'A paradigm change for Lion’s Choice': Inside the company's new menu item, marketing strategy, plans for growth - St. Louis Business Journal
Lion’s Choice is introducing a new menu item while also kicking off an aggressive new advertising campaign, cutting several underperforming offerings and preparing for future growth. Lion's Choice is set to introduce "The Remix," a new menu item featuring roast beef, Swiss cheese and a garlic aioli sauce. The company will also introduce a new advertising campaign and remove several underperforming items from its menu. The Remix, which costs $6.49 or $11.59 to upgrade to a meal, is designed to offer customers the best bang for their buck while keeping the cost down to encourage more people to come in and try it. The new offering aims to differentiate itself from competitors and attract new customers and existing customers. Lion's Choice's CEO, Fred Burmer, is also planning to remix other food and beverage staples, including French fries and custards.
Published : 2 months ago by Connor Hart in Business
When Fred Burmer assumed the top role at Lion’s Choice last year, he quickly realized that the brand needed a refresh to be successful in the long run.
Fast forward to “The Remix,” a reboot of the St. Louis-based company’s original roast beef sandwich set to launch Tuesday featuring roast beef, Swiss cheese and a garlic aioli sauce sandwiched between two pieces of buttered Texas toast. In addition to its new offering, Lion’s Choice will also kick off an aggressive new advertising campaign and cut several underperforming items from its menu.
The Remix “is more than just a sandwich,” Burmer said. “It’s a paradigm change for Lion’s Choice.”
Burmer, who previously said a short-term goal he had for Lion’s Choice was for the company to be “very bold” in its advertising and differentiate itself from its competitors, vetted several advertising firms last fall before at the beginning of the year contracting UPBrand, a St. Louis-based branding, advertising and digital marketing agency, to develop its new campaign, the main goal of which he said is to increase the company’s traffic.
The Remix will help the company to accomplish this goal by attracting new customers to come in and try the updated sandwich, as well as by giving existing customers more variety and a reason to continue frequenting Lion’s Choice, Burmer said.
The new offering will also help the brand to differentiate itself from competitors.
“When a new customer comes in and they see that sandwich for the first time, there’s no way they’re going to compare that to any other roast beef sandwich,” he said.
The Remix costs $6.49, or $11.59 to upgrade to a meal, making it being a low-margin item for the company, while offering customers the best bang for their buck, Burmer said. It was important the company keep the cost down to encourage more people to come in and try it, he said.
The sandwich, which was first created by a Lion’s Choice employee who substituted and added new ingredients to the company’s original roast beef sandwich, is also leaning into customization with The Remix, allowing guests to select the amount of meat, type of cheese and sauce they want included on their sandwich.
The sandwich marks the begging of a “remixed era” for Lion’s Choice. The company is already plotting to remix other staples of its brand this year, including its French fries and custards. The company is “playing around with” several variations of loaded French fry offerings and looking to introduce new sizes, and possibly new flavors, of custards, Burmer said.
With the launch of The Remix, Lion’s Choice is additionally cutting several underperforming offerings from its menu, including its coleslaw and plant-based meatball sub, Burmer said.
While Burmer will look to switch up the status quo and make changes to the company’s operations, he is at the same time taking care to not mess with the company’s 56-year legacy in St. Louis. Before launching The Remix, Burmer brought the sandwich to Marv Gibbs, the company’s founder, and had him try it: “He became an instant fan, and I knew that’s when we had something worth exploring,” Burmer said.
And the company’s original roast beef sandwich isn’t going anywhere, he confirmed.
Burmer is simultaneously laying the groundwork necessary for Lion’s Choice to expand, a move he previously said was his long-term vision for the company.
The company throughout 2024 will be preparing for growth by shoring up its operational practices and establishing new positions to support a more robust franchising program, he said.
The restaurants that Lion’s Choice will open in the coming years are likely to look different from its current brick and mortar locations. The company is in the process of developing several smaller-footprint prototypes: “If 35% of our business is dine-in and 65% is drive-thru, why do we have dining rooms big enough to handle 100% of our business?” Burmer said.
These restaurant prototypes will also be designed to be built quicker and for less money than it takes to build a traditional brick and mortar by utilizing prefabricated buildings or by going into in-line locations, or locations within the retail spaces of existing buildings, he said.
“It takes two years to build (a traditional brick-and-mortar) from the time you kick the dirt to the time you start selling sandwiches,” Burmer said. “I can go in-line and be serving sandwiches in 120 days.”