Continuum and Bertucci's considered __Millennials' dining habits__ and developed a __new restaurant concept_

01

Challenge

The dining landscape is changing rapidly, and has been for some time. What's driving this change? Millennials. They’re a generation that loves to eat at restaurants, with 53% going out to eat at least once a week (compared to 43% of the general population). As of 2015, these frequent diners were spending an average of $174 per month on restaurant dining.

Major restaurant chains are racing to engage this influential generation, and Bertucci’s wanted to join the race. The laid-back Italian restaurant chain, although well-known, was struggling to reach a younger demographic that saw it as a familial restaurant they associated with childhood, and not a place to gather with friends. Bertucci’s approached Continuum to help them cook up a solution to their “Millennial problem,” without completely straying from their brand identity.

02

Research & Insights

02

Research & Insights

Brand Honesty

Well-known brands need to be reinvented in an authentic way. Although Bertucci’s is a strong name, it resonates with Millennials as a restaurant from their childhood—the place that let them play with pizza dough during dinner. Millennials didn’t feel like there was a spot for them at the traditional Bertucci’s table. In order to get the attention of this new demographic, we needed to give them their own table. We decided that a new restaurant with a new name—but with the same values as Bertucci’s—would freshen up the brand and give it a younger appeal. The name needed to be catchy, and speak to a unique dining experience with fresh, oven-cooked food.

03

Solution

We worked with all levels of the Bertucci’s organization to make a full-scale restaurant, and designed everything from the tasty, sharable menu, to the uniforms and logo, to the pizza packaging, to the space and service model.

We built an entire full-scale prototype restaurant, where we could test our service experience designs. We ensured that the space was welcoming, that the chef could move easily, and that there was an open, friendly atmosphere. Each of the two ovens—one for cooking vegetables, and one for meat and pizza—is visible, so customers feel connected to the food and the chef.

In collaboration with the chef, the kitchen manager, and a team of finance experts, we created a smaller, more curated menu, with easily shared plates and a wider variety of alcoholic beverages. We maximized menu capabilities by creatively repurposing ingredients. Serving a pizza with peppers? Why not add peppers to another dish to maximize ingredients? Knowing what price points would be feasible for the 2Ovens business was crucial to designing an accessible menu for customers.

Thanks to our iterative prototyping process, we were able to make rapid, significant improvements, and to move quickly from concept sketches to reality.

04

Results

The journey from concept to reality was incredibly fast, with a mere ten-month turnaround time. The first 2Ovens concept restaurant opened in December 2012 in Massachusetts, and exceeded the organization’s financial goals.

In July 2013, 2Ovens was featured in a Forrester Report called, “Customer Experience Innovation Demystified: Frame Innovations With Customer Needs, Business Model, And Brand."

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Bertucci's: 2Ovens