How a US salad-restaurant chain plans to become the Spotify of food | WARC | The Feed

How a US salad-restaurant chain plans to become the Spotify of food

US salad chain Sweetgreen has plans to “move faster and at the speed of culture” in order to reach out and win the hearts of Generation Z diners, says its brand chief.

What it means 

That not only means focusing marketing investment on this generation as the worst of the COVID pandemic comes to an end, but also switching from a millennial to a Gen-Z mindset, according to Nathaniel Ru, co-founder and chief brand officer.

Catching the attention of Gen-Z

• Sweetgreen has partnered with 23-year-old tennis star Naomi Osaka, who has a salad named after her.
• The brand used the time of the pandemic to experiment, launching Sweetgreen’s first app and rolling out Collections, a first version of personalizing menus.
• App data is being used to study everything from dietary preferences to order history, with a view to further personalization: for example, people who don’t order meat or who are gluten-intolerant won’t be offered these options in the app.
• A small agency has been set up within Sweetgreen to gain a deeper understanding of how Gen Z thinks about food, and to bring food and culture together by creating experiences through music festivals, for example. TikTok, where recipe videos have been posted, is also a big focus.

Key quote

“We look up to Spotify where they’ve done a really great job with Discover Weekly. We’d love to do the same with food. We’re just in the nascent stages” – Nathaniel Ru, Co-founder, Sweetgreen.

Sourced from Wall Street Journal

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