Brand Communications Guide: Feel Beyond Good

The brand platform every campaign in this report speaks from. Five pillars: Flavor First, Fresh Made Better, Hospitality That Feels Human, Wellness Without Judgment, and Trust Through Consistency. The competitive audit identifies the white space no competitor holds at once: genuine hospitality at scale, a full beverage plus food plus functional wellness menu in one kitchen, authentic personality, and continuous innovation. The strategic imperative: everything that makes the brand loved already exists, the job is making it findable.

2026 Review and Outlook

Jan Muhleman’s convention presentation. 2025 delivered +5.9% same-store sales ($37.85M system) with both media channels beating industry benchmarks, and stores running local Meta support grew +13.3% YoY against +8.1% for stores without it. The 2026 priorities this quarter’s work rolls up into: keep media behind every promotion and test expansion channels, grow menu variety to win new customers and dayparts (Duo Deals, Alohaberry, Lifestyle Bowls, a breakfast LTO), and refine the loyalty experience so first-time customers come back.

Brand Awareness and Usage Study

The research foundation under the strategy. Customers give the brand a 71 NPS, the highest score any brand in the study earned from its own customers, and 90% name it their favorite. The gap is awareness, not affection: 2% unaided recall in the competitive set against 24% for competitors, and among prospects who prioritize healthy eating and know the brand, a third have visited. The growth case is promoting taste plus health together to expand past the 19% of the market that prioritizes nutrition alone.

PENDING: industry report in development (Greg). This card is a placeholder and fills in when the report is ready.

Supply Crisis Perspective

REGROUP’s read on the national cyclosporiasis outbreak, with Michigan and Ohio at the center of the nine-state cluster. The core findings: consumer caution has spread beyond iceberg to all leafy greens, including the kale and spinach in the beverage line; category identity predicts traffic damage at least as much as geography (a salad-identity brand outside the affected states fell 24%); and reassurance messaging backfires, so being unaffected is not a message. Recovery lags headlines by two to six weeks and reported cases keep climbing after real risk declines, so no communication should treat the outbreak as over.

Recommended: promote the customization advantage (free substitutions like no greens or quinoa for greens, in store and in online ordering, because guest control is what reduces anxiety); feature confidence-building menu items (all day breakfast, classic smoothies with a free booster, sorbet bowls, turkey wrap Duo Deals) with no promotion tied to the outbreak; and frontline scripting, a factual, bounded, non-guaranteeing answer for every team member plus a never-say list, so an unscripted counter reassurance never becomes the brand’s stated food safety position.

Grand Opening + New Market Media Recommendation

A repeatable launch model in two parts. The grand opening framework runs three phases: pre-opening lead capture with a free smoothie offer to seed loyalty sign-ups, an event week with a dedicated day-of sales push, and a 30-day post-opening carousel. It includes the data case against Meta event boosts, which cost $14.17 CPM against $2.81 for awareness, and sets opening investment tiers at $2,500, $4,000, and $6,500 with new markets urged to tier three. The second part, New Market Activation, addresses Florida and Georgia, where there is no brand equity to activate: CTV and YouTube with digital audio layered in, structured as evergreen awareness at $6,000 to $10,200 per month across five locations, running until market maturity signals appear.

Incremental Media Recommendation: TikTok + YouTube

The waterfall channel expansion referenced in What’s Next. Adds TikTok and YouTube as ad fund prospecting channels layered above Google and Meta, which stay exactly as they are. Both channels target net-new customers only, excluding existing purchasers, app users, and recent site visitors, so new spend never pays twice for conversions the current program already captures. Recommended two-channel launch: $11,000 per month in media, $13,700 all-in, with ROAS as the headline KPI. The timing case: launching before political and retail demand pushes CPMs up 15 to 30% in the second half of the year.

Loyalty Sign-Up Growth Plan

A six-week push to grow loyalty enrollment ahead of the new app and rewards launch, grounded in the retention data: top-retention stores show 52% more online ordering and 2.6x higher retention among online customers. Four mechanics: a Feel Beyond Good spa sweepstakes where every sign-up and first app order earns an entry ($32,000 all-in, breakeven at 0.83 incremental app orders per store per day), a store-versus-store enrollment contest with team incentives, instant gratification at sign-up such as a free smoothie or same-visit discount, and QR sign-up prompts on every receipt and takeout bag.