Slug & Lettuce

In January 2016, Slug & Lettuce was underperforming in its key KPIs, particularly the food side. The menu represented poor VFM and had lost relevance. There was a lack of clarity on what the brand stood for and even whether it was a pub or a bar, this was leading to confusion and dissatisfaction for customers and high staff turnover.

A turnaround plan was put in place to address 7 key levers including proposition, food, cocktails and service.

Definition conducted research amongst senior management, front line staff and regular and lapsed customers across the country. From this we gained a good understanding of the state of the brand internally and externally and where it sat in the market, deep insight into what customers wanted and didn’t want and what opportunities there might be for a future proposition.

With the team we developed some options for possible propositions S&L could adopt which we then tested both qualitatively and quantitively. The final winning proposition centred around Mates Time and was loved by all. This was then further developed with the team adding values, personality and essence.

The next step was to define the customer journey and ensure the whole customer experience aligned behind the brand. This included how the basics of customer experience (cx) would be delivered in a ‘mates time’ way and an innovation session to develop amplifiers or ‘wow, moments’ for the experience.

The proposed customer experience was researched qualitatively with customers and non customers to decide which amplifiers to take forward and fine tune the basics. This helped us to understand how to deliver brilliantly to our customers and how to attract new people to the brand.

Slug & Lettuce then implemented the brand brilliantly in their bars including sharing cocktail trees, innovative menu with sharing platters, bookable booths and cocktail masterclasses.

• +10% – Like for like sales for the first Christmas period for the new Cx (2017 – 2018). Substantially above the market with good growth in premium and groups.
• Top 5 high street bar – 2019 Slug & Lettuce in top 5 performing bars on the high street and also won MIDAS award for best premium bar menu.