Ansley Meccia
Parker Denton
Shea Jones
Brooke Evans
Situation Analysis...........................4-15 Company History….........................2 Product History….......................3 Current Menu & Drink Menu......4-5 Industry Trends...........................8 Local Trends...................................9 Indirect Competitors ...................10 Direct Competitors ..................11 Competitive Analysis..........12-13 SWOT Analysis.........................14-15 Marketing & Communication Direction.........16-17 Target Profiles.........................18-21 Creative Brief..........................22-23 Social Media....24-25 Creative Concept & Direction.........................26-27 Storyboard.................28-33 Campaign Pieces...........................34-40 Special Event 41-42 Tableof Contents
El Barrio was founded in 2019 in Five Points and is owned by Scott Parish, an Athens local who attended UGA, as well as Sachan Patel who is a partial owner. It is currently managed by Brooklynn Adams, a long time service industry employee and recent graduate from Athens Technical College.
History
Company
El Barrio is a family-friendly Mexican Restaurant with a wide variety of tacos, plate options, tequila and margaritas. The Birria taco is undoubtedly their most popular taco, made with cheese, shredded beef, with cilantro and onions on the side along with a consume dip sauce. The margaritas are all fairly popular, with the frozen pitchers being a favorite among the college students, the blood orange being a general fan favorite and with the higher end El Padrino being loved by the older Athens Five Points population. As for the restaurant itself, El Barrio has a small bar area inside where you can watch your margarita being made, a large covered patio where the majority of the seating is offered and outside, tables with umbrellas. The outside lawn has adirondack chairs scattered on the grass for sunny days and drinking a marg. There are patio swings, corn hole and put-put to keep customers entertained while they relax.
Product History
Current Menu
Drink Menu
Industry Trends Increase in Cal-Tex likely due to health conscious consumers looking for lighter meals Certain dishes Birria meals, particularly tacos Elote Elevated Quesadillas Overall Mexican food market Excepted to grow by $113.85 billion through 2026, exhibiting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.65%, according to Technavio Research
Local Trends Farm to table ingredients Group Event/Party Environments Build your own bowl style meals Local Businesses and Owners Diverse, unique foods Affordable food options
Indirect Competition Due to location, El Barrio has a lot of indirect competition. These restaurants do not offer the same products, experience, or environment. However, these restaurants are all within walking distance of each other and are popular choices for lunches and dinner. These other restaurants located in the Five Points area are competition because of proximity of each other and proximity to residents. THE PINE BAR FIVE AND TEN MARKER SEVEN COASTAL GRILL FULLY LOADED SAKURA
These restaurants are who El Barrio considers to be the main competition. All of these restaurants offer Mexican cuisine with similar recipe staples. These items include margaritas, fajitas, tacos, similar , and burritos. In addition, these restaurants are all located within the Athens region and have comparable opening and closing times. All restaurants serve lunch and dinner options. Direct Competitors CALI N TITOS TLALOC TAQUERIA DEL SOL TAQUERIA TSUNAMI
El Barrio
Times
Open Sunday
11:30 am-8, TuesSat11:30am to 9pm,
Cali n Titos
Open SunThurs 11am9pm, Fri-Sat 11am-10pm
Taqueria Del Sol
Mon 11am2pm, Tues-Fri 11am-2pm, 58:30 pm, Sat 12-3 pm, 58:30 pm
Tlaloc
Sun 10am-8:30 pm, Mon-Thurs 10am-9:30 pm, Fri-Sat 10am10pm
Taqueria
Tsunami
Sun-Thurs 11am-9pm, FriSat 11am10pm
Pricing Athens Location
$$ Five Points Area
$ University
$ In Town
$ Normaltown
$$ Downtown Competitive Analysis
SWOT Analysis STRENGTHS OPPORTUNITIES Atmosphere caters to multiple segments: families, college students, young adults Special discount for students and teachers connects to location Delivery and dine in options Attracts consumers with design: the yellow wall, golf in front lawn, mural, outdoor seating, bright colors Using lawn and space for special events, promotional events, fundraiser nights Drink Deals and Shared Plates Highlight Vegetarian, Vegan, Plant Based options available Share the story behind the restaurant. Letting the consumers know who the owners creates a personal tie. Use social media following to promote new specials, worker spotlights, regular customers
THREATS A lot of competition in Athens for Mexican food Bad weather could limit seating capacity Open later and close earlier than most direct competition Limited options for vodka, rum, and whiskey drinks Bad Weather Inflation causing pricing to rise may lead to seeing less customers Other Mexican restaurants Seasons- colder season have led to decrease in customers
WEAKNESSES
Marketingand Communication Direction OBJECTIVES CREATE MORE SPECIALIZED EVENTS FOR THE TARGET PROFILES YEAR ROUND OUTSIDE OPPORTUNITIES
TheObjectives
In order to ensure year round success, we propose that El Barrio utilizes the outdoor space they have for fun winter activities. We suggest that in December and leading up to the holiday season, El Barrio targets their young family market and their drinking college student market by hosting a ‘Sipping with Santa’ holiday event. El Barrio loses a large portion of their customers in the winter due to how much of their seating is situated outside. We understand that this is a logistical issue that we as advertisers cannot solve, but we suggest they have more deals and events that will help draw in more foot traffic to prevent this from happening. We suggest a 12 days of Margaritas punch card, where after 12 regular margarita purchases, you earn a free small pitcher. We also suggest that they market the ‘Sipping with Santa’ event to be very family oriented in the early hours, with hot cocoa, the warm birria tacos and maybe some soup options. But as the night moves on and the college students come out, the event becomes more drinking related, with a shot-ski, a peppermint margarita and opportunities to take fun pictures with Santa Claus. This is an example of the winter campaign efforts, but others would be made in Spring, Summer and Fall to ensure year round foot traffic and fun events.
Segment 1: Sam and Lucy Segment 2: Jessica Segment 3: The Smiths
TargetMarketProfile
TargetMarketProfile
Overall Target Profile: Service Industry
locals who want to drink and enjoy a meal off the clock.
Sam and Lucy 23&24
A recently engaged couple from Athens, they both work in the service industry but attended UGA. They come in at least once a week, sit on the bar, and order the same meal each time. Sam orders a Miller lite and Lucy orders a Barrio margarita, made with cointreau and reposado tequila. They both order two tacos when they come in, but start their meal with chips and guac. They love coming in in the summer, but wish they could sit outside more in the winter. Signature Menu Item: 2 pork tacos on corn tortilla
TargetMarketProfile
Overall Target Profile: A college student who is ready to drink.
Jessica 21
Student at UGA who loves to pregame at El Barrio and, let's be honest, has been coming to drink there since she was a freshman. She comes and gets a barrio bowl with her friends after walks on Milledge, but will come get chips and a large 64 oz pitcher to get a little booze going before she heads downtown with the girls. She will sit outside rain or shine, but wishes El Barrio had more discounts, deals and fun events for people her age.
Menu Item: 64 oz frozen strawberry swirl
Signature
margarita
TargetMarketProfile
Overall Target Profile: Young Athens
Family who enjoys being outdoors.
The Smiths 32,31, 3 &1
Roger and Samantha Smith moved to Athens 2 years ago with their daughter, Charlotte, who was 1 at the time. They recently expanded their family and welcomed Thomas into the world. They love El Barrio for its family friendly environment and outdoor space for the kids to run around. They will get a couple of cheese quesadillas, some chips for the family and a small pitcher to split and sit on the lawn watching Charlotte run around. Signature Menu Item: Chips and Guac
Media- The media portion of the campaign will be done primarily on social. Instagram being the most used platform, this is where we will target the social the most, both with static posts and with video. Additionally, the creation of a Tik Tok account will help to flesh out the video portion of the campaign as well.
Key Fact- El Barrio is a welcoming family friendly cantina style restaurant that sits in the heart of a bustling college town. The environment is cute and quaint and provides people with a nice 5 points experience. However, there are other restaurants doing similar things and they are most popular only certain times of year.
Problem: The most popular foods served are tacos/cantina style foods as well as the wonderful selection at the bar. That being said, the aforementioned dishes accompany a certain atmosphere and vibe that not all seasons provide, especially the holiday season, so the business that El Barrio generates often fluctuates with the change of the seasons. Not so much because of the ebb and flow of the college student population, but more with the seasonality of the dishes and feel of the establishment.
CreativeBrief
Objective- To increase the seasonality of El Barrio’s dishes by incorporating branding and messaging that aligns with the changing of the seasons, and even incorporate new dishes and merchandise to enhance this experience as well. So, we aim to increase traffic to the restaurant by 15% in the traditional “off seasons”of late fall and winter in 2023.
Insight- "We love cantina style restaurants, especially El Barrio, but we mostly only find it enticing to eat at places like that during the Spring and Summertime. We just find the menu to be very geared towards those specific months and would love to be able to eat there more times throughout the year. I think the ambiance that would accompany El Barrio in the changing of the seasons would be wonderful if executed properly."
Promise- El Barrio’s spring and summer dominated ambiance will continue to flourish, while also making way for shared experiences in the colder months as well.
Support- Wonderful bar selections, good environment for families and college students, indoor seating and heating lamps
Mandatories- Must stay true to the brand voice and food style, just expand upon what is already there.
CreativeBrief
TikTok Reviews
Current Instagram Feed
CreativeConcept andDirection
El Barrio has been known for its welcoming and inviting atmosphere and is most popular in the warmer months. Making sure that El Barrio is making a conscientious effort to set itself apart from other local cantina style restaurants to appeal more to consumers year round with their menu and their branding will ensure they stick out and become a certified Athens staple. The tagline featured in this mission will include variations of the phrase “Tacos for every season” and pair this with “starter packs” for the featured taco/drink pairing at the start of that particular season.
The trendy ambiance will match well with the introduction of elements in their socials that speak to the primary demo that might not otherwise be entice to patronize the restaurant. The color palette and grid “feel” of El Barrio is very spring and summary, with their branding being light and airy and well as their grid featuring lots of lawn and grass settings.
CreativeConcept andDirection
direct mail, merchandise,
punch card
establishments
interactive
consumer.
logo
messaging,
the color pallet
sprinkling
colors
The IMC tactics, including
and a
will make El Barrio stand out from other similar
as well as create a more
and immersive experience with the
The entire campaign follows the same fonts used in the
and other
and
will remain the same while
in some more holiday centric
with the change of the season.
TikTok/Reels Storyboards
TikTok/Reels Storyboards
There is a new Tik Tok/ reels feature which allows users to make a sort of slide show that you can flip through while a sound plays. It is used for things like various foods people like at restaurants, or clothing hauls, things of that nature.
For the "Tacos for Every Season" Campaign, El Barrio would come out with a "starter pack" at the start of each season telling customers which drinks and food items are most popular for this season. It will inspire people to want to eat there while also joining the conversation with this popular trend.
TikTok/Reels Storyboards
EL BARRIO FALL STARTER PACK
TikTok/Reels Storyboards
EL BARRIO WINTER STARTER PACK
TikTok/Reels Storyboards
EL BARRIO SPRING STARTER PACK
TikTok/Reels Storyboards
BARRIO SUMMER STARTER PACK
EL
Campaign Pieces INTEGRATED MARKETING PIECES Our examples for the integrated marketing pieces are winter specific and themed for a holiday event. PRINT PIECES We created posters with information regarding the holiday specials that would appeal to our target profiles SPECIAL EVENT Our special event is the holiday themed
Holiday Loyalty Card IMC #1
Merch IMC #1
Direct Mail IMC #3
Poster #1
Poster #2
Poster #3
Special Event.
One of the client’s issues is attracting as many consumers during the winter time because people do not see Mexican food as a winter option. Between this and college students leaving for the holidays we wanted to come up with an event that would attract customers into El Barrio during these slower months. Sips with Santa is a perfect, festive event that elevates a typical night out or dining experience. Sips with Santa includes an opportunity to take pictures with Santa and enjoy the holiday beverages. This event also is a great opportunity for a family outing if a consumer is still looking to get a picture of the kids and Santa while enjoying a family dinner out. This special event ties into one of our IMC ideas, the direct mail. This way locals in the area are aware of the event and feel invited to come.
Sips with Santa.
