The likes of UberEats, GrubHub and even East Side Mario’s are circling all around its target audience, but Barnaby Dawe believes Just Eat is already tasting victory in the on-demand food war.
Dawe, the firm’s global CMO, was in Toronto last week as part of a semi-regular visit to what he described as one of Just Eat’s most important markets. Though it operates in 13 countries around the world, he said Canadian culture needed its own particular care and attention to ensure the right customer experience was being developed.
“Our overall global strategy is to hone in on those local nuances around consumer behaviour and their relationship with food,” he said. “Although you can get a slice of consistency from market to market, we believe that sense of entrepreneurialism in each country is really important.”
Just Eat is at an interesting point in its marketing journey, having essentially helped define the category for digitally-oriented on-demand food delivery. What started with simple orders via desktop PCs, however, is rapidly shifting towards mobile devices and in particular its mobile app – the same channel that has helped Uber and Airbnb to disrupt industries like transportation and hospitality.
Dawe isn’t necessarily sweating all those rivals. He said he’s more focused on crafting the message for Just Eat’s long-term future. “The challenge of growing it into a true global brand,” he said. “It’s less about educating people on our story but shifting into a relationship of brand preference.”
In its home base of the U.K., there’s evidence that Just Eat’s brand preference is already well established. Earlier this month, for example, The Guardian reported that Just Eat was able to increase its commission rate to 13% for existing customers, which meant an increase in revenue and a four million euro boost to its forecast for the year. In more concrete terms, food orders at the company have risen 57% this year.
“[The brand message] is really focused on the benefits of ordering in — making it your first choice rather than your last,” he said. “It can’t just be a transactional message. It’s much greater than that.”
In some respects, Dawe’s previous experience puts him in a good place to grow the Just Eat brand. His CMO roles have included stints at Sky in the U.K. as well as Harper Collins and the Times. In other words, he’s worked in high-growth industries as well as those in decline, which he said offered him some perspective in managing growth in vastly different environments.
“I was part of the team that moved newspapers online on a subscription basis,” he pointed out. “The churn rate in any business is a key factor in your success or failure and in ecommerce the churn rate can be through the roof. You have to learn how to do everything to treasure and keep every single customer relationship.”
