by Sasha Ivanova
Ever since I committed to a healthier lifestyle, I am always on the lookout for new ways a salad can be tossed. Living in LA, where the build-your-own bowl trend has caught on pretty quickly and very successfully, I have many options to explore if I am ever craving a good salad (which is often). One need not venture too far from The Hill to find healthy food. Located in the heart of Westwood are two of my three favorite build-your-own bowl/salad/sandwich places that I have hand-picked to look into. Located less than two minutes walking distance from each other, Cava and Tender Greens are my go-to places for a healthy meal. The third (and my personal favorite), despite not being in Westwood, is a chain called Sweetgreen that’s so good I frequently Uber there on a weekday in-between class for their Chicken Pesto Parm Bowl. Obviously, this blog post will not solely be about my love for salads (although that’s a big part of it). I want to look into the marketing strategies of these three similar yet different places, tell you what they're doing successfully (whether that means being profitable or sustainable, whatever you're into) and why you should definitely try all three out.
Marketing in itself is an umbrella term for anything a brand does to “present” its product to the public. A marketing strategy, in turn, is a brand’s plan to attract people to their product or service by using the 4 P’s of marketing (price, product, promotion, place). While looking at the marketing strategies of Tender Greens, Sweetgreen and Cava, I found a lot of them overlap, largely because all three follow rising trends in the food industry such as health-consciousness, functional foods, and sustainability.
Firstly, let’s talk about the pricing strategy. According to my research the price for a bowl at Sweetgreen is $13, Tendergreens is about the same and Cava is blessing us with a lower price of $10.27 on all bowls. Although this pricing is not too unreasonable, these brands understand that no one likes salad for the salad leaves, and therefore all three places charge extra for toppings like avocado, cheese, bread, choice of protein etc. This is an important aspect of the pricing strategy as it means the bowl will almost never be the price listed on the menu because everyone gets extra toppings. This means warm bowls and salad bowls usually end up being anywhere between $15-$18 and, for a salad, that’s pretty expensive. This is why we can assume that all three, in a way, use premium pricing. Premium pricing is when companies charge a higher price (often times artificially high) for the sole purpose of consumer’s perceiving the product to be of high quality (think Gucci or Louis Vuitton). This is effective in that it makes companies more profitable (as the price is much higher than the net cost) and it also creates the impression that the product is of a good quality. There are a couple important points to mention here. Cava, Tendergreens, and Sweetgreens can afford to charge a higher price for their food largely because of the health trend in the food industry. We are seeing a rise in health-conscious consumers who are willing to pay more for healthier options. And as we all know, demand determines price. Lastly, Tendergreens has combo meals (which is another pricing strategy) aimed at increasing sales, but Cava and Sweetgreens do not.
This brings us onto the next marketing aspect: the product itself. These three places serve pretty much the same thing, however there are some important differences. All three serve some form of salad and some type of warm bowl with a protein. Cava has a USP in that it puts a mediterranean twist on its bowls: everything comes with the warmest softest peta bread and bowls include toppings like falafel, pickled onions, cabbage, and tzatziki dressing. Out of the three, Sweetgreens is probably the most simplistic in that it serves different variations of hot and cold bowls, whereas, Tendergreens has the most variation as it has many sides, proteins and even sandwich options (and this variety is what allows them to have combo meal price deals).
In terms of promotion, all three are very similar. Again, this is due to the nature of the food they serve and the health-trend. All the bowls are prepared in front of you, but for Cava and Sweetgreen you literally build it yourself as you go, whereas for Tendergreens you order at the start (but still see them make it). The fact that the customer gets to see the bowl being put together adds to the impression of everything being super healthy and “clean” which is an image all three are striving to have. Take, for example, the slogan of Kind Bars: “Ingredients you can actually see” or RX Bars: “3 Egg Whites, 6 Almonds, …”. The point I’m trying to make is that all the brands that promote a “healthy” product, be it bowls or protein bars, play with the idea of having exclusievly natural and simple ingredients. This is a way of marketing the product to appeal to a health-conscious consumer.
Talking about sustainability does not explicitly fall into any of the “Ps” mentioned above, however I do think it’s a huge part of a brand’s image. Today, many conscious consumers are refusing to buy from brands that are unethical, and this has become a big issue companies now have to consider. Thus, sustainability has inevitably entered their marketing strategy (because brands that are ethical will make sure you know and will write it on everything from their website to their spoons). Sweetgreen has 100% recyclable packaging and cutlery and does not use straws. As someone who wants to make an effort to be more environmentally aware this aspect of Sweetgreen has made me a more frequent customer. For example, I would choose Sweetgreen over something like Lemonade as they have tons of plastic packaging. Cava and Tendergreen also use recyclable cutlery, however Sweetgreen really lets you know about it. This means that being sustainable for a brand today can be a competitive advantage and a USP (and also good for the Earth and stuff).
Lastly, place is an important aspect of marketing. For all three chains, their locations are in places with a lot of food traffic, meaning it is exposed to many visitors. For example, most Sweetgreen restaurants are in a mall or near a mall. The Tendergreens and Cava locations in Westwood are located on the same street with many other restaurants (Tendergreens’ neighbor is a very similar restaurant called Simple things). This choice of place is purposeful because when you are located near your competitors it is easier to attract customers (as the other places will probably already have a steady customer base).
To summarize, all three chains have managed to successfully ride the wave of rising health trends. While serving very similar things they have managed to add their own USPs. Sweetgreen has managed to expand all over LA (and outside California) and has more locations than Tendergreens and Cava. It uses a successful combination of strategies to market their product like being located in luxury malls, being sustainable, and having a simplistic, yet consistent menu (and it’s just so good). However, if you don’t plan on going further than Westwood, Cava and Tendergreens will not disappoint. And if you don’t plan on leaving your house, all three deliver!
