Smashburger

Smashburger

Company type	Private
Genre	Fast casual restaurant
Founded	2007
Founder	Tom Ryan
Headquarters	Denver, Colorado , U.S.
Key people	David Prokupek Chairman & CEO
Products	Burgers, chicken sandwiches, salads, french fries, Häagen-Dazs shakes, soft drinks
Website	smashburger.com
Footnotes / references Slogan: "Every City's Favorite Burger Place", "Smash. Sizzle. Savor."

Smashburger is an American chain of fast casual burgers restaurants that originated in Denver, Colorado. Originally known as IconBurger, the new name comes from the process used to cook burgers , which entails smashing a ball of ground beef on a grill to "sear in the juices."

History

Smashburger was founded in 2007 by Tom Ryan, a veteran of fast food chains including Quiznos, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, and Long John Silver's, and a Top 25 American food entrepreneur according to Gourmet Magazine. While at Pizza Hut he introduced the company's thin crust pizza, while at Mcdonald's he launched the McGriddles, and the McFlurry.

In 2009, Smashburger received a $15 million investment from Consumer Capital Partners to enable a major national expansion. The private equity firm’s chief investment officer, David Prokupek, became Smashburger’s chairman and chief executive officer. As of early 2011, Smashburger has 100 locations nationwide, with plans to double its store count by 2012. In 2012, the first Smashburger outside the U.S. opened, in Calgary, Alberta, with plans to open locations in Edmonton, Alberta, Vancouver, British Columbia, and Toronto, Ontario.

Corporate Philosophy and Technology

Smash Burger hired Philosophy Communication to help it open corporate locations and to tell the Smashburger story to potential consumers and franchisees. To build consumer excitement and attract potential franchisees, Philosophy created an opening strategy to engrain Smashburger in the community. In addition to a wide-ranging but tightly focused media campaign, they hosted VIP opening nights for key community influencers such as food critics, Yelpers, bloggers, local government, business people and neighbors from surrounding communities for a sneak preview of the new Smashburger concept and also developed a sleek website to inform consumers about products and promotions while staying true to their unique corporate strategy.

In a combination of technology and communication, social media is very important to Smash Burger. They have a national Facebook page used to reward its fans with coupons but use localized Twitter handles instead of just one to make sure that it can deliver all the local content needed to satisfy its customers, for example having half-off shakes because the Bears won a game in Chicago while another handle promotes a new store opening in Miami or Minnesota.

Inside the store, Smashburger aimed for a clean and modern look, in contrast to Five Guys more open area lined with peanut bags and potato bags, Smashburger implemented an interactive experience using two different types of digital menu boards: large, 47-inch panels behind the counter, and register, while smaller display screens are placed right in front of the register and face the customer as they're ordering with the goal of increasing security, speeding up the line and to help up-sell items such as Coke, fries or a milkshake. They also analyze data coming in from these menus looking for variances and standard deviations from store to store in an effort to establish a corporate uniformity. For that, the company uses Empathica, a customer experience management (CEM) firm that uses reporting technology to set "focus areas for improvement" so that managers don't have to dig through data. Managers at Smashburger are generally trained in Denver and then relocated to open new stores nationwide.

Accolades

Smashburger describes its mission as "to be every city’s favorite place for burgers.” In Denver, the alternative-weekly Westword named it the best locally owned chain for 2008. Later that year, Denver Magazine named it “Most Likely to Succeed” and local ABC affiliate KMGH/Channel 7 touted it as the “best burger” on its “A List.”

In Minnesota, MPLS St. Paul magazine rated Smashburger the best “Thin Burger” (defined as “drive-in or better fast food”), with a score of 96/100.

In 2009, Nation’s Restaurant News, a leading restaurant-industry trade magazine, named Smashburger to its prestigious “Hot Concepts” list. In 2010, the Sin City Smashburger was named one of the top burgers of the year by Las Vegas Weekly.

Menu

Smashburger’s menu focuses primarily on burgers, chicken sandwiches, hot dogs, and salads, with a wide variety of toppings and customization options. The restaurant serves localized burgers in each market based on regional flavors. Smashburger also offers a variety of sides, including sweet potato fries, fried onions, fried mild green chilies, fried pickles, and chili. Desserts include shakes, malts, and floats made with Haagen-Dazs ice cream.

Smashburger used to offer breakfast, but after realizing the market demand was not as high for breakfast, they took it off the menu. Smashburger's menu is customized for each state it is located in. For instance, The Colorado Burger is only available at Colorado locations. Sides and shakes are often customized as well.

The chain also serves alcohol, offering beer, wine, and Mike’s Hard Lemonade, in addition to assorted malt beverage floats and liqueur-blended shakes.

External links

• Official site