer “is unusually good at solving problems in a mature market and a mature business.” Another one of her key strengths is putting customers first, he adds. “She is always thinking about what guests want and what guests need.”
Hillifer, 26, is also proud of her work on the October 2014 launch of A&W chicken raised without the use of antibiotics, and eggs from hens fed a vegetarian diet. As part of the launch team, Hillifer was responsible for developing the in-restaurant communications and promotional plan. “Being able to make such a huge impact on the industry and Canadian supply chain, and really give our guests what they are looking for, has been a major career accomplishment,” she says.
Every year, Hillifer is tasked with creating A&W’s promotional calendar including what limited-time offers and price promotions the chain will run. Once the calendar has been developed, Hillifer presents it to A&W’s National Advertising Advisory Council, a group made up of 10 franchisees who approve where the marketing dollars are spent.
Hillifer’s past work with the advisory council led her to take a more guest-centric approach to the marketing calendar. “We started really digging into what certain times of the year mean for our guests… and why certain promotions work and why they don’t work,” says Hillifer.
With a bigger focus on consumer trends and tastes, the team shifted its promotional strategy from two-for-one deals to more limited-time promotions, such as this summer’s Sriracha Teen Burger. On A&W’s digital coupon site, AWcoupons.ca, 100,000 customers could receive a coupon for a free Sriracha Teen Burger. “It was so successful, it actually crashed our server,” says Hillifer.
Her efforts have contributed to A&W’s strong same-store sales growth over the past couple of years. Same-store sales in Q1 this year were up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year, and in Q2, sales were up 8.9%.
