Using mainly photos of their dishes, Cassell’s Hamburgers use social media, magazine ads, and their website to promote their services focused on a classic 50s menu as well as premium beef.
Marketing & advertising strategies of Cassell’s Hamburgers
Social Media
Their social media profile is mainly focused on showcasing their dishes as well as their locations. The channels Cassell's Hamburgers use are:
INSTAGRAM
- The restaurant primarily uses Instagram. Their account has around 840 posts and 15,000 followers.
- Their tagline is, "Burger, fries, shakes, and pies made in house daily."
- Their main content is focused on images of their dishes, mostly their traditional hamburgers. For example, they featured one of their breakfast dishes in this post, with the hashtag #Repost and #HASHtag_fat’s.
PINTEREST
TWITTER
- Their Twitter account has around 207 tweets and 167
followers.
- Their main content is focused on photos of their dishes, mostly their traditional hamburgers.
- Their Twitter account has been inactive since 2016, with their last tweet posted on August 2016.
- In this example, we can see a retweet from a follower of one of their premium burgers.
Magazine ads
- Their magazine ads focus on their specialty, which is premium beef burgers.
- In their gallery section, Cassell’s Hamburgers provide an example of their magazine ads.
Merchandise
- Cassell’s Hamburgers' website has a banner announcing their Shop Merch & Gift Cards ad. It is not available yet, and it is "coming soon."
helpful findings
WEBSITE
Cassell’s Hamburgers promotes themselves through their press release section, in which they gather their good reviews from other media sites or magazines, such as:
YELP
- Their Yelp account has an average of 4 out of 5 stars from 1,421 reviews. An example of the reviews is, "Best burger in LA.
They make their potato salad with horseradish. They put everything in a cool picnic lunchbox. Go check it out."
TARGET AUDIENCE
- Although there was no available information on the specific target audience of the restaurant, they stated on their website that their focus is on a classic 50s menu as well as premium beef, ground daily in house.
Research Strategy
We began our search by scouring the company website. We hoped to find marketing & advertising strategies of Cassell’s Hamburgers inside the Hotel Normandie and their target audience since official websites typically contain all the media sites where the company advertises itself. Also, it is common to find corporate information in the About Us section, which may contain information about their advertising strategies and their target audience. However, while we were able to find some of their advertising and strategies, we were unable to find their target audience.
For their advertising strategy, what we found was their social media profiles, merchandise, examples of their magazine ads, and features by magazines like LA Magazine, Eater, and Zagat. Examples of such features are "Classic burger joint & diner with a bar" by Zagat and "David Chang Would Put Cassell’s Hamburgers on the World’s 50 Best" by Eater. It is important to mention that those articles were specifically about Cassell’s Hamburgers inside the Hotel Normandie.
For their targeted audience, what we found was a mention in their main page where they stated that their focus is on a classic 50s lunch counter experience and premium beef. Although this was not a straightforward answer, it provides helpful insight into which kind of experience they are trying to sell to the public. We also found an article from Los Angeles Times called "Cassell's Hamburgers reopens at Hotel Normandie in Koreatown" where it was stated that they "have something for vegetarians in their menu," but this was not robust enough to present it as a relevant finding.
We then continued our search through articles and press releases from media sites like LA Weekly, Forbes, LA Magazine, and AD week, among other sites, since some news and media publications have marketing-related articles about certain companies. Unfortunately, through this strategy, we did not find any information related to the restaurant's marketing strategies and spending. What we found were articles reviewing the food or service provided by the restaurant, like "Cassell’s Comeback: A Classic Burger Done Right In Koreatown" published by LA Food or "Inside Cassell's Hamburgers' Complete Rebirth in Koreatown" by Eater. Unfortunately, this, also, did not provide any insights about the marketing spend.
We then keep searching for marketing & advertising strategies including their spending ads inside the Hotel Normandie and their targeted audience through their social media sites. We searched through Cassell’s Hamburgers' social media accounts listed on their official website and tried to find if any information about paid ads was available or any relevant information about their targeted audience since restaurants use their social media accounts to announce if they had any type of collaboration with another company to promote themselves, like a magazine or an influencer or even links to other media sites dedicated to promoting themselves as a company. Unfortunately, we did not find any relevant findings.
Then, we changed our strategy and searched for advertising strategies, marketing spend, and targeted audience and went to the company's websites to see if they had released any type of annual report or investor outlook information and SEC's website for their financial filings. However, this strategy also did not provide any insights because as with most private entities, Cassell’s Hamburgers has not elected to make that information public. Even after exhaustive research, we were unable to find any type of report from Cassell’s Hamburgers.